All Day GreenField MAss
In the last weekend of August, my mother and I went to our first big sacred harp sing out of state.
We drove to the most north western part of MA. 4 and a half hours. We started at 5 in the morning and it was raining, so, through darkness and rain we drove. Happily we made it with only getting a little lost, (bad street signs) and we made it with time to spare. There had to have been close to 200 people there. People from all over the country, from other countries. People of all ages and back rounds.
It was a little overwhelming. I really have been in Maine too long that a mear crowd of 200 makes me feel... crowded.
But once we all sat down and started to sing, it didn't matter. I got to sing in the Treble section.
We sing the top line of music sometimes it is very high. Of late have been singing in the Alto section because it seems like we never have enough Altos.
I rather like the Treble section. although we are the high voices the section often has men singing in it but down the octave. As does the Tenor section, or the melody, has both male and female voices in it.
So there we were with 200 voices doing something like 6 part harmonies. It was amazing.
One thing I noticed that was different with this sing than our little local sings was they went FAST. I mean the music went fast, calling the leaders when fast, tuning went fast. I was hard pressed to just find the right page in time. It didn't help that many of the leaders didn't call out the page number very loudly. With 200 people even if they are attentive they are still bound to be noisy.
If I heard the count right we did something like 120 songs. with 109 leaders.
Oh not only did we sing, we ate. I swear it seemed like if I wasn't singing I was eating and talking. More good conversations to add to my collection of people. Even with the rainy weather it was a very enjoyable day.
Then there was the drive home. I was tired and I know my mom was pooped, she let me drive.
But I told stories to her to keep her awake until then. We made it back to Maine around 7 and back home around 10. My mom had no voice and she had to sing in church the next day. She said she sounded... like a frog. :) Maybe there is such a thing as too much singing.
We drove to the most north western part of MA. 4 and a half hours. We started at 5 in the morning and it was raining, so, through darkness and rain we drove. Happily we made it with only getting a little lost, (bad street signs) and we made it with time to spare. There had to have been close to 200 people there. People from all over the country, from other countries. People of all ages and back rounds.
It was a little overwhelming. I really have been in Maine too long that a mear crowd of 200 makes me feel... crowded.
But once we all sat down and started to sing, it didn't matter. I got to sing in the Treble section.
We sing the top line of music sometimes it is very high. Of late have been singing in the Alto section because it seems like we never have enough Altos.
I rather like the Treble section. although we are the high voices the section often has men singing in it but down the octave. As does the Tenor section, or the melody, has both male and female voices in it.
So there we were with 200 voices doing something like 6 part harmonies. It was amazing.
One thing I noticed that was different with this sing than our little local sings was they went FAST. I mean the music went fast, calling the leaders when fast, tuning went fast. I was hard pressed to just find the right page in time. It didn't help that many of the leaders didn't call out the page number very loudly. With 200 people even if they are attentive they are still bound to be noisy.
If I heard the count right we did something like 120 songs. with 109 leaders.
Oh not only did we sing, we ate. I swear it seemed like if I wasn't singing I was eating and talking. More good conversations to add to my collection of people. Even with the rainy weather it was a very enjoyable day.
Then there was the drive home. I was tired and I know my mom was pooped, she let me drive.
But I told stories to her to keep her awake until then. We made it back to Maine around 7 and back home around 10. My mom had no voice and she had to sing in church the next day. She said she sounded... like a frog. :) Maybe there is such a thing as too much singing.