Shape notes are a music notation designed to facilitate congregational
and community singing. The notation, introduced in 1801, became a popular
teaching device in American singing schools. Shapes were added to the note
heads in written music to help singers find pitches within major and minor
scales without the use of more complex information found in key signatures on
the staff. Shape notes of various kinds have been
used for over two centuries in a variety of music traditions, mostly sacred but
also secular, originating in New England, practiced primarily in the
Southern region of the United States for many years, and now experiencing a
renaissance in other locations as well. Shape notes
The idea behind shape notes is that the parts of a vocal work can be learned
more quickly and easily if the music is printed in shapes that match up with the
solfège syllables with which the notes of the musical scale are sung. For
instance, in the four-shape tradition used in the Sacred Harp and elsewhere,
the notes of a C major scale are notated and sung as follows:
A skilled singer experienced in a shape note tradition has developed a fluent
triple mental association, which links a note of the scale, a shape, and a
syllable. This association can be used to help in reading the music. When a
song is first sung by a shape note group, they normally sing the syllables
to solidify their command over the notes. Next, they sing the same notes to
the words of the music. The syllables and notes of a shape note
system are relative rather than absolute; they depend on the key of the
piece. The first note of a major key always has the triangular Fa note,
followed by Sol, La, etc. The first note of a minor key is always La, followed by
Mi, Fa, etc. The first three notes of major scale –
fa, sol, la – are each a tone apart. The fourth to sixth notes are also a tone
apart and are also fa, sol, la. The seventh and eighth notes, being
separated by a semitone, are indicated mi-fa. This means that just four
shapenotes can adequately reflect the "feel" of the whole scale.
Four-shape vs. seven-shape systems The system illustrated above is a
four-shape system; six of the notes of the scale are grouped in pairs assigned
to one syllable/shape combination. The ascending scale using the fa, so, la,
fa, so, la, mi, fa syllables represent a variation of the hexachord system
introduced by the 11th century monk Guido of Arezzo, who originally
introduced a six-note scale using the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la.
The four syllable variation of Guido's original system was prominent in 17th
century England, and entered the US in the 18th century. Shortly afterward,
shapes were invented to represent the syllables.. The other important systems
are seven-shape systems, which give a different shape and syllable to every
note of the scale. Such systems use as their syllables the note names "do, re,
mi, fa, so, la, ti, do" familiar to most people. A few books present the older
seven-note syllabization of "do, re, mi, fa, so, la, si, do". In the seven-shape
system invented by Jesse B. Aikin, the notes of a C major scale would be
notated and sung as follows: There are other seven-shape systems.
Effectiveness of shape notes Whether or not shape notes actually
facilitate learning music is disputed. A controlled study on the usefulness of
shape notes was carried out in the 1950s by George H. Kyme with an experimental
population consisting of fourth- and fifth-graders living in California. Kyme
took care to match his experimental and control groups as closely as possible
for ability, quality of teacher, and various other factors. He found that the
students taught with shape notes learned to sight read significantly better than
those taught without them. Kyme additionally found that the students
taught with shape notes were also far more likely to pursue musical activities
later on in their education. = Shape notes and modulation =
Many forms of music employ modulation, that is, a change of key in mid-piece.
Modulation is problematic for shape-note systems, since the shapes employed for
the original key of the piece no longer match the scale degrees of the new key.
At least some forms of shape-note music, for instance Sacred Harp music,
generally avoid modulation. Origin and early history
As noted above, the syllables of shape-note systems greatly antedate the
shapes. The practice of singing music to syllables designating pitch goes back to
about AD 1000 with the work of Guido of Arezzo; other early work in this area
includes the cipher notation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the tonic
sol-fa of John Curwen. American forerunners to shape notes
include the 9th edition of the Bay Psalm Book, and An Introduction to the Singing
of Psalm Tunes in a Plaine & Easy Method by Reverend John Tufts. The 9th edition
of the Bay Psalm Book was printed with the initials of four-note syllables
underneath the staff. In his book, Tufts substituted the initials of the
four-note syllables on the staff in place of note heads, and indicated
rhythm by punctuation marks to the right of the letters.
