Day 342: 12/9/11- Amish Hymn Sing

Day 342: 12/9/11
New Thing: Amish Hymn Sing                       

Inspiration: The Amish, Randall    
Cost: $0  
Time: Several Hours   
Bottom Line: Once in a lifetime!

Reflection: Tonight, I was lucky enough to wittiness an Amish Hymn Sing. Thanks to Randall, (who has been part of a movement at Penn State Berk's Campus to help preserve a local Amish Heritage site) I joined with a group of onlookers who gathered to listen to this very special style of music. Here is a wikipedia description on this music:

Amish music is primarily German in origin, and includes ancient singing styles not found anywhere in Europe, as well as modern hymns derived from the Pennsylvania German culture. Older Amish hymns are monophonic, without meter, featuring drawn-out tones and slowly-articulated ornamentation. Usually there is no harmony in the music. Pennsylvania spirituals are more modern, and include a wide variety of influences from African American and British music. Although a few Amish learn to play traditional instruments, such as the harmonica or the accordion, instruments are not played in public. Thus, singing is usually unaccompanied. In church, singing is in German, but singing outside of church is sung in English. Singing is a major part of Amish churches and some songs take over fifteen minutes to sing. A song called Loblied is a well known Amish song. It is always the second song sung at an Amish church service and is often sung at Amish weddings. "Sings" or "Singings," attended by young people approaching marriage-age, and usually held in barns on the Sunday evening after a worship service, are an essential element in Amish courting practices as the young participants are encouraged to engage in social discourse between songs.

It was amazing. They sang a few hymns in the traditional PA Dutch (including a really interesting version of "Come Thou Font of Every Blessing"), lots of hymns in English using their own specialized  harmonization, and one of their German Church songs which is completely unique to the Amish (although it reminded me a little of the Jewish Cantoring tradition). It was a true blessing and they could not have been nicer. Thank you so much, Randall & Connie!