Remember you are hastening on/To death's dark, gloomy shade

Or in other words, I am having a birthday party: 6 pm July 12 at the Berkeley Friends Meetinghouse. If you somehow didn't get the Evite, you're still invited. Bring your Denson book and a potluck dish to share.

Hidden Dangers of Cooper Book

I love the Cooper book. Not as much as the Denson, but I do love it. However, I must admit that there is a higher proportion of catchy tunes in the Cooper than the Denson. Hence, since our second mixed book singing, I have been humming Mercy Seat about 50 times a day. I've even caught myself by surprise-- I was singing it before I even realized I was singing. I like Mercy Seat, but come on already! If Mark considers this my just deserts for not picking songs from the Norumbega I may not have a rhetorical leg to stand on.

Pre-Singing this Monday

In an effort to squeeze all the singing we can from our Portlandery friend Ms. Jessica Beer, in town for the weekend with her band*, we'll be singing at 6pm at All-Saints, getting a quick, cheap bite to eat down the block before regular singing at 7:30. We'll open up the Eclectic Harmonies, break the spine on our new Cooper Books, sing whatever photocopies someone puts in front of us, and, if we're lucky, have our new Norumbega Harmonies by then. (Bring yours if you have one.)

Hope to see you there,
Mark


[*] The band is 3 Leg Torso, a sort of Balkan/ Jazz/ Tango ensemble from Portland, playing tonight (Saturday) at the Blue Six (3043 24th St. (at Treat St.), in SF). $10 suggested donation for shows starting at 6:30 or at 9.

Ingalls Christian Harmony recordings

It was a delight to be with you all this past Monday. We sang a few Ingalls tunes, and I mentioned that there were recordings on the web from Tom Malone and from his Vermont Christian Harmony singing.

You can find them here: Christian Harmony Recordings.

Travis John

Here is a jpg-image file of that song I brought in a few weeks ago. If you click on it, you can see it larger or print it out. Or download a pdf here. It was my advanced notation skills that typed the score into Finale, but I can't get all of the 'fas' into perfect triangles.


It's an arrangement of a song by Kate Power, a Portland songwriter, the story of a fallen American soldier. She said the spirit of Travis John came to her & helped her write his story. The folksinger Tracy Grammer sings it & hands out copies of the music, to spread it around as a latter-day war memorial. Hence the shape-note arrangement. The full story of the song is here.

To see what it sounds like, I sang all four parts using my ancient retro-ghetto synthesizer & sound-editing software. Warning, the sound of a quintet of my voice accompanied by old synth noises may induce nightmares! But, it's a rough idea of the harmonies.

Cooper 2006 tunes not in Denson 1991

I've compiled a list of tunes in the 2006 Cooper Sacred Harp that are not found in the 1991 Denson edition of the Sacred Harp. I used Gaylon Powell's Tune Comparison Index to make this list, which can be found at:

http://www.entish.org/sh/cooper_not_in_denson.txt

If you can't find a tune that you expect to be there (Angel Band, for example), check Gaylon's list; it's probably listed under another name (in this case, the Land of Beulah). 

Use it for good, not for evil. 

And thanks. Linda, for setting me up to post here.

Golden Gate '08

The short version

We came. We sang. We ate. We sang some more. We went to Philip's house for the social, where we, suprisingly, ate and sang. Some of us went home, but some of us showed up on Sunday and again on Monday, to... you guessed it: sing and eat. 

The longer version, with pictures

Here's Katie leading Vernon with Will's help. We miss you, Katie. San Francisco isn't THAT far, really!

Here's Connie, who came to Berkeley Monday night, too. Hooray!

Here's a shot of the alto bench, partially obscured by the front-row trebles beating time. You may be noticing a trend in the photos: shots of tall people and the far right side of the room. You may wonder at the absence of certain people from the photos. That is what happens when you spend most of a singing sitting behind very tall men. 

Here's Marion from San Diego:
Susan is from Stockton now, but I first met her when I attended the Twin Cities local singing last summer. It's great to have her with us. She even makes the drive from Stockton on some Monday nights. Brave woman.

Hal did an amazing job of outreach, finding friendly singers to help the new and nervous. As a result, the newbies look like pros. We got the idea from the Portland Convention, and Hal carried it off wonderfully, preventing all those awkward moments that must arise when a new person stands up all by themselves in front of a hundred expectant singers.

Here's Bruce, getting a little help from Chris:

And here's Melissa getting some help from Inder. Inder is cracking up, because she had no idea what she was getting into when she agreed to help-- a page-turning, fuguing tune in a major key, no less (Inder just loves those minor tunes). They pulled it off just fine, though.
Far too soon, the singing was over. Here are Lara and Will, giving thanks to all the folks who contributed to the singing.