Norumbega Harmony
Norumbega Harmony
NEW! Finally in print, The Norumbega Harmony, a collection of New England tunes set in shape-notes.
Our latest recording, Sweet Seraphic Fire has been released by New World Records. Available as Compact Disk (CD).
Norumbega Harmony sponsors monthly
Boston Area Singings from the
Original Sacred Harp
and other
shape-note
tunebooks
in the Meetinghouse behind Noyes Hall
at the Andover-Newton Theological School,
210 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, Massachusetts.
See the
flyer
for dates, details, maps, and contact info.
These take place every second Monday
of the month beginning at 7:45 pm. You are welcome to come either to sing
or to listen. Loaner books are available.
The Monthly Singing page also has information about the Third Sunday singing in Charlestown and the weekly singing at Boston University.
Norumbega Harmony is one of the
largest and most active groups of
Sacred Harp and
shape-note
singers in New England. The Group includes more than 50
singers, the majority of whom live in the greater Boston area. The
singers, who have diverse musical and religious backgrounds, gather
weekly for fellowship and traditional hollow-square singing from
which the group's characteristic singing style has evolved.
Norumbega Harmony was founded in 1976
at Wellesley College as an
undergraduate student organization by singing master Dr. Stephen
Marini, who had learned to sing Sacred Harp at traditional singings
held at Primitive Baptists churches in Virginia, North Carolina, and
Georgia. The student group soon attracted singers from outside the
College and in the early 1980s moved to Cambridge and took on the
name "Norumbega Harmony". More recently many of the singers have
traveled to singings sponsored by traditional singers in Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, as well as to singings sponsored by
other groups of newcomers in Chicago, St. Louis, Denver,
Minneapolis, Madison, WI, Washington, DC, Ithaca, NY, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and Vermont.
Norumbega Harmony's repertoire consists
of music from the colonial
and Revolutionary era of New England as well as music from the
Sacred Harp and other American folk-hymn traditions. Singers from
Norumbega Harmony sponsor monthly public singings from the
Original Sacred Harp
(Denson Revision) and once every three years they
host the annual New England
Sacred Harp Singing Convention.
They also conduct workshops (also called "singing schools") and singings
at regional folk festivals, and they have given concerts, singings
schools, lectures and interviews, and they have sung for church
services, recordings, and other events by invitation throughout New
England.
Dennis O'Brien
10 Ethel Street
Roslindale, MA 02131-4508
Tel: 617-325-4952
Email inquiries handled by Bob Parr, parr [at] LL [dot] mit [dot] edu
The group has presented works in concert for the Folk Alliance
Conference, the American Antiquarian Society, the Sonneck Society,
the Berkshire Shaker Seminar, the Society for the History of the
Early American Republic (SHEAR), and others.
In addition Norumbega Harmony presents a Singing School and
Open Sing from the Sacred Harp at the annual
New England Folk Festival
and every third year (..., 1996, 1999, ...) sponsors the
annual New England Sacred Harp Convention.
There is a somewhat controversial
etymology of Norumbega
available as a distraction, with illustrations.
. Recordings .
Recordings are in stock may be ordered from Norumbega Harmony c/o:
A. Kazlauskas
99 Bow Street #1
Arlington, MA 02474
E-Mail inquiries handled by A. Kazlauskas: alkalinelilac@gmail.com
These recordings should also be available from Tower Records in some areas. Recordings and tunebooks are also available at the monthly open sings at Andover-Newton Theological School.
Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in sales of these recordings - my intent is solely to make the information available to interested parties for the dissemination and enjoyment of this music.
Concert and other pictures can be found in our
Photo Gallery,
although we do stress the Aural experience rather than
the visual.
Other illustrations of Norumbega, the Concept, rather than the singing
group, are available in the
etymology section.