This beautiful and sad article from the LaFayette Sun was recently posted to the Fasola discussion list. The article, written by an educator and leader in the black community of Chambers County, describes the decline and recent cessation of the seven shape singing conventions in the area. The article was not available online, so I […]
Each year for the last few years, Will Fitzgerald, a Sacred Harp singer from Kalamazoo, Michigan and NASA scientist in his spare time has published a list of the frequency of tunes led at Sacred Harp singings over the previous year, compiled by examining the published minutes of Sacred Harp singings worldwide, made available by […]
I will be serving as chair this year of the Albany-Area New York State Regional All Day Singing. This is the only All-Day Sacred Harp singing in Eastern New York, and is held in the Old Songs Building, an 1880s structure in Voorheesville, NY with excellent acoustics (and the site of my thesis show in […]
Now that my thesis is safely in the hands of my committee, I’m finishing up my part of a paper I’m presenting next weekend with Dana at the Graduate Students in Music Symposium on “Musical Spaces” at CUNY. Dana and I are talking about the hollow square in Sacred Harp singing with Dana addressing social […]
My MFA Thesis Show, Azariah: Whom Jehovah Helps is this Saturday.
The show will be a participatory shape note singing, and is at 2 PM (please be on time) at the Old Songs Community Art Center at 37 South Main Street in Voorheesville, NY.
After the singing, there will be a pot-luck supper, and from 7:30-10:00 PM […]
Tonight I wrote all nine poems for my thesis show — in less than two hours.
I’ve been trying to write these poems for the last two months, putting it off because I’ve been feeling insecure about my writing ability. Over the last week, after giving up on writing the story in verse, I wrote out […]
While I was in New York City for my Eyebeam show with Tintinnabulate, I got to go to a specially scheduled Northern Harmony and unusal material singing at Aldo’s house in Brooklyn. In addition to a bunch of Northern Harmony books, people brought photocopies of tunes taken from a variety of 19th-century sources and a […]
I’m giving a talk next Monday, December 5th, at 6 PM in West Hall, Room 112. Here’s what I’ll be talking about:
Contemporary Composers in the Sacred Harp Tradition
Sacred Harp singing is an active four part community singing tradition that dates back to the 18th century. Through talking with contemporary composers in this tradition, Jesse, himself […]
As I write this I’m listening to the documentation from the Under Island show at the CAC on Thursday. The audio recording is less than top quality — because the singing was so loud it overwhelmed the microphones. But the incredible energy of the event comes clear as day.
I arrived at the CAC at 3:30 […]
I only just got back home from a very full day of singing. I left Troy at around 8 AM for the Northern Harmony All-Day Singing, held this year in Westminster West Vermont, and finally returned (via the Albany monthly singing in Latham) at 11 PM.
Northern Harmony All-Day Singing
This is the third Northern Harmony singing […]