On registration, socks, and naughty dogs

Hey! What a fabulous convention! I want to thank everyone who helped out with registration... over the two days we welcomed 215 people, sold 19 books, and helped raise enough donations to cover expenses with a comfortable margin! Yay!

On a personal note, my favorite kind words of the weekend?
1) A friendly woman in line at the bathroom complimented my stockings and asked where I had bought them, thus validating my last minute obsession with acquiring cream ribbed stockings to match my vintage dress and the ensuing obsession with sockdreams.com.
2) Someone thanked me for being a strong voice in the back of the alto section... and here I thought I was just being distracting in between running around micromanaging registration! The best part was that the singing sounded fabulous even from way back there. (Also, it smelled like I was being baked into a chocolate cake while Susan was laying out desserts a couple inches behind me. Sweet sweet torture...)

I don't have any real singing pictures, but here's one of me and Katie (my guest from Texas, one of my best friends, and in fact the very one who turned me on to sacred harp singing way back when!) in front of the beautiful Casa de Flores.


And here's what happens when you leave your dogs home all day while you go singing...

Sacred Harp Conventions: Some Handy Guidelines

First published in, I believe 2007, and trotted out more or less regularly thereafter for the enlightenment of all.

If you haven’t been to a large singing before, you may not know that it’s not just a longer version of the weekly singing. It’s a lot of fun, but because it’s structurally based on long-standing traditions, it’s quite different from the informality of a weekly singing, and it can be a little disorienting. Here are a few pointers to help you understand what’s going on.

1. Before you get there, be aware that people often dress up for singings. Now, this is California. If you show up in an all-hemp tie-dyed outfit, nobody is going to say anything (although I think people will draw the line if you try to show up naked). But it is a fact that in the South and in many other places, people wear their “Sunday best” to singings. If you feel up to it, consider doing the same.



2. It is also a fact that Sacred Harp is part of a Protestant Christian tradition, and for some people these singings are a living part of their religious practice. It is important to respect the religious traditions of which Sacred Harp is a part, even if we do not ourselves belong to those traditions. The singing will commence and conclude with a prayer given by the chaplain. There is also a prayer given before lunch. During the prayer, the class stands in silence while the chaplain speaks.



3. A singing has officers, namely a chair, vice-chair, secretary, and sundry others, who run the singing. Attendees always register, and the secretary takes minutes (if you attend such a singing, you are entitled to receive that year’s minutes book upon publication). Most singings maintain the fiction of electing the officers during a business meeting, held in the morning; in reality, last year’s vice-chair is, with rare exceptions, elected chair, and most if not all of the other officers are appointed beforehand. The outgoing chair is the chair until the business meeting is held, however, and it is the outgoing chair who starts things off. The opening song is frequently, but by no means always, “Holy Manna” (59).



4. Apart from things like breaks and lunch, there is the business meeting sometime in the morning, and often a memorial lesson (usually just before lunch on the final day of the convention), in which an appointed committee remembers the community’s dead of the past year and the sick and shut-in with a few songs. The “lessons” are of course the songs.
   
   
5. And then there’s the singing. There is a designated pitcher at any given point in the singing, to whom all will defer, which means you don’t have to volunteer a pitch, ever. When the pitcher is giving the triad, don’t interfere. You are always free to pitch your own tune if you are leading; in that case, let the pitcher know. The pitcher is usually on the front bench of the tenors.


6. There are too many people and too much shuffling around to lead by going around in a circle. Instead, an arranging committee (sometimes a lone ’ranger) takes the registration cards of those who have indicated they wish to lead and calls out the names of the leaders. The arranging committee will always call out the name of the leader as well as the person to follow.
   
   TIP: If you hear that you are leading next, get prepared with your page number, and if you’re in the middle of a row or in some out-of-the-way spot, position yourself to make it to the center of the square quickly. This avoids wasting valuable singing time. (Also, keep a back-up tune in mind in case the tune you were planning to lead gets called before it’s your turn.)



7. When leading at a larger singing, it’s important to put the needs of the group before your personal desire to sing all four verses of “Duane Street.” It’s polite to select a few verses (generally no more than three verses, or two of a longer tune). When it’s your turn to lead, you’re allowed to go to town, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily should. Think of the needs of the class: don’t request verses that aren’t printed in the 1991 edition unless you’re prepared to print copies of the verse for the whole class and distribute them unobtrusively beforehand; don’t lead an anthem at the very end of the day when people are tired, etc., etc. If you’re an inexperienced leader, watch the tenors and let them guide you. They won’t do you wrong.
   
