Shape-Note Singing with Laura Boosinger

Date(s):
09/20/2014
10:00 am - 11:30 am

Earl Scruggs Center Presents Shape-Note Singing with Laura Boosinger

 Saturday, September 20, 2014
10:00am – 11:30am

                                  Free Program: Registration Recommended

The addition of shaped-notes to religious texts was introduced during the 18th century in New England in an effort to restore congregational singing, the reading of music and the musical heritage that had perished since the early settlers came to America. Congregational singing declined with the increase of illiteracy and the scarcity of printed music. Singing schools utilizing shaped-notes were instituted to instruct and to encourage lively group singing. Recently, this style of singing has gained national attention through the film “Cold Mountain” which was set in Western North Carolina.

 The workshop will focus on learning the seven-note shaped-note scale.  The text will be William Walker’s Christian Harmony first   published in 1866. Many old hymn favorites will be sung including “Prayer Meeting” (“Sweet Hour of Prayer”), “Coronation” (“All Hail the Power”), and “New Britain” (“Amazing Grace”).

 Laura Boosinger has been studying and performing traditional Southern  Appalachian music since she was a student at Warren Wilson College in the 1970’s.  It was at WWC where she began to learn clawhammer banjo, learned how to call southern mountain square dances, and attended Shaped Note Singing School with North Carolina Folk Heritage Award winner Quay Smathers. Laura performs solo, as one of David Holt’s Lightning Bolts, with her duet partner Josh Goforth

Cost: 0.00
Contact: Emily Epley
Contact Phone: 704-482-6233
Contact Email: [email protected]