Good Morning, Oppo

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 04/08/2019 at 08:15 • Filed to: good morning oppo

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Remember, there is a happy land, and it’s not so far away.

I’m not certain, but I believe that the ad slogan is a reference to an old hymn from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! tradition called “Happy Land .” The Sacred Harp tradition of church singing dates back to the mid-1800s, and was an offshoot of traditions that began even a hundred years before that. The “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ” hymns were meant to be sung a cappella (unaccompanied) by parishioners sitting in a square and facing one another, and the best known collection of these hymns was published as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1835 . Below is a performance of Happy Land , with the congregation seated as they would have been back in the day. Sacred Harp music has a very distinct, earthy, almost raucous sound to it. It’s very likely that people of the 1940s would still have been familiar this hymn.

pip bip - choose Corrour > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 08:28

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and it’s called Utopia!

:P

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 09:09

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Dad had a vinyl LP of shape note singing that he brought home from school a couple of times. I listen to that record again and again in fascination.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 09:11

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My folks actually went to a shape note singing group for a couple of months a couple years back. Great way to get out of the house. I believe we have a copy of the Southern Harmony in the house, as well as some other stuff.

I seem to recall my dad recently found out there’s a shape note interest in the UK as well.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/08/2019 at 09:12

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It’s such a great sound. I love the community aspect of it, with a bunch of people getting together and just singing, with no formal training at all. The Wiki about shape note is interesting. I don’t really understand it, but apparently people who learned shape note became more skilled musicians later in life than those who didn’t. Even on trumpet, being able to sing and “pre-hear” what you are playing is vital. You play more accurately, not spray and pray.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 09:12

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Left out of previous comment - ‘39 Buicks have a certain ungainly elegance.

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/08/2019 at 09:15

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I started looking at videos last night when I wrote this post, and found that there is a big tradition of it in Ireland. I also found a stunningly beautiful redhead named Sadhbh O’Flynn singing some. I’d love to know how to pronounce her first name.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 09:26

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“Sive”, apparently.

fintail > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 09:27

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I’ve always liked the “w aterfall” front end on the 39 Buicks.

Buick ads of the era into the 50s usually had some play with the letter “B”:

ttyymmnn > fintail 04/08/2019 at 09:46

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I’ve often wondered where the name “Buick” came from, so I looked it up. David Dunbar Buick was a Scotsman, and I wonder if “Byooick” is how he would have pronounced his name. I did not realize that Buick is the oldest auto brand in the US, and one of the oldest in the world. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 09:52

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Some of my most precious memories are singing in a large a capella group in college. There’s something truly moving when you get that sound with no instruments in play. 

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 04/08/2019 at 10:06

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There is a vocal group called Anonymous 4 , a group of four women who began by singing Medieval music but have since branched out to new works and other genres of mostly religious music. They did a Christmas recording called The Cherry Tree that is fantastic, and it includes a couple of songs from this Sacred Harp tradition.

fintail > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 10:13

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Buick the man also has an interesting and ultimately unfortunate history.

I think most people today don’t realize the cachet had by that brand in the past, too.  During the intewar years, Buick might be comparable to a Lexus-BMW mix today, it was a somewhat aspirational brand eventually known for power.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 10:25

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I’ll take a listen when I get to NY. Connectivity here at the airport is atrocious. 

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 04/08/2019 at 10:31

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No rush. It’s a Christmas song, after all.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 11:51

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I find the arm movements compelling as well. The actual conducting is also shared. What I wanna know: how do you decide which note to sing?

On my list of things to check out near term. I went to a barbershop thing once many years ago and there was zero musicality there, only some dudes with voices.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/08/2019 at 12:45

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I’m not sure, but I think the shape of the note dictates the pitch. Which is to say that you don’t have to read music to sing it. While the shape notes are notated on a traditional 5-line staff, each note is a member of the solfege scale. So the shape that you see on the F line is Fa, but you don’t have to know that it’s an F to sing it. Does that make sense? There is also a tradition where you sing through the song first with the solfege syllables, then sing it with the words. The whole idea is that you can sing the tune more easily looking at the words. 

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 16:02

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Fa = Major 4th above tonic

So learning to sing in the manner would be great ear training.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/08/2019 at 16:09

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Perfect 4th. 4ths, 5ths, unisons and o ctaves are perfect, augmented, or diminished . 2nds, 3rds, 6ths and 7ths are major, minor, augmented, or diminished.

Yes, I believe it is all about ear training and being able to sing on sight.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 18:17

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So Fa is a perfect 4th (Temperament considered)?

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 04/08/2019 at 18:43

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A P4 above Do (or a P5 below) , with Do being tonic. In the movable Do system, Do is whatever note is tonic. In fixed Do, Do is always C regardless of key. And then you have to have altered solfege syllables for the accidentals, but that is a pain in the neck.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 04/08/2019 at 22:41

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Fixed Do? What the heck? I refuse to accept that.