Monday, February 27, 2012

Historic Shape Note Singing at Fayetteville ALHA Convention...

The Arkansas Living History Association State Convention is just around the corner. Dan Brittain is leading a 3 hour "singing school" type workshop on Friday, March 2nd, from 1-4 P.M. at the Prairie Grove Battle Field State Park:
Historic Shape Note and Sacred Harp Singing
Dan Brittain, Past President, Arkansas Sacred Harp Convention
Prairie Grove State Park, Latta Barn
An introduction to the historical style of shape note and Sacred Harp singing. Learn why, where, and when shape note singing became part of our history. Develop your own ability for Sacred Harp singing so you can introduce it to others. Musical talent is not necessary, just the desire to make a joyful noise!
We particularly need to have as many of our regular singers as are able to attend the singing school to help the new singers in the different sections. As we've seen in so many of our own singing schools, it helps if all the various voices are represented.

Then on Saturday morning, March 3rd, from 11:00-11:45 A.M., Dan is leading a conference session in the Dogwood Room at the Town Center in Fayetteville.

Historic Singing Alive and Well at the Shiloh Museum
Dan Brittain, Past President, Arkansas Sacred Harp Convention
Dogwood Room, Town Center
This session is an introduction to Sacred Harp and shape note singing. Included is the history, music structure, learning method and singing from the Friday workshop. The final session topic outlines resources available to help bring Sacred Harp singing into your communities.
Part of the seminar includes singing a couple of the songs learned during the Friday workshop. Again, we need a few regular singers to help the inexperienced participants during the session.

Dan and Gail Cowart have been hard at work on the workshop materials and CD's being used as part of the program. It already sounds like a fun time and an excellent opportunity to increase public awareness about shape note singing and our NWA singers.

27th Annual Missouri State Sacred Harp Convention on March 10-11, 2012

The 27th Annual Missouri State Sacred Harp Singing Convention will be held at St. John's United Church of Christ near Marthasville, MO,  on March 10th and 11th. Singing from 9:30 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. each day with a traditional "dinner on the grounds" each day.

If you would like more information about the Missouri State Convention, please visit the St. Louis Shape Note Singer's website at:  http://www.stlfasola.org/index.html

The Missouri State Singing Convention has become an annual "go-to" event for a number of the Shiloh Sacred Harp Singers and about 10 singers from the local area are expected to attend this year.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Welcome from all the Shiloh Singers...

Welcome to the revised Shiloh Sacred Harp Singers of Northwest Arkansas website. This is the new home for information about the Shiloh Singers. Thanks are due the site's original webmaster, Shannon Seyler, who graciously allowed the Shiloh Singers to move her original work, the content and links from her original webpages, to this site.
Shiloh Singers at the Shiloh Museum's Country Store on January 22, 2012. Click on picture for larger image.

Thanks also to the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, which allows the Shiloh Sacred Harp Singers to meet once each month on the 4th Sunday, 1:30 - 4:00 P.M. in the Country Store on the grounds of the Shiloh Museum, at 118 W. Johnson Ave., Springdale, AR 72764. Please keep in mind that singings in the months of November and December may be changed to accommodate Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Meeting changes will be announced on this site.

This site is built using Google's Blogger and will be hosted at no cost on blogspot.com. Additional features and links will be added as time permits. A calendar of events will be posted near the top of the sidebar so that singings or special events can be easily confirmed. Pictures will be stored in PicasaOnline and eventually you'll be able to click on most pictures of people and events for a larger version of the picture you can download and print on your own computer. However, this site will be a work in progress for a while as we respond to ideas and suggestions from the members. You can also help if you have a link to a site that we overlooked or have not had the time to add yet. We'll add it to the list of things to do.

I don't plan to make a large number of updates or entries each month, but comments or suggestions are always welcomed. Or if you wish to pass along news of a Sacred Harp singing or other news item of special interest to our singers, feel free to contact us directly via email.

We hope you will enjoy the site and find it useful.

B. R. Black
"You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note." - Doug Floyd