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Recordings
My trusty TASCAM DR-07 and I travel to what singings we can, collecting these recordings for your enjoyment. My field recordings are (mostly) collected as 16-bit WAV files, which I then split into the single-song, high-quality MP3 files posted here. If you need a particular song in a format other than MP3 (e.g., for a radio broadcast), please contact me.
I have also posted recordings made by others; the full index is located on the right side of this page.
Attended the inaugural of the Connecticut All-Day on a glorious early autumn day. We sang in a near-perfect room in Connecticut Hall, the oldest building at Yale University: two stories, thick masonry walls, old hardwood flooring, plaster ceiling. An excellent class of perhaps 100 singers at its peak. The recording came out very crisply; live, there was more roundness to the sound. A memorable day!
To shake off the wintry chill from the Vermont "spring," we headed to Virginia for the 22nd annual Potomac River Sacred Harp Singing Convention for two fine days of singing with our mid-Atlantic
friends and many singers from across the country. The Great Falls Grange is an excellent singing space, and we were delighted to have two full days there.
Leaving behind the early spring bulbs of coastal Boston, we headed north to Montpelier, Vermont, where winter's icy grip was still all too present. The company at the Vermont All-Day Singing, though, was as warm as always, and hopefully our spirited performances of WINTER and SPRING will mark the turn the seasons.
After a long, cold New England winter, the Western Massachusetts singing was a great way to blow off the cobwebs! Nearly 400 singers were registered for the two-day marathon of song (220+ tunes, 159 leaders), from 16 states and 3 other countries. As always, the singing at this convention is highly charged and, well, loud; I apologize that recording levels during the middle of Saturday are over-saturated. Recording placement for the first session was under the treble bench, and thereafter in the inside corner of the square, between tenor and treble.
The Berkshire Foothills singing closes out the singing year in New England. This year the singing was held in the community center in Lenox, Massachusetts, the town for which, over two hundred years ago, the tune 40 LENOX was composed to close out a singing school at the Church on the Hill. We had a fine day of singing and excellent eats!
George Seiler was a bulwark of Sacred Harp singing in the Northeast. Together with his wife, Jean, George founded the Garden State Convention and was a constant source of support, counsel, wit, wisdom, and foundational sound in the bass section. A remarkable class assembled on September 25 to celebrate his life in song.
The Chattahoochee Sacred Harp Singing Convention is the oldest remaining convention and, thanks to the work of Prof. Kiri Miller of Brown University, perhaps the best documented. If my family and I have a "home singing" in the South, this is it, and despite the heat and humidity -- especially this year! -- we work to find time to return as often possible to join with our friends in song.
At the sixth annual Jeremiah Ingalls Singing, in Newbury VT, we enjoyed a day of singing that was warm both in temperature and fellowship. The singing was from both the Sacred Harp 1991 Edition and the 1805 Christian Harmony of Jeremiah Ingalls, whose tunes 299 NEW JERUSALEM and 155 NORTHFIELD are among the most popular in the Sacred Harp. Many thanks to chairman Ben Bath and chair emeritus Tom Malone for making this great day possible.
Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church near Ephesus, GA is now solely used for the annual singing from The Sacred Harp held on the third Sunday in June--Father's Day. Mr. Lonnie Rogers is in frail health but was able to attend, joining the singing shortly after the class took up 413 THE LOVED ONES. All of Mr. Lonnie's grandchildren were in attendance; they led 268 DAVID'S LAMENTATION just before the lunch break, where the Dennys and Rogers laid as fine a spread of supper on the grounds as one is likely to find.
The singing at Addington Chapel, in Cold Springs AL, is a smaller, family event that provided a delightful contrast to the massed power of the National Sacred Harp Convention, where we were singing on the prior two days. The singers were about a 50/50 mix of local singers and those of us from away, but the sound (to my ear) retained much of the traditional accented sound of a good Southern singing.
The Aldridge Memorial Singing in Johnson's Schoolhouse, near Carbon Hill AL, is a fine singing space with exceptionally warm and gracious hosts. This singing has been boosted in recent years by its proximity in time and space to the adult session of Camp Fasola. Many campers, including my family, enjoy the company of the Aldridge family before starting our 3-day intensive camp experience.
The Hopewell Homecoming Singing, near Oneanta AL, is a very strong singing that I enjoy particularly for the opportunity to sing with Elder Hopper on the treble bench. This singing kicks off the 9-day marathon of singing for us around Camp Fasola and the National Convention.
The tenth annual Jack Smith Memorial Singing in Decatur, Georgia, concluded a fine Memorial Day weekend of singing for me. It started with a fine singing in Charleston, South Carolina in connection with the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. (This was recorded by someone else; I hope to have it posted in a month or so.) Sunday was the Mt. Pisgah singing in south Georgia, which drew a much larger crowd than it has recently, much to everyone's pleasure. Spending Memorial Day with my friends, new and old, in Decatur was a pleasure; sadly, I needed to slip out a bit early to catch my plane back to Boston.
The Boston All-Day Singing at Old South Church brought together about 120 singers from 8 states and 3 countries for a fine day of singing. Many thanks to all those who helped make this day a success.
The Rhode Island 7th Annual All-Day Singing at the Scituate Grange was a great success! Many thanks to Liz Cantrell, James Baumgartner, and everyone else who made it a great success. Recordings of nearly the entire session are posted. I lost a few to drained batteries, sadly.
The Vermont State Convention brought together the many singing communities in the state and some visitors like me (no, you don't need a visa to go to Vermont!). Tasty food and fun singing! I arrived just as the opening tune was being keyed, so I didn't set up my recording gear until after the first break; sorry to have missed that opening session!
Recordings and scores by Robert Stoddard are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Recordings by others and used with permission may not
be distributed without permission from the original copyright holder.