COME AND SING with the Toronto Shape Note Group. We sing from The Sacred Harp songbook (1991 revision) on the third Wednesday of every month at Friends House in central Toronto. Check our calendar for up-to-date information. Experienced and not-so-experienced singers are welcome, and loaner books are available.
The Sacred Harp was first published in 1844, and people have gathered to sing from this book ever since. Singings happened largely in the southern United States until the 1980s, when the tradition began to spread north, and eventually all over the world. The Toronto Shape Note group formed in 2000, and we’ve been singing at least monthly ever since.
During the pandemic, we gathered online weekly to sing using Zoom. These singings had singers join us from other regions around the world. We also held outdoor distanced singings in Fred Hamilton Playground Park on Saturday afternoons.
Since emerging from pandemic restrictions, we sing monthly at Friends House (60 Lowther Ave. Toronto). We also have house singings using books besides the Sacred Harp, including Shenandoah Harmony, Northern Harmony, and Christian Harmony. Join our mailing list to keep informed. You can join the email list by contacting Pleasance Crawford by email.
Also, you can join our Facebook group to keep up-to-date on many other shape-note singing events of interest.
We have connections with many other Ontario Shape Note groups, and we’ve all gathered together in August for the Central Ontario All-Day Singings over the years (with dinner on the grounds, of course!). The annual gathering changed to a two-day Convention in 2018, but sadly, the 2020 convention was postponed. Happily, we started the annual singing tradition again in August 2022.
I live south of Hamilton ON near Lake Erie and I am very interested in this form of singing. Are there any groups in the Hamilton/Niagara area?
Thank you.
I’m guessing the nearest singing to you would be the Guelph one, usually on the third Friday of the month. It’s held at Priory Park Baptist Church, 8 Torch Lane. Contact < bill.sue.woodward at sympatico.ca > for more information.
And then there is the annual all-day singing – which I highly recommend. It’s near Cambridge in North Dumfries on Saturday, August 27. Information here, or on Facebook.
And you are always welcome to join us in Toronto at our third-Wednesday singings if you are in the neighbourhood.