acquisition – Baltimore Shape Note Singing

I have “ripped” DVDs of singings filmed by Nate Green and uploaded some of them to YouTube (with is permission). I used the publicly posted “Minutes,” published by Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association, to give a track listing for the videos. These videos are from the personal collection of Mary Wright, passed on to me by the Richmond Shape Note Singers.

Mary Wright leading a song. — Mary Wright of Virginia leads 148 Jefferson at the Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church on Sunday, June 15, 2008.

Videos listed in chronological order:

Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church — Sunday, June 19, 2005
* The video itself states “Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church Annual Sacred Harp Singing Section, Alabama” “Chairman Jarrod George” and then it begins time/date stamped “Jun 19 2005 9:10:13am”. A handwritten “sticky note” on the plastic DVD case states: “I did not reset the clock and this camera from a Georgia singing. You will need to add an hour to all time shown. Also, you will notice some Distortion at about the end of the second hour. It will only last about 2 minutes. Nate” No minutes are recorded in the Minutes Book for this event.

Salem United Methodist Church — Saturday, June 25, 2005

Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church — Sunday, June 18, 2006

Lookout Mountain Convention — August 25, 2007
*Unlisted until filmographer determined. You can click through here to view the video, but it is not openly listed on YouTube. The DVD had no name credited, and the handwriting is different than many of the Nate & Norma Green DVDs I have. It is similar to handwriting on a DVD by Bill Windom, thought it is not online in the Sacred Harp Museum collection of Windom’s videos.

Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church — Sunday, June 15, 2008

Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church — Sunday, June 20, 2010

Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church — Sunday, June 20, 2010 (silent slideshow)

Henagar-Union Convention — Saturday, July 1, 2017

Henagar-Union Convention — Sunday, July 2, 2017

Thank you to all the sponsors of our Sacred Harp loaner book buy. We’re excited to have more people showing up to fa-so-la along with us.

One thing we’ve recently done is add a page on the inside front cover with a few “quick reference” items, including a quick overview of the shape notes, the hollow square, the four parts of the tune, helpful links and, most useful, a short list of some relatively easy and popular tunes to call for folks who are completely new to singing.

UPDATE: We’ve had a few singers ask if they can download this for their loaner books, so I made a version that wasn’t Baltimore specific. Print it out on 8.5×11″ sticker paper and cut the dotted line. The “Thank you” text beneath the graphic I cut out and put on the inside back cover, otherwise that’s just wasted paper! I’ve also included a statement that the design is placed into the public domain, so you can feel free to use any of the text or graphics for your own group without asking permission.

InsideBookIntroductions-Universal-1 Download

Here is the text on the first panel:

GOOD TUNES FOR BEGINNERS TO CALL

Everyone has a chance to call a song, but it might be hard to figure out what to pick. Some options:
Use a lucky number. Open the book to a random page. Roll dice. Select a good and easy tune from the list below. All tunes with a “*” at the end have a “Learn to Sing Sacred Harp” video on YouTube.

34b St. Thomas
39 Detroit
40 Lenox*
45t New Britain*
47b Idumea
49t Old Hundred
59 Holy Manna*
62 Parting Hand
65 Sweet Prospect
101t Canaan’s Land
142 Stratfield*
146 Hallelujah*
155 Northfield*
159 Wondrous Love*
162 Plenary
178 Africa*
209 Evening Shade
277 Antioch
282 I’m Going Home
354 Lebanon
425 Golden Streets
457 Wayfaring Stranger
448t Consecration

Tag: acquisition

Nate Green’s Southern Sacred Harp Videos, 2005–2017

Our new loaner books!