[UC-ODDMUSIC] Sacred Harp today, & design thoughts

[Jacob Barton]

Sacred Harp singing, a.k.a. Fa-So-La or shape note singing, is an American
tradition of participatory music whose format has interested me.

There's one today 3-6pm at the McKinley Foundation on campus. I might go for
the first 90 minutes (my voice usually gives out after that long), let me
know if you might also go. If you want future updates, be sure to email
Conrad whose email list imploded.

What follows are some reflections on the design aspects of the tradition,
and how I've thought about adapting to my various oddmusical projects.

1. The sheer longevity of the tradition. *Southern Harmony* was first
published in 1835, and I think was published continuously up to the present.
Local groups often meet monthly, and regional conventions happen yearly, one
since 1884. That is some *serious* stability there, which my projects aspire
to. Part of the design of Xenharmonic Praxis Summer Camp is that I want it
to happen every year, forever forward. Such things can't be forced, must be
organically enthused.

2. The music is for singers in three or four parts. No instruments are used
as a crutch for tuning "correctly", which means that everyone must listen
and tune to each other all the more. This builds the sensitivity called
"relative pitch" and at times makes "absolute pitch" irrelevant: whatever
note we started on becomes "the right one", whether or not it's even on the
piano. This change of bias is *crucial* at this time in history for healing
misperceptions that inexperienced singers are "unmusical", and more
generally an idea of right-and-wrong based on immovable standards.

Taking this further...using today's tools, the hierarchy of music can be
completely inverted. Instead of auto-tuning singers to "the correct notes",
we could be auto-tuning the accompaniment to whatever notes the singer
sings. This is akin to the essential inversion of measuring society by the
yardstick of our desires (rather than measuring our desires by the yardstick
of society).

3. In practice, you choose a part that fits your voice part. In my
experiences here and in many other vocal music situations, this can
contradict sex-gender-normal division of musical labor, and nobody bats an
eyelash—musical concerns become primary. I wonder for the future, how to
compose vocal music that can completely avoid referring to past gender
distinctions.

2. In compositions, the harmonization follows slightly different rules from
common practice Western harmony. This gives me hope in designing new systems
for harmonic coherence that do not refer at all to Western harmony.

3. Each part sits on a side of a square. This means you mostly hear the
people singing your part. The best spot to listen is in the center. You have
to call the song and conduct it in order to stand there. The group generally
tries to get everybody to do it at least once, and it's sort of a rite of
passage for newcomers. I've done it maybe twice. I see this as an excellent
physical demonstration of the idea of floating hierarchy.

4. The traditional hierarchy comes into play in the composition. The tenor
(high male) part tends to have the melody, while the other three parts have
more awkward or boring lines in order to harmonize the melody properly.
However, this itself is odd. In most music, the melody is the
highest-pitched thing, and clearly distinguished from the subordinate
accompaniment. But here, the melody is buried. It is harder to perceive, and
thus the whole system renders it less important in proportion. Some analogue
to this may be a valuable tool for reducing inequality in the US, where the
average CEO is by some counts paid 475 times that of an average worker.

I would write more but it's happening in two hours. This is a unique
opportunity, and there's probably another one next month.

Jacob

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Conrad Wetzel <wetzelmc at hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 7:51 AM
Subject: Sacred Harp // Sunday, October 16, 3.00pm

 Dear Sacred Harp friends,

Our Sacred Harp sing is this afternoon, Sunday, October 16, from 3-6pm at
the McKinley Foundation.

I do apologize for this very late reminder. Through some fluke on the part
of Microsoft Corporation, I lost my all my email contacts, with no way to
retrieve them. I have been slowly rebuilding my email list. Since this list
is probably very incomplete, please let others know as you can.

We hope that you will all be able to join us.

Conrad Wetzel
217-390-9246
wetzetmc at hotmail.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________










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http://jacobbarton.net/
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