I love this Canadian band. I don't know why they've never become more popular.
Most of their music is strong on the instrumentals, but they do the a capella bit as well
A capella, BTW, means "as in chapel," or more fully, "like they used to do in church in the old days before they let instruments in."
The Shape Note/Sacred Harp tradition eschews instruments. I once attended an all-day singing where a visitor, interested more from the ethnomusicological viewpoint than the religious one, casually played some guitar music outside during a lunch break. The leader came out and let him know discreetly that "that music has no place here." They didn't mind that it was secular, but they really didn't want an instrument intruding. It's all about the human voices, the "Sacred Harp."
ReplyDeleteYou might like "The Voice Squad." YouTube has several good examples.
I should have guessed.
ReplyDelete"That music has no place here" set off my natural contrariness. I would come back the next year with a kazoo.
No, it wasn't like that, though. It was more like a very kind and quiet hint to someone who was being a turd in the punchbowl and didn't realize it. The shape-note gatherings are very intense. There's a place for the other traditions of music, but not right in the middle of the shape-note gathering. That visitor simply was unaware. He appreciated being warned that he was stepping on toes. He had only to move a hundred feet away in order to avoid the equivalent of pouring cocktails and chatting loudly during a mass.
ReplyDeleteIt was the only time, really, I ever knew any of these Primitive Baptists to make such a point. They know that the gatherings these days are about half attended by people with secular musical interests. They don't evangelize, though they are extremely welcoming. And they don't object to instrumental music in general.