The 25th annual session of the National Sacred Harp Singing Convention will be held June 17-19 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church in Homewood.
Spotlighted by the recent movie “Cold Mountain,” Sacred Harp has been spreading from the rural Deep South to more metropolitan areas during the last 25 years. The form of singing, which takes its name from the 160-year-old shape-not singing tunebook “The Sacred Harp,” is popular in a number of other countries, particularly in the United Kingdom. Some 39 states in the United States now hold Sacred Harp events.
This year’s event will be the 11th National Convention held at Trinity United Methodist. The first session in 1980 was held at Samford University, where 12 of the first 13 convention were held.
At the convention, a singer gets the opportunity to lead a song of his or her choice. Singers sit around the leader. The group sings through the first time in unison, trading the actual words for the note shapes – fa, sol, la, mi, etc. Thus the moniker “fasola” singing.
Singers from as many as 25 states and the United Kingdom are expected to attend the event.
For more information, visit the resources section of www.thealabamabaptist.org.
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