21st UK Sacred Harp Convention

21st UK Sacred Harp Convention

The 21st UK Sacred Harp Convention will take place at the Trinity Centre, Bristol on the 17th and 18th September. Singers from around the world will travel to Bristol to spend two days singing together in uninhibited, full-voiced harmony. It's an experience unlike any other: powerful, moving and unearthly. And anyone can turn up to watch or take part, for free.

Sacred Harp singing is a unique folk tradition dating back to 18th century America, with its roots in many of the different cultures that mixed there. Music publishers drew on folk melodies, sea shanties and popular tunes, and invented new notation systems, to make harmony singing more accessible to ordinary people. Their unique, primitive style was reformed out of the big cities, but survived in the rural American South, where singing families carry on an unbroken tradition to this day. After nearly dying out halfway through the last century, Sacred Harp experienced a revival, spreading back across America, and is now being taken up by people around the world.

Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley are both rumoured to have sung Sacred Harp when they were young. These days, its influence can be found in the music of Sam Amidon, Tim Eriksen, False Lights, Sufjan Stevens and Cath & Phil Tyler. It has been notably featured in the films Cold Mountain and Lawless.

Unlike the choral music most of us are familiar with, there's no focus on polished performance: you sing for your own enjoyment, and for each other. There's no choirmaster, and nobody's going to tell you how to sound. It's as much a social movement as a musical tradition. This year's convention is the first in Bristol, and is a great opportunity to meet and sing with lifelong Sacred Harp singers from the USA. Last year's event in London drew over 160 singers from six countries, and a similar sized crowd is expected this year.

Bristol Sacred Harp meets every Tuesday at the Benjamin Perry Boathouse, Phoenix Wharf, below Redcliffe Parade, from 7 - 9pm. Again, anyone is welcome, it is free to attend, and those with no musical background or confidence are encouraged to come along.