Standing inside the Laurelhurst Club in Southeast Portland, Karen Willard said some of her family members believe she’s in a cult. It’s not hard to see why. She and hundreds of others have arrived to ...

Area singers find meaningful sounds in shapes Paul Waterman might not recommend sitting in a church pew for exercise -- unless you want to join him for a session of shape-note singing. Last week, ...

Dec. 24—As haunting harmonies drifted through the rafters of the third-floor attic chapel, echoes of the past rose and fell with the voices signing from the pages of an 1873 shape-note hymnal. The ...

The crowded room echoes with lilting voices raised in a simple, timeless song. There are no instruments, no audience. Just a chorus of four-part harmonies sung from a book that's as thick as a Bible.

Visitors to the 1820 Col. Benjamin Stephenson House in Edwardsville on Nov. 15 had a chance to take a musical step back in time. Shape Note Singers from St. Louis visited the historic home to enjoy ...

Shape note singing is one of the oldest musical traditions in this country. It’s a practice that began in colonial America, and after centuries of ups and downs in ...

Some choreographers prefer form to function — the perfect curve of an arched back, the razor-straight line of an outstretched arm, the precise angle of an ankle as a dancer trots across the stage — ...