Tag: Palo Alto All Day Singing

Below are the minutes for the special half day singing in Palo Alto. This was a very enjoyable singing, with some strong singers.

We decided to hold just the Marian Bush half day singing this year. We did not hold the Palo Alto All Day. Minutes are below. The church’s rules for singing require outdoors and socially distanced (3 feet). I finally decided to wear a mask most of the time. I work with kids, and there’s no reason to increase my chances of exposure even more.

I liked the fact that Paul Kostka made this singing accessible to people who could only join us online. I don’t think this will be a regular feature of Sacred Harp singings, but it does make it more accessible. It also reminded me of the last time Marian Bush sang with us in Palo Alto. She could no longer get out of the house, so we called her up and sang to her over a cell phone. “Did you hear me singing?” she said when we got done. Of course we had to reply that no, we were singing too loud — as usual with Sacred Harp.

I miss hearing Marian’s alto voice at singings, never loud, but always perfectly in tune and in perfect rhythm. I’m glad we got to do this singing in her memory.

One last video from old footage I found. Here’s Wren leading 70b Save Mighty Lord from the 1991 Denson edition of The Sacred Harp, at the 5th annual Palo Alto All Day Singing, August 26, 2017. Temps were well above 90 in the room, so you’ll hear some fan noise. You’ll also get to hear some of Steve Helwig’s trademark humor (if you didn’t know Steve, he’s the one on the front tenor bench who’s pitching).

I was too busy as the kitchen committee at the Palo Alto All Day yesterday to take any photos or videos. Suffice it to say it was yet again a lovely singing — my favorite Sacred Harp event of the whole year, both for the quality of the singing and the quality of the friendships. And the Marian Bush singing the next day (today) caps off the weekend nicely. It was smaller, but the singing was good. And socially, I prefer small singings because you actually have time to talk with everyone.

Audio recordings of the 2018 Palo Alto All Day Singing on the Internet Archive.

Thanks Mischa!

Inder leading 312b Restoration at the Palo Alto All Day singing. It was well over ninety degrees at this point in the day, but what struck me is how much fun everyone is having.

A good singing again this year in Palo Alto. We had more than 50 singers, and nearly all of them came from northern California. I’ve decided that this singing best captures the sound of Bay Area singing, because it’s mostly just us — people we’ve been singing with and whose voices we know well. I realized that I’ve come to think of this as my home singing.

It got really hot today. The temperature in the singing room was up over 95 degrees, and we actually had to end a little early because it was so hot. This was the view from the back bench of the basses:

Mark leading 564 Zion from the 1991 Denson edition of The Sacred Harp, at the 5th annual Palo Alto All Day Singing, August 27, 2016.

155 Northfield from the 1991 Denson edition of The Sacred Harp, at the 5th annual Palo Alto All Day Singing, August 27, 2016.