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June 20, 2007
National Sacred Harp Singing Convention: The Culture
This past weekend, we drove to Birmingham, AL to stay with our friend Jess and attend the National Sacred Harp Singing Convention.
On Saturday morning, we arrived at the convention bright and early, but the singing had already started. We made our way to the treble section (soprano/descant—the tenors take the melody) and began to sing hymn after hymn. There were several hundred people in the church, most singing, a few listening. The sound was astonishing!
The feeling of singing at the top of my lungs for hours was incredible, too. After an hour, I started to get an oxygen high. I was hoping the babies would wake up for the singing, but they slept soundly. Until it came to the memorial part of the afternoon, where someone gives a lesson and lists the names of all of the singers who had died during the past year. They both went crazy at that point! It was the first time I had felt them both distinctly move at once, and I was trying so hard not to laugh during a solemn moment. It appears that not only are they rambunctious, they also are a bit mischievous as well. On a more serious note, it kind of made me think of the contrast between death and life, feeling these new lives inside of me as people remembered past friends.
Some of the other cultural traditions of the singing were fun, too. Of course, there’s always a “dinner on the ground” (potluck) during these kind of affairs, and it was down-home, deep south food.
Joanna (excitedly): Tim, this is real soul food!
Tim (calmly): I know that.
Joanna: Yeah, but when was the last time you ate black-eyed peas. Wait, when was the last time you’ve even seen black-eyed peas??
I found a great description of the “dinner on the ground” tradition:
And then it’s time for Dinner on the Ground! My observation is that shape note singing is mostly a matter of something coming out a singer’s mouth (song and conversation) or something going in (food). It’s a wonderful system. The term “dinner on the ground” originally meant a picnic, a potluck meal supplied by all who could, for all who were there to eat. And because folks might have traveled a long distance to a church with pretty primitive facilities, everybody spread out blankets and ate ”on the ground”. Today, we stand around or sit on folding chairs (and sometimes even eat at tables in church basements), but Dinner on the Ground is a treasured part of the tradition.(found at http://www.pilgrimproduction.org/sacredharp/maquoketa/tradition.html)
The mantle of leadership for the conference (chairman) was being passed on after fifteen years of service by Buell Cobb. I had read his book The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music and from the style of his writing (it was pervaded by a kindness and sympathy that isn't always found in academic writing), I wasn’t surprised to see that he was a warm man whom everyone seemed to love.
More on the music later!
music stuff | By Tim and Jo | 6:15 PM
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Comments
Do you have other pictures from the National Convention posted somewhere? I was there all three days and it still wasn't enough. It was wonderful.
Posted by: Mary at July 9, 2007 11:44 PM