Thursday, October 28, 2010

Shape-note Singing In Sweden!

Bill Gooch sent an interesting email to Tina Becker  ...
 
From: Bill Gooch
Date: Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 7:43 PM
Subject: Shape-note sing in Sweden!
To: Tina Becker

Hi, Tina,
Thanks for the continuing updates.

Meg and I received the e-mail below from a friend in Sweden.  Four or five years ago, Eva Rune was teaching singing at the Scandinavian music and dance camp that Meg runs each summer, and we had a short shaped-note sing which included her.

She was the singing teacher again this past summer.  At the last minute before leaving for camp, Ann Strange dropped one of our books be my house for me to buy and take to Eva as a present.  Eva was very pleased to received it and also received a four-shape book from a New England singer (Kitty) at the camp. We
again had a short sing.  Kitty  also took her to a sing in Massachusetts after the camp.

Eva has been quite excited and taken by shaped note singing.  She has wide interests in many types of traditional singing.  I thought you might want to share this information with our local singers and add Eva's e-mail address to the periodic mailings.

Bill

From: Eva Åström Rune
To: Meg Mabbs; Kitty Kagay
Sent: Mon, October 25, 2010 6:15:11 AM
Subject: Short summary of yesterday

Dear friends,
I'm so happy for yesterdays singing session with introducing two Shapenote songs. 16 women came along and they enjoyed it althou it was compleetely new to them. Only 4 of them could read music at all, and the shapenote system is really new to us. I guess the teaching mainly concisted of learning by ear.
So we sang Idumea and Wondrous love. We went through all the parts, soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The bass part was just sang in one octacve higher or transponed in the lowest parts. It wasn't easy in the beginning but as they learned and got more confident they really enjoyed the harmonies. This group of singers almost never sing in parts at all, but they have been singing unison for long time and their singing is good in itself.

This meeting took place in a private house on the farmland outside Ljungskile, a little bit north of Göteborg. The family in the house, Mats and Moa Brynnel, is a lovely couple who always hosts and promote singing in various ways. I wish we could visit them together one day!

Best wishes,
Eva Åström Rune

http://evarune.blogspot.com