Shape notes themselves probably date from late 18th century America. They
appeared publicly at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when two
publications came out using shaped note heads – The Easy Instructor by William
Little and William Smith in 1801, and The Musical Primer by Andrew Law in
1803, intended for use in singing schools. Little and Smith used the
four-shape system shown above. Law's system had slightly different shapes: a
square indicated fa and a triangle la, while sol and mi were the same as in
Little and Smith. Law's invention was more radical than Little and Smith's in
that he dispensed with the use of the staff altogether, letting the shapes be
the sole means of expressing pitch. Little and Smith followed traditional
music notation in placing the note heads on the staff, in place of the ordinary
oval note heads. In the end, it was the Little/Smith system that won out, and
there is no hymnbook used today that employs the Law system.
Some copies of The Easy Instructor, Part II included a statement, on the verso of
the title page, in which John Connelly grants permission to Little and Smith to
make use in their publications of the shape notes to which he claimed the
rights. Little and Smith did not themselves claim credit for the
invention, but said instead that the notes were invented around 1790 by John
Connelly of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Andrew Law asserted that he was the
inventor of shape notes. Shape notes proved popular in America,
and quickly a wide variety of hymnbooks were prepared making use of them. The
shapes were eventually extirpated in the northeastern U.S. by a so-called "better
music" movement, headed by Lowell Mason. But in the South, the shapes became well
entrenched, and multiplied into a variety of traditions. Ananias
Davisson's Kentucky Harmony is generally considered the first Southern shape-note
tunebook. Rise of seven-shape systems
By the middle of the 19th century, the "fa so la" system of four syllables had
acquired a major rival, namely the seven-syllable "do re mi" system. Thus,
music compilers began to add three more shapes to their books to match the extra
syllables. Numerous seven-shape notations were devised. Jesse B. Aikin
was the first to produce a book with a seven-shape note system, and he
vigorously defended his "invention" and his patent. The system used in Aikin's
1846 Christian Minstrel eventually became the standard. This owes much to
the influential Ruebush & Kieffer Publishing Company adopting Aikin's
system around 1876. Two books that have remained in continuous use, William
Walker's Christian Harmony and M. L. Swan's New Harp of Columbia, are still
available. These books use seven-shape systems devised by Walker and Swan,
respectively. Currently active shape note traditions
Although seven-shape books may not be as popular as in the past, there are still
a great number of churches in the American South, in particular Southern
Baptist, Primitive Baptists, almost all of the non-instrumental Churches of
Christ, and some Free Methodist, as well as United Pentecostal throughout North
America, that regularly use seven-shape songbooks in Sunday worship. These
songbooks may contain a variety of songs from 18th-century classics to
20th-century gospel music. Thus today denominational songbooks printed in
seven shapes probably constitute the largest branch of the shape-note
tradition. In addition, nondenominational community
singings are also intermittently held which feature early- to mid-20th century
seven-shape gospel music such as Stamps-Baxter hymnals or Heavenly
Highway. In these traditions, the custom of "singing the notes" is generally
preserved only during the learning process at singing schools and singing
may be to an instrumental accompaniment, typically a piano.
The seven-shape system is also still used at regular public singings of
19th-century songbooks of a similar type to the Sacred Harp, such as The
Christian Harmony and the New Harp of Columbia. Such singings are common in
Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, and generally
preserve the singing school custom of "singing the notes."
The four-shape tradition that currently has the greatest number of participants
is Sacred Harp singing. But there are many other traditions that are still
active or even enjoying a resurgence of interest. Among the four-shape systems,
the Southern Harmony has remained in continuous use at one singing in Benton,
Kentucky, and is now experiencing a small amount of regrowth. The current
reawakening of interest in shape note singing has also created new singings
using other recently moribund 19th-century four-shape songbooks, such
as The Missouri Harmony, as well as new books by modern composers, such as the
Northern Harmony. Thomas B. Malone has specialized in the revival of works by
Jeremiah Ingalls, and has published a four-shape edition of Ingalls' 1805 The
Christian Harmony. Malone organizes an annual mid-July singing in Newbury,
Vermont, where Ingalls was a tavern-keeper and musician between 1789
and 1810. The seven-shape system is commonly used
by the Mennonites and Brethren. Numerous songbooks are printed in shaped notes
for this market. They include Christian Hymnal, the Christian Hymnary, Zion's
Praises, Pilgrim's Praises, the Church Hymnal, Silver Gems in Song and Harmonia
Sacra. Nomenclature
Shape notes have also been called character notes and patent notes,
respectfully, and buckwheat notes and dunce notes, pejoratively.
See also Fuguing tune
List of shape-note tunebooks Singing school
Sacred Harp West gallery music
Notes References
Bibliography = Books =
Chase, Gilbert, America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present .
