Dear Singers,
Tuesday saw the heaviest rain yet. Seems like 8 inches but might have
been more. The creek and everything else was rising but don't think
the kids even noticed:-)
Besides the daily rudiments for both children and adults Tuesday saw
special visits by Richard Delong and Jim Carnes. Richard walked
through a fascinating history of the 1991 Edition back to the 1844
Sacred Harp, and had the class sing several examples of the infamous
"New Sacred Harp" edition--one of J.L.White's many adventures (this is
not his better known "JL White book"). He then ended up his section
with a game of Sacred Harp Jeopardy. Of course given the modesty of
your respondent (and his fellow singers on the "sol" team) we let the
"fa" team win in a landslide. I just hope they realized how nice we
were being:-)
Jim Carnes took the class on a tour of history as seen through the
eyes of the songs of the Sacred Harp. We started off with what is
perhaps the oldest song in the book "Old Hundred" and then visited the
colonial period, the camp meeting and Civil War eras, the time of the
Denson's and finally concluded with new compositions (such as
Granville).
And as usual that evening we concluded with a singing in the church
and most especially with singing from the kids. It is really
thrilling to see the kids learn Sacred Harp and then sing for all in
the singing. It is also pretty wonderful to see kids from Iowa,
Minnesota, Maine, Georgia and Alabama sliding down rocks together,
playing flashlight tag together, and in between passing out favorite
Sacred Harp song tips together.
--Keith Willard
St Paul
via Camp Fasola, Anniston Alabama
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