A 2018 Bb major plain or psalm tune with all four parts sung by Jac Gehring of Winchester, UK in June, 2020. Text from the Percy Chapel Collection, 1813. Named for the village of Frenchay in Gloucestershire, UK; where the annual Bristol All-Day Sacred Harp Singing is held. A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rqEzFpXVq26p6U4uH5K6YkMWdVl_MeTV/view?usp=sharing

Four Lines in Four Shapes

Frenchay

Shape note tune. Music by Aldo Thomas Ceresa (December, 2012). Text by Phoebe H. Brown (1818). Sung at the Old Meeting House, Granville, MA; November 9, 2013. 

Personnel: Aldo Thomas Ceresa, Jesse Polhemus, Linda Shea, Gwen Gethner, Leland Kusmer, Matthew Léger-Small, Ian Quinn, Jeremy Galvagni, Deidra Montgomery, Maura Burns, Ellen Lueck, Elsa Phemayotin, Emma Swartz.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dKFBeWqJL2GLYqZmXL_FJuPZWS01uJQk/view?usp=sharing

Monticello

Shape note tune. Music by Aldo Thomas Ceresa (2008). Text from Divine Hymns (1797). Sung at the Old Meeting House, Granville, MA; November 9, 2013.

Personnel: Aldo Thomas Ceresa, Jesse Polhemus, Linda Shea, Gwen Gethner, Leland Kusmer, Matthew Léger-Small, Ian Quinn, Jeremy Galvagni, Deidra Montgomery, Maura Burns, Ellen Lueck, Elsa Phemayotin, Emma Swartz.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JV5rGuRKS_bqmwtx9KPx8TWRQmVA8c2P/view?usp=sharing

Moreno

Shape note tune. Music by Aldo Thomas Ceresa (December, 2012). Text by William Hammond (1745). Sung at St. Catharine's College Chapel, Cambridge, UK; February 23, 2013.

Personnel: Aldo Thomas Ceresa, Fynn Titford-Mock, Steve Fletcher, Juniper Hill, Edward Wickham, members of St. Catharine's College Choir.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/168sKDo86ESSn0muAv7AmV33aBPlKD7_k/view?usp=sharing

Newtown

Shape note tune. Music by Aldo Thomas Ceresa (Spring, 2012). Text by Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna (c. 1825). Sung the New York City All-Day Singing Composium, Fifteenth Street Friends Meeting, NYC; September 15, 2012.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M1FmOPU99tPt0J-t8VzYJXH8higE3x1i/view?usp=sharing

Sullivan's Island

Shape note tune. Music by Aldo Thomas Ceresa (September-December, 2008). Text anon., (c. 1583). Sung the Camp Fasola Youth Session Composium at Camp Lee, Anniston, AL; July 3, 2009.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m5MAWelHEurwOMct6bsGZ6-IlzOOQdGO/view

Walker

Recorded at the 2009 Western Massachusetts Composium at the Holbrook barn, Hadley, MA; March 7, 2009.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uAr8MjwXwg4POBRtp2DJWc1SedG32CkA/view?usp=sharing

Chattahoochee

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tp49pSFJlS4mSgvpUZzlvuCuIDm8jAdR/view?usp=sharing

(Live House Reverb)

Walpole Town Hall

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Aw5yWc0RcVK0mjLTm1Xd2DIdUlTjbgAK/view?usp=sharing

(CDX Live House Reverb)

Red Hook

A PDF of the score is available at: http://sacredharptunes.com/aldous/neasden-lane/

(take 2; Dx Live House Reverb)

Neasden Lane

Northern Harmony recording, Montpelier, VT; January, 2013.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m5MAWelHEurwOMct6bsGZ6-IlzOOQdGO/view

More info about Northern Harmony/Village Harmony is available at: northernharmony.pair.com/

2013 Montpelier Recordings

Sung by Jac Gehring of Winchester, UK in January, 2023. Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dfRrJo-yIeGkZAe7hlJh3KvHe74bvZtI/view