Cobb, Buell E jr, The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music, University of
Georgia Press . Drummond, R. Paul A Portion for the
Singers: A History of Music Among Primitive Baptists Since 1800.
Eastburn, Kathryn A Sacred Feast: Reflections on Sacred Harp Singing and
Dinner on the Ground. Eskew, Harry and Hugh T. McElrath Sing
with Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Hymnology.
Horn, Dorothy, Sing to Me of Heaven: A Study of Folk and Early American
Materials in Three Old Harp Books, Gainesville: University of Florida Press
Jackson, George Pullen, White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands .
Marini, Stephen A, Sacred Song in America: Religion, Music, and Public
Culture, Urbana: University of Illinois Press .
Stanislaw, Richard J, A Checklist of Four-Shape Shape-Note Tunebooks .
Hartman, Steve, The Missouri Harmony, or a Choice Collection of Psalm Tunes,
Hymns, and Anthems, St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, ISBN 1-883982-54-5 ,
xxxvii, 346 pp. = Journal articles =
Campbell, Gavin James, "Old Can Be Used Instead of New: Shape-Note Singing and
the Crisis of Modernity in the New South, 1880–1910", Journal of American
Folklore 110: 169–88, doi:10.2307/541811 investigates the internal debate among
shape note singers at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the
twentieth. Lowens, Irving; Britton, Allen P, "The
Easy Instructor: A history and bibliography of the first shape note
tune book", Journal of Research in Music Education I: 32 .
External links Karlsberg, Jesse Pearlman. An
Introduction to ShapeNote Hymnody. Emory University.
Fasola Home Page – web site of the Sacred Harp Musical Heritage
Association, dedicated to Sacred Harp and Shapenote singing
Awake, My Soul – about a documentary movie The Story of Sacred Harp and
Shaped Note singing Shape Note Historical Background –
article on the evolution of shaped notes Shape Notes: the eight note, seven shape
method – article promoting the seven shape method
Shape-note Connexion & music of Jeremiah Ingalls where you can hear a fine
example of shapenote singing, including the first run-through with the shapenote
syllables being sung A Shape-Note Singing Lesson. Smithsonian
in Your Classroom. Smithsonian Institution. October 2000. With lesson
plans for teachers. Sacred Harp Music – article on Sacred
Harp from the Handbook of Texas online Mississippi's African American Shape
Note Tradition article by Chiquita Walls Pearl River South Singing Convention
Stamps-Baxter School of Gospel Music – school furthering the Stamps and Baxter
tradition UK Sacred Harp and Shapenote Singing –
official UK site with events calendar, resources and contacts for all UK
shapenote groups Sacred Harp and Related Shape-Note Music
Resources – an extensive site of resources concerning Sacred Harp, other
Shape-Note music, Gallery music, etc. Singing with Sol-fa Syllables – article
about singing schools and shape notes The Shape of Music – book on teaching
small children shapenote singing. Where Could I Go But To The Lord field
recording from the Florida Folklife Collection
Art of the States: shape-note recordings Sacred Harp.mus. Electronic sound files
of songs from several 19th century shapenote songbooks using Melody
Assistant software. Seven-Shape Note Sheet Music Open Hymnal
Round Notes converted to Seven-Shape Notes.
Seven-Shape Note Book Cyber Hymnal Selection converted to Seven-Shape Notes
Book. = Public-domain shape-note tunebooks =
4-shape notation tunebooks on IMSLP 7-shape notation tunebooks on IMSLP
The Methodist Harmonist Aikin, Jesse B, The Christian Minstrel .
Aikin, LW, Crystal Gems for the Sabbath-School .
Auld, Alexander, The Ohio Harmonist . Allen D. Carden, The Missouri Harmony
W. L. Chappell, The Western Lyre, new edition
David Clayton and James Carrell, The Virginia Harmony
Ananias Davisson, A Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony
Joseph Funk and sons, The New Harmonia Sacra: A Compilation of Genuine Church
Music, William Hauser, The Hesperian Harp [1]
The Christian Harp and Sabbath School Songster, [2]
J. S. James, Union Harp and History of Songs
William Little and William Smith, The Easy Instructor, Part 2
Lowell Mason, Mason's Sacred Harp John G. McCurry, The Social Harp
William Walker, The Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion,; The Southern and
Western Pocket Harmony, intended as an Appendix to the Southern Harmony
B. F. White, The Sacred Harp, Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music