   When leading, always remember to:
   
   
   
   • call out your page number loud and clear as you’re walking up (not the tune name)
   
   
   • stand in the middle of the square
   
   
   • face the tenors the majority of the time
   
   
   • beat clearly and steadily, with a motion large enough to be seen but not so large as to obscure the rhythm (generally, the forearm, and little else, moves up and down)
   
   
   • keep the chitchat to a minimum (if somebody calls out “which verses?”, that’s sometimes a hint to get going already)
   
   
   • tell the class which verses you want and whether you want to repeat, and stick to it (if you say nothing, it’s usually assumed that you want all the verses, unless the prospect is too painful for the class to fathom, in which case it will usually spontaneously sing the odd verses, or the first and last verses)
   
   
   
   



8. At a larger singing, the front bench of each part, and of the tenors in particular, beats time and is responsible for being in tune and on time. The front benches also help guide the leader if the leader seems uncertain, and generally have to stay extra-aware of what’s happening. It’s fun sitting on the front bench, but it’s also a real responsibility—the composition of the front benches can make or break a singing. You don’t need a special pedigree to sit on the front bench, but it is polite to defer to more experienced singers, especially out-of-towners.



9. Sacred Harpers are known for their hospitality. Of course, for some people this means putting singers up in their spare bedroom, but hospitality also extends to the singing itself. People who have traveled far to get to the singing are shown extra courtesy; they may be appointed to nicer committees (like the Resolutions Committee) but are not asked to deal with, e.g., clean-up (although they often volunteer!). If there isn’t enough time for everyone to lead, those who have traveled to sing with us get priority. In general, we try to make the out-of-town singers feel like our honored guests -- which is what they are.



10. Another aspect of hospitality is food. Local singers are asked to contribute to the noontime potluck. There’s many a singer who thinks this means bringing an iceberg salad-in-a-bag from Safeway. The singer who has traveled to other singings knows that homemade baked beans, red velvet cake, pork barbecue, black-eyed peas, corn pudding, boiled greens, brownies, lasagna, grape pie (I am serious), tabbouleh, green beans, chicken, pasta salad with fresh mozzarella, rice pilaf, and innumerable other delicacies are all par for the course -- in very large quantities. People do remember the food, and every once in a while a singing gets a Reputation. A skimpy potluck is nobody’s idea of a fun time. Re-think that bag of Fig Newtons.
    
    You can keep your hot dishes hot and cold dishes cold by wrapping them in newspaper and then in multiple layers of blankets or towels. In Minnesota, they then stick the whole shebang in a cooler. It is really cold in Minnesota, and this method works there, so you know it will work here. It is also nice to label your dish with some kind of identification for the food committee’s convenience, and also indicate whether a dish contains common allergens or hidden meat (e.g. it *looks* vegetarian but in fact the sauce is made of 100% puréed bacon). In recent years Susan has developed glorious food labels that take all the fear out of the potluck eating experience.



11. At the end of the singing, there is a concluding song, usually “Parting Hand” (62). After singing the notes, the class usually takes the parting hand by walking around and shaking hands (or exchanging hugs) with fellow singers. This makes it tough on those who do not know the first two verses of “Parting Hand” by heart. I recommend memorizing it, or at least getting familiar enough that you only need to glance at your book a few times. Otherwise you will feel like a dork with your face in the book while people try and shake your hand. The final song is followed immediately by the concluding prayer.



12. It is nice to help clean up. At minimum, put away your chair and pick up your potluck dishes and utensils. No one will hound you or scold you if you don’t, but if you leave your Corningware, it is mine.

This may seem like a lot to deal with, but the relative formality of a larger singing is refreshing for its order and its connectedness to the past. At a larger singing, you’ll meet people you don’t often sing with, and because local singing communities overlap at larger singings, you inevitably sing new and unfamiliar songs. If you attend several conventions, you’ll find over time that each singing is like a reunion of distant friends. The composition of each singing convention is unique and temporary, and yet each singing experience taps into a palpable and quite solid larger singing community, a communion of singers if not a communion of saints. Welcome.

Two Christmas Shape-Note Scores & Recordings

Here's two Christmas tunes for the Western Harmony, scores & sampler demo recordings - I brought them on Monday, but things got a little confusing with the floor being waxed, et cetera.

The first one is the melody of Tchaikovsky's snowflakes, the harmonies have been changed to protect the innocent. The second is a nativity fuging tune with text inspired by the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of James (hence the title). I apologize for the sloppy production on the recordings, I only intend them as demos to test the harmonies. There's also a pdf here if anyone across the series of tubes wants to print it out. (& the mp3s here & here.) Happy Christmas & see you all again in the Obama era.

I'm not the All-Cal Chair, so why am I having stress dreams?

Seriously, I had the craziest Sacred Harp dream ever. It was the All-Cal, and we couldn't even get people to sit in their parts-- we were all seated auditorium style, and then moved into a square, but even then, no one was sitting where they were supposed to. I even ended up in the bass section by mistake for a while.

