SHAPE-NOTE SING + POTLUCK + FILM!
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SHAPE-NOTE SING + POTLUCK + FILM!
Saturday, June 20th
Come take part in one of America’s oldest living polyphonic singing traditions!
3pm: Singing School led by Stefan Amidon
4pm: Community Shape-Note Sing
6pm: Potluck
7pm: we offer the documentary AWAKE MY SOUL: THE STORY OF SACRED HARP. The Potluck and Film are free for shape-note particiants!
Come and take part in one of America’s oldest living polyphonic singing traditions. Beginners and experienced, old and young, consider yourself a singer or not, read music or don't, all are welcome. We will start slow, with an introduction to reading the shapes, some ear training and learning a couple simple shape note songs together. Then we'll transition into a real time Shape Note Sing where anyone is welcome to lead a song, and the pace will pick up a little. Revel in the stark beauty of breathing new life into old songs, and the deep connection that comes from singing in the square. This will be followed by the traditional potluck feast, and then learn more about the history and practice of Shape Note singing from the fantastic documentary screening Awake My Soul: The Story of Sacred Harp (2025 Revision)
ABOUT THE SING: At a Shape Note Sing we will sing out of the Sacred Harp. Anyone can call a song and lead it, or lead with a friend. There is a designated pitcher who will give the starting notes for each part, and then it's sung through on the shapes, meaning using the corresponding syllables (Fa for triangle, Sol for oval, La for rectangle and Mi for diamond). Then we sing through using the words. It's a social sing, and if you are a beginner you are welcome to sit with a book and make what sense of it that you can, all levels welcome. It's powerful and cathartic music, not a performance but for the experience of being there and singing together, which can be simultaneously very personal and shared.
Stefan Amidon started singing Shape Note music with his family, whose house hosted monthly sings as he was growing up. His father Peter Amidon was a gifted shape note singing leader and organizer, and after gaining experience through local sings, tours with the choral group Northern Harmony, and teaching a class at Oberlin College on Shape Note singing, Stefan took over the Old Songs Festival sing, which he has now led for over ten years. He still works as a singing leader at the Guilford Church and teaches music to children of all ages, and is the director of the Brattleboro Children's Choir at the BMC.
"Nothing is weirder than Sacred Harp"-NY Times
The Earliest American Music is Neither Dead nor Dying…It is Standing Right in Front of You…Singing
AWAKE, MY SOUL: THE STORY OF THE SACRED HARP (81 mins) is as ruckus and uplifting as the music itself. This is a newly remastered, updated and re-edited release by Director Matt Hinton, a prominent figure in Sacred Harp singing is the first feature documentary to explore the history, music, and traditions of Sacred Harp singing, the oldest distinctively American form of music. This haunting music has survived over 200 years tucked away from sight in the rural Deep South and performed mostly at community singing events, which can have up to 100 singers. The events, called “singings”, emphasize participation over consumption since they are not generally performed for an audience. Sacred Harp singers begin each song by intoning syllables which are represented by a specific “shapenote” in their hymnal. To the casual observer, it is some foreign, unintelligible language, but to the Sacred Harp singers, it is the key that unlocks mysteries: songs of both beauty and sorrow, of life and of death, songs that cause feet to stomp and tears to flow, often at the same time.
Sacred Harp is one of the open secrets of American music. If you have heard it at all, it may have been from the haunting choral music in the motion picture, “Cold Mountain,” or in a sample from such artists as Bruce Springsteen or M.I.A.. The past four decades particularly have seen remarkable growth of the tradition throughout other parts of America as well as another dozen countries, and particularly among young urbanites. The Sacred Harp hymnal, first published in Georgia in 1844 was revised and published in September 2025, the first revision in over 30 years.
Saturday, June 20th
Come take part in one of America’s oldest living polyphonic singing traditions!
3pm: Singing School led by Stefan Amidon
4pm: Community Shape-Note Sing
6pm: Potluck
7pm: we offer the documentary AWAKE MY SOUL: THE STORY OF SACRED HARP. The Potluck and Film are free for shape-note particiants!
Come and take part in one of America’s oldest living polyphonic singing traditions. Beginners and experienced, old and young, consider yourself a singer or not, read music or don't, all are welcome. We will start slow, with an introduction to reading the shapes, some ear training and learning a couple simple shape note songs together. Then we'll transition into a real time Shape Note Sing where anyone is welcome to lead a song, and the pace will pick up a little. Revel in the stark beauty of breathing new life into old songs, and the deep connection that comes from singing in the square. This will be followed by the traditional potluck feast, and then learn more about the history and practice of Shape Note singing from the fantastic documentary screening Awake My Soul: The Story of Sacred Harp (2025 Revision)
ABOUT THE SING: At a Shape Note Sing we will sing out of the Sacred Harp. Anyone can call a song and lead it, or lead with a friend. There is a designated pitcher who will give the starting notes for each part, and then it's sung through on the shapes, meaning using the corresponding syllables (Fa for triangle, Sol for oval, La for rectangle and Mi for diamond). Then we sing through using the words. It's a social sing, and if you are a beginner you are welcome to sit with a book and make what sense of it that you can, all levels welcome. It's powerful and cathartic music, not a performance but for the experience of being there and singing together, which can be simultaneously very personal and shared.
Stefan Amidon started singing Shape Note music with his family, whose house hosted monthly sings as he was growing up. His father Peter Amidon was a gifted shape note singing leader and organizer, and after gaining experience through local sings, tours with the choral group Northern Harmony, and teaching a class at Oberlin College on Shape Note singing, Stefan took over the Old Songs Festival sing, which he has now led for over ten years. He still works as a singing leader at the Guilford Church and teaches music to children of all ages, and is the director of the Brattleboro Children's Choir at the BMC.
"Nothing is weirder than Sacred Harp"-NY Times
The Earliest American Music is Neither Dead nor Dying…It is Standing Right in Front of You…Singing
AWAKE, MY SOUL: THE STORY OF THE SACRED HARP (81 mins) is as ruckus and uplifting as the music itself. This is a newly remastered, updated and re-edited release by Director Matt Hinton, a prominent figure in Sacred Harp singing is the first feature documentary to explore the history, music, and traditions of Sacred Harp singing, the oldest distinctively American form of music. This haunting music has survived over 200 years tucked away from sight in the rural Deep South and performed mostly at community singing events, which can have up to 100 singers. The events, called “singings”, emphasize participation over consumption since they are not generally performed for an audience. Sacred Harp singers begin each song by intoning syllables which are represented by a specific “shapenote” in their hymnal. To the casual observer, it is some foreign, unintelligible language, but to the Sacred Harp singers, it is the key that unlocks mysteries: songs of both beauty and sorrow, of life and of death, songs that cause feet to stomp and tears to flow, often at the same time.
Sacred Harp is one of the open secrets of American music. If you have heard it at all, it may have been from the haunting choral music in the motion picture, “Cold Mountain,” or in a sample from such artists as Bruce Springsteen or M.I.A.. The past four decades particularly have seen remarkable growth of the tradition throughout other parts of America as well as another dozen countries, and particularly among young urbanites. The Sacred Harp hymnal, first published in Georgia in 1844 was revised and published in September 2025, the first revision in over 30 years.
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Where is it happening?
Epsilon Spires, 190 Main St, Brattleboro, VT 05301-2837, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherEpsilon Spires