Sung by Jac Gehring of Winchester, UK in January, 2023. Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EfxsrrOXizzpNNFYVcdBe1OT6xmmzG8t/view?usp=sharing

Grand Ferry

Sung by Seattle Sacred Harp Singers, December 2011. Recorded by David Wright. This song appears on p. 504 of The Sacred Harp, 2012 revised Cooper edition. Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BWQ52o4z2b3q4PUeqh_rnCdLbTcS6UYa/view?usp=share_link

North Jersey

Sung by The Art Mob, December 2008. This song appears on p. 504 of The Sacred Harp, 2012 revised Cooper edition. Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BWQ52o4z2b3q4PUeqh_rnCdLbTcS6UYa/view

Aldo's Art Mob Songs

2013 Northern Harmony studio recording. Track 3 on Treasures of Grace (2014).

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O8cOfYDEkDdKr5eUuDa0ky_IAHbK8E0W/view?usp=sharing

More info about Northern Harmony/Village Harmony is available at: http://northernharmony.pair.com/

Edgewood

Northern Harmony recording, Montpelier, VT; January, 2013.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17_zN2s1aDC7UiduIxADUJg2I-2ux3hck/view?usp=sharing

More info about Northern Harmony/Village Harmony is available at: http://northernharmony.pair.com/

Steele

Northern Harmony recording, Montpelier, VT; January, 2013.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Wd_plvDxBeBABnUdHz1IUN-XiTzBPSX/view?usp=sharing

More info about Northern Harmony/Village Harmony is available at: http://northernharmony.pair.com/

Harmon

Shape note tune. Music by Aldo Thomas Ceresa (2009). Written for Gregory Mulkern. Text by John Needham (1768). Recorded at the 2010 Western Massachusetts Composium at the Holbrook barn, Hadley, MA; March 6, 2010.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1INnMJsB08DwCvpDa1GMVZVXYpFfp9Lif/view?usp=sharing

Mulkern

Recorded at the 2014 Northern Shenandoah Valley All-Day Singing, Harrisonburg, VA; June 1, 2014.

A score of a slightly revised version of the tune is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zSkOnrR7gAoUgdRMIt2D91i3Mzu8skyH/view?usp=sharing

Candler Park

Rehearsal recording. Performed by Larry Gordon, Emily Adam, Lexi Ugelow, and Gideon Crevoshay. Recorded March, 2015 in Vermont.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uoMx_2z3-XpLbhHHxbnMf0JYXAvEP7_J/view?usp=sharing

More info about Northern Harmony/Village Harmony is available at: http://northernharmony.pair.com/

Green-Wood

Shape note tune. Music by Aldo Thomas Ceresa (2009). Written for Gregory Mulkern. Text by John Needham (1768). Recorded at Mark Karlsberg's studio, Newton, MA; February, 2010.

Personnel: Aldo Thomas Ceresa, Lauren Bock, Julian Damashek, Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg, Kelsey Sunderland, Kendahl Goldwater-Feldman. 

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1INnMJsB08DwCvpDa1GMVZVXYpFfp9Lif/view?usp=sharing

Sacred Harp Quartets & Quintets

Written for the Stokes family, in memory of Oliver Kindig-Stokes. Recorded at the NYC All-Day Singing Composium, First Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, NY; September 16, 2017.

Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MdkclEhBZCK_vBB9pPrjHXpa0ZjNwFMQ/view?usp=sharing

2017 NYCADS Composium

Covered Bridge

2017 Northern Harmony studio recording. Track 3 on Lavish of Strange Gifts (2017).

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uoMx_2z3-XpLbhHHxbnMf0JYXAvEP7_J/view?usp=sharing

More info about Northern Harmony/Village Harmony is available at: northernharmony.pair.com/

Lavish Of Strange Gifts

Christiana

A lovely duet performance by Florine Vieilly-Eymard and Frédéric Eymard of Choeur Canopée (Clermont-Ferrand, France), with music set to a text by the tune's namesake Samson Occom (1723-1792). Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n_Xj86VeDeS5sc6vTU1dEEJhJ0Va53Ee/view?usp=sharing