I was secretary, but I couldn't find the arrangers to get the reg cards, and was trying to figure out how to spell people's names phonetically as they were called out. I even forgot to list the first few songs! And I FORGOT TO COOK. Yup, showed up to the singing empty-handed.

While I was having this mini-meltdown, the rest of you weren't faring much better. We were so hysterically off tempo that Natalia stood up and kept time with exaggerated arm movements and emphatic foot-stamping. And to top it off, Rebecca publicly chastised someone for giving the pitch wrong.

That's when I woke up. Whew.

Baltimore Sacred Harp on the Radio

Very occasional UCB visitor Kevin Moreno is interviewed, along with Carly Goss and others from their Thursday night singing. The producer/host really captured their singing well.

How to set up this blog as an RSS feed

I love the UCB Sacred Harp blog. But I find I don't visit as often as I wish, however, and don't always get the most recent news. So recently I set up the blog to show up in my email reader (Mozilla Thunderbird) and on my igoogle homepage. Below are some notes on my experience in case anyone would like to do the same.

On my igoogle homepage:

1. click [add stuff], then [Add feed or gadget]
2. type in http://ucbsacredharp.blogspot.com/atom.xml

In Thunderbird:

1. Click on the [tools] menu, then choose [account settings] (That's on a PC; on a Mac [account settings] is under the [preferences] menu.
2. In the dialog box that appears, click [new account]
3. When the wizard comes up, click [RSS News & Blogs] (then [next])
4. Set [account name] to "UC Berkeley Sacred Harp" (then [next])
5. Click [Finish] to get out of the wizard
6. Back in the Account Settings window, click on the UCB Sacred Harp account and choose [manage subscriptions].
7. On the window that opens, click [Add], and type "http://ucbsacredharp.blogspot.com/atom.xml" into the [Feed URL] field.

Portland Convention

Several weeks have passed since the Portland convention and I haven't seen any reports, which is a rotten shame since the world should know what a terrific show they put on up there.

I'll start, of course, with the food. With 215 convention registrants(!) I was worried about being last in line for dinner. My doubts were relieved, though, when I saw Julie Griswold's three tiers
of quiches. The fact that Portland has actually had to resort to incorporating multiple tiers of food on their serving table is I think representative of the abundance and attentiveness that characterized the whole convention.

For instance, it's easy to think of the Pacific Northwest as being "too eco for school," but the Portland singers wear their ecological sensibilities so gracefully that one feels not pushed, but inspired. This was accomplished in part through their use of metal utensils and cloth napkins, but moreso through their endless array of incredible vegan offerings - which were so satisfying as to leave no one wanting (except for recipes). And though half the table each day was labeled
vegan, there was no lack of falling-off-the-bone ribs and knee-weakening cheese grits for the lard-leaning among us, and fancy-schmancy pear-brandy-ganache pies and "I *must* have that recipe" apple cakes for us aspiring diabetics. (And though I spent close to $100 on pastries over the weekend at Portland's top-notch bakeries, I never found a scone I preferred to Marie Brandis's tea table offerings.)

Choose any other aspect of the convention, and it was equally impressive. Marie chaired the convention with efficiency and delicacy. The socials - a low-key Denson book singing at a neighborhood coffeehouse on Friday night, Carmen Doerge's well attended (and well
provided for) Saturday's evening social featuring, among other things, plenty of Northern Harmony singing, and Sunday's decompression at Heather Ikler's (and didn't we sing at a bar somewhere in there, too?) - were a great respite of informality amidst the more decorous daytime singing.

And what singing it was. After starting Saturday morning with an engaging singing school by Judy Caudle that was a welcome mix of information, participation, authority, and invitation, we launched into the fine singing of the day, which only improved after dinner. Sunday's singing similarly grew throughout the day, punctuated only by a personal and moving memorial lesson by Carmen, Connie Stanton and Lyle Lindsey, and by another incredible dinner.

It was great to see such far-flung singers as the always present and always appreciated Mike Hinton, honorary Portlandeers Bridget Hill and Judy Caudle, Reba Dell and Bill Windom, Sharon DuPriest and Daphene Causey, and Louis and Janice Hughes stopping off on their road trip down the Pacific coast, and others from, if I recall correctly, at least seven states. But the truth is that Portland needs no help from outside to stoke their fires; that group is a raging inferno on its own, incredible to behold and a great light for others.

Once final note before closing - about the hospitality of the Portland singing community. It rocks. It so raises the bar for all of us who would like out of towners to come to our own singings that I'm tempted to not mention it at all. But it would be a great untruth to not mention all kindnesses they showed me and the other non-locals, from airport pick-ups to last-second housing scrambles to, say, helping us pick out shirts when we left our dress clothes in Berkeley. The Portland singing community is an inspiringly kind and generous one.

Thanks for everything.