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Singing at home

Lots of new singers, and creeping pitches

It was Memorial Day, and as you’d expect, the turnout at the Berkeley weekly singing was light. One of tonight’s singers was Asa, who started singing Sacred Harp with Neely Bruce at Wesleyan, and who is presently working on a multimedia performance that will incorporate Sacred Harp singing. Asa brought some of the Polish, Danis, and American artists who are working with him on this multimedia performance to experience Sacred Harp singing first hand. We had so few of our regular singers, our singing was a little raggedy at times, our intonation was off at times, and I felt that we were not singing at our best for these visitors. But our visitors were more interested in Sacred Harp singing as a community-based practice rooted in the local landscape, and from that perspective we were at our best tonight: singers were friendly and supportive to each other, with none of the eye-rolling and judgmental attitudes that can creep into Sacred Harp singing (or into any choral singing, for that matter). I think all our visitors had fun and felt welcomed, and that’s more important than almost anything else.*

I did notice one oddity in tonight’s singing. Eric was pitching the second half of the singing; he tends to pitch tunes a little high, which is very much in the Berkeley tradition; but more than once, it seemed to me that the class raised his pitch by a half tone or more once we started singing. This was odd because typically when singers go off pitch, we go down in pitch, not up; we go down because it’s generally easier to sing a little lower than a little higher. But tonight we would sing the notes, Eric would stop us and drop the pitch down about a half step, and then as soon as we started singing we’d go right back up to where we were before. Eric said afterwards he wished he had corrected the pitches down a whole step or more — then maybe we would have crept up a half step to a reasonable pitch! In any case, it was an oddity that I’d never heard in a Sacred Harp singing before: pitches creeping up, instead of down.

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* Of course, the most important thing in Sacred Harp singing, for some of us, is the sacred dimension of the singing. But I would argue that the communal aspects of singing help us to understand what Jesus referred to as the Kingdom of God, which theologian Bernard Loomer says corresponds to what some people think of as the web of life: that is, the deep and sacred understanding that we are all connected; not a sparrow falls to the ground but that God is aware of it; the lion and the lamb will lie down together; and it is incumbent upon us in our sacred communities to act as if we are indeed all connected. Thus it is not enough merely to sing in tune with each other; we should also strive to be spiritually in tune with each other. [/sermon]

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Singing at home

Tiny singing

The Memorial Day holiday weekend meant we had just five singers at the fourth Sunday singing in Palo Alto: three basses, one tenor, and one treble. That was too many basses, so I said I would sing tenor with the caveat that I couldn’t sing any tunes with particularly high notes. Terry was pitching for us, and with me singing tenor he had a bit of a challenge balancing my inability to sing very high against the lower limit of the basses and the other tenor. But though we had to skip a few tunes that we would have liked to sing, and though we missed the altos, and though I was occasionally unable to sing the very high notes, we did pretty well.

In fact, I had a lot of fun at this singing. When you’re singing with just a few voices, you really get to hear the other parts; and since I was singing a part that was unfamiliar to me, on some of the tunes it felt like I was hearing them for the first time.

This singing also proved to be a good workout for me; the Bay Psalm Book of 1689 warns us against “squeaking above, or grumbling below” (and indeed it is easy to hear both problems among Sacred Harp singers today). I had to work on not squeaking. When you sing Sacred Harp at the upper end of your range, there is a natural tendency to sing notes a little flat, and there’s also a natural tendency to let the quality of your voice degenerate into either a loud piercing tone or what I can only describe as a hooting tone. So I worked hard to hit the high notes right on pitch, and to keep the tone or timbre of my voice consistent all the way from the lower notes up through the highest notes. This meant I had to listen even more carefully than usual to the other singers to make sure I was in tune, and it meant I had to pay a great deal of attention to my breathing so I could maintain a consistent tone. In large part I succeeded in not “squeaking”;

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Singing at home

Flatt and Scruggs vs. SS Decontrol

A smaller number of singers turned out this week than did last week, perhaps twenty at the peak; and quite a few people left after the break, leaving us with 5 basses, 3 altos, 2 trebles (both men), and 6 tenors. Interestingly, I felt the singing got better after the break: you could hear each part clearly, and people were obviously listening to each other and not just singing as loud as possible.

During the break, I said to Hugh that I thought he was a good influence on the Berkeley singing. He asked, How so? I said that I noticed we had been singing at somewhat slower tempos than the usual breakneck Berkeley tempo, which I thought was doing us some good, and I attributed that in part to the influence of his Mississippi style. He said that while we weren’t quite singing at a Mississippi pace, he too had noticed that we weren’t singing every tune as fast as usual.

Mind you, I enjoy singing Sacred Harp tunes at breakneck speeds. When it is done well, singing Sacred Harp fast and loud gives me all the thrills of the 1949 recording of Flatt and Scruggs playing “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” — unbelievably fast and incredibly precise. Except sometimes we sound less like Flatt and Scruggs and more like SS Decontrol — loud and fast and exciting, but not what you’d call tuneful or intelligible; and as much as I like hardcore, I think when I’m singing Sacred Harp I’d rather sound like Flatt and Scruggs.

In any case, after the break tonight we sang a number of tunes at a nice moderate tempo. You could hear that we were listening to each other more. This is a good thing to do in a practice singing: learn how the tunes sound, learn how to sing them with precision. And then when we have an all-day singing, and Mark comes back down from Vancouver to sing with us, he can lead 217 at a breakneck speed, and we’ll sing it with all the precision of Flatt and Scruggs.