Choeur Canopée

Occom

Dedicated to the Polish Sacred Harp singers on the occasion of their first Sacred Harp convention. Music by Aldo Thomas Ceresa (2012, rev. 2017). Text by Charles Wesley (1749). Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l-aMytf1AWrKmrpj6aJ8sc4UdYZftN5c/view?usp=sharing

Four Parts in Four Shapes

Warsaw

From Rick Cunnigham's 2016 album Till the Warfare is Over, featuring instrumental adaptations of traditional Sacred Harp tunes and modern shape note compositions. Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O8cOfYDEkDdKr5eUuDa0ky_IAHbK8E0W/view?usp=sharing

Till The Warfare Is Over

From Rick Cunningham's 2016 album Till the Warfare is Over, featuring instrumental adaptations of traditional Sacred Harp tunes and modern shape note compositions.

A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uoMx_2z3-XpLbhHHxbnMf0JYXAvEP7_J/view?usp=sharing

Led by Michael Walker. Recorded at the Bristol Composium, Bristol, UK; 11 May 2018. A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12-pWu8FRWXKi6PiVg7II6WpSKaJXjIHF/view?usp=sharing

Composium Recordings

New York

A 2010 A minor fuging tune, with all four parts sung by Jac Gehring of Winchester, UK in April, 2020. A PDF of the score is available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MrTs8ioHq8pJ-6zJ7nnC1MWszejv6ABm/view?usp=sharing

Highland

A 2012 E minor fuging tune, with all four parts sung by Jac Gehring of Winchester, UK in April, 2020. Text by Timothy Dwight, 1800. Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12-pWu8FRWXKi6PiVg7II6WpSKaJXjIHF/view?usp=sharing

A 2015 A minor plain tune, with all four parts sung by Jac Gehring of Winchester, UK in June, 2020. Text by Isaac Watts, 1709. Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11O9uDuGSrjr4WjamLALXdqHAI7Ijkyru/view?usp=sharing

Alford Lake

A 2007 E minor folk hymn with all four parts sung by Jac Gehring of Winchester, UK in January, 2021. Text from the Baptist Memorial & Monthly Chronicle, 1842, with the refrain text taken from Spiritual Songs for Social Worship (1833; alt.); both found in Freewheel Baptist Psalmody (1853), with a note from Vilana Jackson Richardson (1831-1903), the book's original owner, indicating that this text was sung at Deacon Stanton's funeral 22 October, 1854. Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n-mwagbHoamlqg5PAtAABv_FNNp2p0Am/view?usp=sharing

Stanton

Aldo Thomas Ceresa: Sacred Harp singer, teacher, and composer.

A dedicated student of the Sacred Harp singing tradition, I've been writing music in the style of The Sacred Harp since 2005. In addition, I've taught singing workshops across the U.S. and the U.K., as well as in Canada, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Norway, France, and the Czech Republic. 

Since 2006, I've been active in organizing "Composium" shape note tunewriting workshops in several US states. I've also led tunewriting workshops at Camp Fasola (a summer music camp for Sacred Harp singers) since 2009; and was the guest composer at the Strathmore Center for the Arts Sacred Harp Singing Workshop in April, 2007. 

My music has been published in several shape note songbooks, including: Northern Harmony, fifth edition (2012); The Sacred Harp, revised Cooper edition (2012); and Shenandoah Harmony (2013); as well as in several issues of The Trumpet (2011-2014), a periodical devoted to new music in The Sacred Harp idiom. My songs Edgewood and Green-Wood were recorded by Northern Harmony, and appear on the Treasures of Grace (2014) and Lavish of Strange Gifts (2017); and several others have been performed in by various Village/Northern Harmony ensembles in their concerts. Instrumental arrangements of my songs Edgewood, Fawcett, and Green-Wood were recorded by folk musician Rick Cunningham on his 2016 release, Till the Warfare is Over. My tunes were also regularly performed by The Art Mob, an a cappella ensemble in New York City between 2006 and 2015.

Feedback is always welcome. Please contact me if you have any comments or questions about any of my music!

aldousii

Popular tracks