Sacred Harp singing is not a spectator sport. This living tradition of community singing, “part educational, part social, part religious,” as Tom Tucker, who is helping organize a singing 3-5 p.m. Saturday, May 17 at the Lancaster Friends Meetinghouse, 110 Tulane Terrace, puts it, is meant for participation. “Don’t worry about whether you consider yourself a singer,” Tucker says. “If you can come and sing like you did when you were in second grade,” that’s what fits the “very boisterous, very vigorous” music, Tucker says. “We don’t get it by trying to form a choir. The way you do it is, you just sing and listen to the people around you.” The tradition of shape-note singing stretches back to the earliest days of the American colonies, and spread to the South, where an unbroken tradition of shape-note singing continues into the present.
Tucker, who recently moved to this area from Virginia, has been active in shape-note singing groups since the early 1970s in Washington D.C., when people involved with the Folklore Society of Greater Washington rediscovered the music in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress and began to revive the tradition in the northern U.S. ”I just fell in love with the music,” Tucker recalls. He started an informal group in 1970 and has been leading groups and workshops ever since. Locally, there are singings in Reading and Chadds Ford, and the annual Keystone convention has been held in Christiana for the last two years. A singing workshop took place here in April and drew a good response, Tucker says.
“Most of the people who sing it are attracted by the novelty, but they stay with it for the community it creates,” says Tucker. “You don’t just sing, you share meals, you support each other.” True to tradition, a shared meal will follow the singing Sunday (Bring utensils, advises Tucker). The event is free, and loaner books will be available.
What does it sound like? Check out these videos.
More early American music (and more) on the calendar: The Ephrata Cloister Chorus, directed by Daryl Hollinger, will perform 4 p.m. Sunday at the Conestoga Church of the Brethren, 141 E. Main St., Leola. The concert is free; an offering will be taken.
(Post edited on Monday, May 19 to remove reference to Exton.)