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Singing at home

25

I neglected to write this singing up right away, and now all I have is my notes:

“Counted 25 [singers], incl. 6 basses, 4 altos, 3-4 trebles, the rest tenors — people moved around. Loud, fast, pretty much in tune this week. Fun singing with this many.”

Posted 5/23.

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Singing at home

Beyond local singings

We had an even dozen singers at the second Sunday Palo Alto singing today: three basses, two altos, two trebles, and the rest tenors. It was a nice mix of voices, and I thought the singing was pretty good; some of us were hampered, however, by extraordinarily thick pollen; I think both Arnold and I got it the worst, but I heard some scratchiness in some other voices as well.

After the singing, Lindy, who is charing next year’s Golden Gate singing, told us that she has started an online survey to find out more about what people want and need for singing. What was more important than the survey, though, was that she has been getting around to the three regular Bay Area singings, and the local singing in Healdsburg. The Bay Area Sacred Harp singing scene has always felt fragmented to me, and it’s nice that the incoming chair of the biggest Bay Area all-day singing is making such an effort to reach out to singers throughout the Bay Area.

I’m not sure why the Bay Area Sacred Harp scene feels fragmented. At first glance, you’d think we should be quite unified: several of us make an effort to get to all the local singings as often as we can, and most of us get to all-day singings whenever we can. But it does feel fragmented. Partly it’s because of the geography and the traffic — getting from the Peninsula to the East Bay, and from the East Bay to San Francisco, means crossing the bay on one of a few heavily traveled roads.

My guess is that another part of the reason we’re so fragmented is that we don’t have enough all-day singings. The distance from Healdsburg to Palo Alto is the same as the distance from Boston to Northhampton. In the area around Boston and Northhampton in any given year, you’ll find half a dozen all-day singings and at least one convention or maybe two. In the Bay Area, by contrast, we have just two all-day singings, and a convention only once every three years. Conventions and all-day singings build enthusiasm; they draw in new singers; they make existing singers sing better; but most of all they draw people together.

I do have to admit that my judgment may be clouded on this topic. Because of my job, I can rarely travel to other regions to go to all-day singings and conventions. I would love to see three or four smaller all-day singings in addition to the Golden Gate All-Day singing — plus an annual Bay Area Convention. And no, that’s not too ambitious — I know from my time singing in the Boston area that it’s well within the realm of possibility.

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Singing at home

Small singing

Just eight people showed up at today’s Palo Alto singing — we had changed from the fourth Sunday to the first Sunday to accommodate the Healdsburg singers moving their date, and it seems not everyone got the word.

It may have been small, but it was a good singing. I like small singings because often you have more time to work on tunes and get them right. I love it when we go over another section’s part, singing it in unison — it’s a good chance to get to hear and see how another section’s part fits in with your section’s part.

At one point today, we had three basses, one tenor, one treble, and one alto. I thought I’d try to sing with the lone tenor, to better balance the parts. I lasted about three tunes (and didn’t sing any of them very well); I found it very tiring to sing constantly at the very upper limit of my range, especially on tunes where I don’t know the tenor part and was sight-singing. I was very happy to get back to the bass section, and grateful that there are many people can sing those higher parts.

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All-day singings & conventions

Golden Gate videos, part VII

The last of the videos from the recent Golden Gate All-Day Singing, held on Saturday, April 27, 2013, at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House in San Francisco. Various problems kept me from getting videos of every leader (this is what happens when you set the video camera up and walk away; you’re not aware when problems happen), but I did get reasonably good footage of 41 leaders.

These final videos are of Lindy leading 426b Jasper; Susan leading 168 Cowper; Terry M. leading 84 Amsterdam; Inder (accompanied by baby Maggie) leading 131t Messiah; and Carl leading 128 The Promised Land. Finally, to close out these videos, I’ve included the closing prayer, given by Linda S.

These videos are all from the last session of the day, when you’d expect the singers to be tired and not sounding quite as good — but as it turns out, these videos capture some of the best singing of the day. The leaders are all from the Bay area, and they all chose tunes that the local singers would know well. If you want to hear Bay area singers at their best, listen to Carl leading 128 The Promised Land — the class sings fast and loud, with strong tenors, powerful basses, piercing altos, and trebles that float over the top:

 

And now, here are the rest of the videos:

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All-day singings & conventions

Golden Gate Videos, part VI

More videos from the recent Golden Gate All-Day Singing, held on Saturday, April 27, 2013, at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House in San Francisco. Videos are of Alex leading 313b Cobb; Bob leading 163t Morning; Hal leading 487 Soldier’s Delight; Joel leading 77t The Child of Grace; Linda D. leading 348t Ainslie; and Liora leading 42 Clamanda.

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All-day singings & conventions

Golden Gate videos, part V

More videos from the recent Golden Gate All-Day Singing, held on Saturday, April 27, 2013, at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House in San Francisco. Most of these are Bay area singers, though there’s one Central valley singer. Videos are of Gail leading 155 Northfield; Hugh leading 119 Panting for Heaven; Kate leading 86 Poland; Linda leading 384 Panting for Heaven; Peter leading 163b China; Rob leading 178 Africa.

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All-day singings & conventions

Golden Gate videos, part IV

More videos from the recent Golden Gate All-Day Singing, held on Saturday, April 27, 2013, at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House in San Francisco. Videos are of Erika leading 564 Zion; Greg leading 567 The Great Day; Jennie leading 424 Sweet Union; Julian leading 456 Sacred Mount; Rebecca leading 447 Wondrous Cross; and Terry B. leading 411 Morning Prayer.