![[Line drawing of Montclair Friends Meetinghouse]](meetinghouse.gif)
Sixth Garden State
Sacred Harp Singing Convention
Friday and Saturday, May 15-16, 1998
Montclair Friends Meetinghouse
289 Park Street, Upper Montclair, New Jersey
Plus special "UNCONVENTIONAL SUNDAY"
Sunday, May 17
An extra day of varied singing
Whippany Road Church of Christ
270 Whippany Road, Whippany, New Jersey
Singing School with Jeff and Shelbie Sheppard
Traditional singing masters Jeff and Shelbie Sheppard of Glencoe, Alabama
will teach a "Singing School"
for new and experienced singers
on Friday evening at the Meetinghouse.
ALL ARE WELCOME
The public is invited to sing or just to listen!
Beginners are welcome on all days.
ADMISSION FREE
(Contributions to defray
expenses will be accepted.)
Convention Schedule
Friday, May 15
7:30 to 10:00 pm. Singing at Montclair Friends Meetinghouse,
with a "Singing School" taught by Jeff and Shelbie Sheppard. Jeff Sheppard has
been singing Sacred Harp for over 60 years. He learned the traditional Southern
practices that will be the focus of this singing school from Tom Denson
and other legendary singing masters of years gone by.
Saturday, May 16
Singing all day from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm at Montclair Friends
Meetinghouse, with noon potluck "dinner on the grounds." Evening social after the
singing.
9:30 am to 4:30 pm at Whippany Road Church of Christ. In the
morning we will introduce Sacred Harp singing to the adult Sunday school, then
join the congregation in singing an a-cappella musical service from their 1994
seven-shape hymnal, Songs of Faith and Praise. (All singing in the Church of
Christ is unaccompanied.) Lunch will be provided. The afternoon session in
Whippany will combine The Sacred Harp 1991 edition, new songs, and alternative
singing (bring your Cooper Books!). Please supply 60 copies of any new songs or
songs from other shape-note books that you wish to lead. Please observe copyright
restrictions and obtain permission before copying where required.
Information and Housing
Copies of The Sacred Harp tunebook (1991 edition, 585 pages, hardbound)
will be available for loan or purchase.
Childcare will be available on Friday and Saturday; advance notification
helpful.
To inquire about housing with local singers, call 973 779-8290.
Rooms are reserved at the Holiday Inn on Route 46 West in nearby Totowa. Call 800
443-5943 by May 1st and ask for the $72 Sacred Harp rate.
Map and travel directions: see the directions page.
For more information about the convention call 973 655-7219 (weekdays); 973 509-2165
or send e-mail to balestracci@saturn.montclair.edu.
For information about regular 4th-Sunday Sacred Harp singings in New Jersey, see our current
schedule page.
It is loud, it is heartfelt, and there are no harps (or any other
instruments).
But there is plenty of harmony--and the harmony is like nothing else
that you have ever heard.
It is a uniquely American music with roots in colonial New England
congregational singing and a continuous tradition preserved by both black and
white churches in the rural South. Since the 1970s it has been sung in all parts
of North America by people of remarkably diverse musical and religious
backgrounds.
We sing in the old way, sitting in four sections facing each other around a
hollow square, beating time together, taking turns leading. The music's three-
and four-part modal harmonies are enriched by octave doublings, and both lively
and sober tunes are propelled by a strong, constant rhythmic
pulse. Our tunebook, The Sacred Harp (first
published in 1844 and most recently revised in 1991), is
written in standard musical notation supplemented with "shape note" noteheads
that make it easier for beginners to learn
the notes of the scale and to learn to
read music. But you don't need to read music to join in.
Although we sing early versions of standard hymns such as Amazing Grace,
Old Hundred, Wayfaring Stranger, and Wondrous Love, much of the music
in The Sacred Harp will be unfamiliar even to experienced choir singers: majestic
ancient English and European psalm tunes, spirited 18th-century New England
"fuging tunes," anthems, folk and gospel hymns, camp-meeting songs from the
19th-century frontier, and modern compositions in all of these traditional
styles.
More information about Sacred Harp in New Jersey
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