This reason I had plenty to be happy about. For one thing my wife celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on Saturday. We originally had more elaborate plans for an out-of-town getaway, but the Memphis weather (it snowed on Friday) and other factors convinced us to stay in town and simply enjoy the day together. On Sunday we got up early, especially if you adjust for that morning's daylight savings adjustment, and drove down to Oxford, MS, home to a well-organized Sacred Harp singings that has been going on for 28 years now. This was our second year to attend.
As for Sacred Harp: suffice it to say that it is a singing tradition that comes from early 19th century efforts to teach singing, but it appears to have continued as a way of preserving a tradition and providing an excuse for communities to gather together. The name Sacred Harp comes from one of the principal song books. There are other texts as well, but most (all?) share a common characteristic in that the music is engraved using a shape note system in which different relative pitches are assigned different shapes, hence the name.
The singing itself it difficult to describe. It is not refined chorale singing; it's more like a raw, powerful expression of joy, faith, and sometimes sorrow. I've read a description where a fellow said that he would travel 1000 miles to sing Sacred Harp but wouldn't cross the street to hear it. A review for
"Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp" quotes a reviewer at the Washington City Paper as saying, "Get enough people singing weird harmonies at the top of their voices and you start feeling a little sorry for the devil." I don't know how the Oxford sing compares to other smaller, rural singings, but I know that the energy in the air is palpable, and standing in the hollow square leading a song feels like home to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment