Northern Harmony, a collaboration of ten brilliant singers presenting harmony from across the world, will appear on Saturday, September 18 at 7:00 pm at the York Street Meeting House, 153 York Street, Lyndon, sponsored by the Upright Steeple Society.

Led by Larry Gordon, Northern Harmony is the highest level performing group under the umbrella of the world music organization Village Harmony, which sponsors singing camps and workshops in New England and many parts of the world. (see www.villageharmony.org) Touring Europe
regularly since 1995, the group has won wide acclaim for their unique repertoire and sure command of widely diverse traditional singing styles. Most of the veteran singers in the present ensemble have studied traditional singing styles first hand with native teachers in South Africa, Corsica and Cauca-sus Georgia, and some are leaders of their own ensembles. The singers, all vaccinated, have been in residence for a week in Marshfield preparing this concert program.

The program presents a thrilling mix of world harmony traditions, including South African songs and dances, traditional polyphony from Georgia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Corsica, contemporary American shape-note songs, including new songs by members of the group, and renaissance Italian
devotional songs.

South Africa has a particularly powerful and appealing folk harmony singing tradition, with a rich, resonant vocal sound, and wonderfully syncopated rhythm. The singing is always accompanied by dancing, with the rhythm of the dance movements often in counterpoint to the song.

Georgia's ancient three-part harmony singing tradition features a dark, sonorous vocal quality, and startling harmonies, unlike anything else in European music. Traditional Corsican singing, passed down through oral tradition, features two highly ornamented upper voices over a more sustained harmonic bass. The Balkan numbers feature the characteristic bright, "hard-voiced" vocal timbre, with dissonant harmonies frequently based on drones, and irregular dance meters in 7, 9 and 11. These pieces will also feature the Northern Harmony band of fiddle, pennywhistle, accordion and percussion. The band will also play a medley of traditional dance tunes.

The shape-note songs include two new works by Ethan Sudan, a member of the group, as well as two other contemporary numbers by Toby Tenenbaum and Megan Henderson.

Vaccinated only; everyone requested to wear masks.

Admission by donation.