Self Guided Tour of Williamstown

Singing School ~ Shape Note Music

Saturday, March 7^th, 11:00 am, Milne Library

Shape Note Music, sometimes known as Sacred Harp Music, is an indigenous school of choral composition which dates originally from the late colonial/early federal era in our country.  Singing masters, such as Justin Morgan, or William Billings (see photo on left), would travel the countryside teaching parishioners to read music to improve their singing of the hymns on Sunday.  Come hear more about this unique type of music!

Singing School is a group of local amateur singers which can vary in number from four to a great unwieldy choir, but usually includes a core comprised of Deborah Burns, Karen Swann, Doug Paisley, Andy Burr, Jared Polens, Paul McFarland, and Amrita Lash.  All are enthusiastic singers of the early American music.  A popular example of a hymn which started in the Shape Note tradition is Amazing Grace. If you have never heard shape note music, this performance will show you that it is fun, uplifting, morbid, spooky, and loud – often all at once!

John Hyde ~ Hyde Family Ancestral Home
Saturday, February 21st, 11:00 am, Heritage Room, Williams Inn

As the poet wrote “A house is not a home until someone lives in it.” This is the story of a HOME in which 5 generations of one family lived with illustrations to show the house in various stages of its growth over a period of more than 200 years. The structure – both exterior and interior as well as the grounds around it – will serve as the “evidence” from which we can learn how and why the people who lived in it kept changing it to reflect changes in taste, technology, social life and in society as a whole. The history of a Berkshire home covers almost the entire history of this nation.

Professor Emeritus John M. Hyde has been a member of the faculty and administration of Williams College for the past fifty years.  He is also a member of the fifth generation of a family which has lived in Berkshire County for more than 200 years.

David Simonds ~ Cherry Cottage: the Story of an American House
Sunday, January 18, 4:00 pm, @ First Congregational Church
Sponsored by the Williamstown Historical Museum

Built in 1782 by Judith Williams Thayer, the sister of Col. Ephraim Williams, Cherry Cottage, has housed a remarkable array of people of historical interest, most notably Mark Hopkins, president of Williams College from 1836 to 1872, and who defined our ideas about small liberal arts education in America.  Other notable residents or owners include a chief of the Stockbridge Indians, Speaker of the House, Theodore Sedgwick, the attorney David Dudley Field, Jr., the surgeon Charles McBurney, the writers Alan Wheelis and Louis Begley, and the astronaut Story Musgrave, who led the effort to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Please stay for the reception after the end of the film.  Donations to benefit the Williamstown Historical Museum of any amount accepted at the door.

Filmmaker Dave Simonds (director) lives in his hometown of Williamstown, Massachusetts after a 28 year hiatus in NYC, where he worked in film, TV and stage.  He is a graduate of Bard College.

Hans Morris (executive producer/writer) is chairman of the board of overseers at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth, chairman of the board of trustees of MASS MoCA, and he is a trustee of Jacob’s Pillow.  He served as President of Visa, Inc. Cherry Cottage is his first feature.

For more here’s the trailer: