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Sacred Harp Singing in Cincinnati |
Directions and Singing Information Email List Facebook New Years Singing
Welcome to the home page of Cincinnati Sacred Harp Singing. We meet monthly to sing together from the Sacreh Harp tunebook (orig. 1844) and sometimes from other similar books. You are welcome to come and sing or listen. Details on meeting time, location, Covid precautions, etc., are being announced on the Cincinnati Sacred Harp Facebook group page and also on the Cincy-Sacred-Harp Google Groups email list. For more information contact Rich at overturfrich@gmail.com
Sacred Harp singing uses the book The Sacred Harp (orig. 1844), which features a style of music popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its most distinctive characteristic is the use of shape notes to indicate the degree of the musical scale. Just as in nineteenth century singing schools, Sacred Harp singers sing the names of the notes "fa," "sol," "la," and "mi" before singing the text. Singers sit in a "hollow square," with the bass, tenor, treble, and alto facing the leader in the center.
As the film clip describes, Sacred Harp singing is undergoing a revival in northern cities like Cincinnati. For more information on Sacred Harp singing in general, the "fasola" webpage is a good resource—http://fasola.org.
Singing Information
The meetings are informal and proceed by taking turns choosing songs from the book. Often easy songs are chosen if newcomers are present. Veteran singers are eager to answer any questions. There is no admission charge, no membership, no audition, no choir director, no rehearsal, and no performance—just singing. Sacred Harp singing thrives on large numbers, so veterans are usually eager to help newcomers learn the fundamentals.
Each year on January 1st, Cincinnati sponsors an "all-day singing" from approximately 10am-3:30pm. This is a wonderful event that attracts singers from around the midwest and brings together old friends who are in Cincinnati for the holidays. Details on the singing are always announced well in advance on Facebook and on the email list.
FACEBOOK EMAIL LIST
Cincinnati Sacred Harp also has an email list at https://groups.google.com/g/cincy-sacred-harp where you can see email announcemeents. To contact the organizers, you can click "Contact group owners and managers" and send a message. If you want to subscribe and receive email announcements of events, log into Google and follow "subscribe" instructions at https://groups.google.com/g/cincy-sacred-harp.
HISTORY
Records indicate that the first meeting was held June 26, 1988, with six singers. In 1990 we hosted a singing school taught by Richard DeLong, held in a classroom at Xavier University. There for the first time we met the singers from Columbus. Soon after, we jointly established the Yellow Springs singing.LINKS
Link to this page: http://cincysacredharp.ej345.com