ShapeNote Singing with Norumbega Harmony at the 1991 New England Folk Festival, Natick, Massachusetts.

Norumbega Harmony, founded by Stephen Marini in 1976, has been leading shapenote singing workshops annually at the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) since the 1980s. The tradition of shapenote singing draws heavily on the tunebook, "The Sacred Harp," first published in 1844. When referencing songs from that book, it's standard practice to give those songs' page numbers, as well as their titles. See the notes below this song index for some background on both "The Sacred Harp" and NEFFA.

0:05 "Coronation" # 63 led by Ginnie Ely
2:15 "Northfield" # 155 led by Stephen Marini
4:16 "Ecstasy" # 106 led by Ginnie Ely
5:55 "Return Again" # 335 led by Susan Mampre
8:43 "Wondrous Love" # 159 led by Sharona Nelson
11:45 "Redemption" # 480 led by Bill Holt
14:59 "Evening Shade" # 209 led by Bob Parr
17:43 "David’s Lamentation" # 268 led by Bruce Randall
21:15 "New Jerusalem" # 299 led by Ed White
23:23 "Stratfield" # 142 led by Chris Chalfant
25:53 "Windham" # 38 led by Paul Gauthier
29:15 "New Britain" # 45 led by Howard Katz
31:39 "Invitation" # 327 led by Glen Wright
32:54 "Schenectady" # 192 led by Pat McMahon
35:01 "Sacred Throne" # 569b led by Cindy Bean
39:18 "Russia" # 107 led by Jim Bean
42:47 "Hallelujah" # 146 led by Ginnie Ely

"Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music that originated in New England and was later perpetuated and carried on in the American South. The name is derived from 'The Sacred Harp,' a ubiquitous and historically important tunebook printed in shape notes. The work was first published in 1844 and has reappeared in multiple editions ever since. Sacred Harp music represents one branch of an older tradition of American music that developed over the period 1770 to 1820 from roots in New England, with a significant, related development under the influence of "revival" services around the 1840s. This music was included in, and became profoundly associated with, books using the shape note style of notation popular in America in the 18th and early 19th centuries." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_...

"The New England Folk Festival (NEFFA), founded in 1944, is an annual participatory weekend festival of traditional dance and music. It takes place in the Boston, Massachusetts region each spring. It is run by volunteers and all the performers are volunteers as well... As a social dance festival, it is a community experience, the largest in New England of its kind, with about 5,000 combined admissions in the festival's four session periods.

"Participatory dancing occurs simultaneously in three halls, most prominently contra dance, international folk dance, and English country dance, in addition to other genres of dance. A variety of concerts, discussions and other more intimate performances take place in numerous class room spaces. Familyoriented events occur during daylight hours on Saturday and Sunday. A courtyard outside is devoted to Morris dancing, Rapper Sword and Longsworddancing. Sunday afternoons typically schedule dance and music demonstrations of a variety of ethnic dances, by local and distant dance groups, in the main hall. The hundreds of volunteer musicians, singers, dance callers, leaders and dancedemonstration performers are primarily from New England and every year a number arrive from more distant parts of North America." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Eng...

This video is one in a series of videos I recorded at NEFFA 1991, with the assistance of Martin Kessel, intended for cablecasting on BNNTV, Boston's public access television station. All of my NEFFA '91 videos, including one of the shapenote singing workshop led by Ginnie Ely, can be found at this YouTube playlist: https://bit.ly/NEFFA91

~ Rob McCausland


Special Thanks To:
Ginnie Ely, Bruce Randall, and Stephen Marini

Norumbega Harmony
http://norumbegaharmony.org/

New England Folk Festival Association
https://www.neffa.org/

Boston Neighborhood Network
https://bnnmedia.org

Produced by Rob G.H. McCausland
Copyright 2022