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July 26
FaSoLa Singers and The Sacred Harp
10am-noon
Join us on Sunday, July 26 from 10am-Noon as we welcome the FaSoLa Singers for their practice singing at the Adobe Chapel in Old Town. The public is welcome and this is a free event.
The FaSoLa Singers sing 4-part a capella harmony music from a collection called The Sacred Harp, Early American hymns and anthems. But they are not a choir in the usual sense. Rather, this is a community singing event, more like a Messiah sing-along, where everyone is welcome to pick up a book and join in with the singing. In fact, everyone who wants to can select a song and lead the group in singing it. The music has a striking, sometimes modal quality unlike modern choral music, and the singing style could be described as vigorous.
The group carries on a 150-year-old tradition of community singing still practiced in small communities in the South, and there are similar groups around the country. While the practice singings are informal, the group sponsors an annual All-Day Singing (in July), and once every three years, they host the All-California Convention, two days of singing (the next one will be in January, 2013). At the most recent All-California Convention, 120 singers from 11 states gathered for two days of vigorous singing and fellowship.
The music of The Sacred Harp is written out in a slightly modified musical notation, which would look familiar to anyone who reads conventional music. As in a conventional choir, singers of the same part sit together, but in this group the four parts form a hollow square, so that the focus of the music is toward the singers.
See their website www.sdfasola.org for more information about the group.
Where Adobe Chapel · 3963 Conde Street
Cost Free
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