UK Sacred Harp Convention 2019
Sacred Harp singing is an unbroken 175-year-old tradition of powerful a capella music from the USA.
Please join us for the 24th UK Sacred Harp Convention in Bristol!
This September, singers from around the world will travel to Bristol to spend two days singing together in uninhibited, full-voiced harmony. It's an experience unlike any other: powerful, moving and unearthly. And anyone can turn up to watch or take part, for free.
Sacred Harp singing is a unique folk tradition dating back to 18th century America, with its roots in many of the different cultures that mixed there. Music publishers drew on folk melodies, sea shanties and popular tunes, and invented new notation systems, to make harmony singing more accessible to ordinary people. Their unique, primitive style was reformed out of the big cities, but survived in the rural American South, where singing families carry on an unbroken tradition to this day. After nearly dying out halfway through the last century, Sacred Harp experienced a revival, spreading back across America, and is now being taken up by people around the world.
Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette are both said to have sung Sacred Harp when they were young. These days, its influence can be found in the music of Sam Amidon, Holly Herndon, Tim Eriksen, Sufjan Stevens and Cath & Phil Tyler. It has been notably featured in the films Cold Mountain and Lawless, and recordings of Sacred Harp singing have been sampled by Bruce Springsteen and MIA.
Unlike the choral music most of us are familiar with, there's no focus on polished performance: you sing for your own enjoyment, and for each other. There's no choirmaster, and nobody's going to tell you how to sound. It&'s as much a social movement as a musical tradition, and everyone is welcome. See you in the hollow square.
Everyone is welcome to watch, listen and sing – no experience necessary!
Accommodation info to be announced.
More information to follow - Schedule for weekend below
Friday, 13 September 2019
19:00-21:00 Singing school - location TBC
Saturday, 14 September 2019
10:00-10:30 Registration
10:30-12:30 Singing
12:30-13:30 Dinner on the grounds
13:30-15:30 Singing
16:00-16:30 UKSHC business meeting
20:00 Social
Sunday, 15 September 2019
10:00-10:30 Registration
10:30-12:30 Singing
12:30-13:30 Dinner on the grounds
13:30-16:00 Singing
