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Shape note

Shape notes are a musical notation designed to facilitate congregational and social singing. The notation, introduced in late 18th century England, became a popular teaching device in American singing schools. Shapes were added to the noteheads 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.

For the tradition of music primarily associated with shape-note notation, see Sacred Harp.

Shape notes of various kinds have been used for over two centuries in a variety of music traditions, mostly sacred music but also secular, originating in New England, practiced primarily in the Southern United States for many years, and now experiencing a renaissance in other locations as well.

Nomenclature[edit]

Shape notes have also been called character notes and patent notes, respectfully, and buckwheat notes and dunce notes, pejoratively.[1]

Effectiveness of shape notes[edit]

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.[4]

Shape notes and modulation[edit]

Many forms of music in the common practice period employ modulation, that is, a change of key in mid-piece. Since the 19th century, most choral music has employed modulation, and since the key change is easy for instruments but difficult for singers, the new tonality is usually established by instrumental accompaniment; accordingly, the choir will also sing in the temperament of the instrument rather than the just intonation of the human voice. Modulation is sometimes said to be 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; [5] but the ability to use of sharp and flat symbols along with shape notes is a matter of the range of sorts available to the typographer and musical preferences. The development of musical preferences is partly documented by surviving copies of B.F. White's Organ from the 1850s.[6]


Justin Morgan's "Judgment Anthem", which first appeared in shapes in Little and Smith's The Easy Instructor (1801), appears to shift keys (and key signatures) from E minor to E♭ major, then back to E minor before concluding in E♭ major. Morgan, however, may be supposed to have intended simply a shift from major to minor while maintaining the same tonic pitch.[7] It was reprinted in many of the early shape note tunebooks, but not in the Sacred Harp (1844), in which Jeremiah Ingalls's "Christian Song" is the only song that modulates (in this case, from D minor to D major).[8]

Rise of seven-shape systems[edit]

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 (though limited) 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.

Fuguing tune

Southern gospel

West gallery music

Chase, Gilbert, America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present.

Cobb, Buell E jr (2001), The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music, University of Georgia Press.

Drummond, R. Paul (n.d.) A Portion for the Singers: A History of Music Among Primitive Baptists Since 1800.

Eastburn, Kathryn (n.d.) A Sacred Feast: Reflections on Sacred Harp Singing and Dinner on the Ground.

Eskew, Harry; McElrath, Hugh T. (1980). Sing with Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Hymnology. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press.  0-8054-6809-9.

ISBN

Goff, James R. (2002). Close harmony : a history of southern gospel. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.  9780807853467.

ISBN

Horn, Dorothy (1970), 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 (1932), White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands.

Marini, Stephen A (2003), 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 (2005), The Missouri Harmony, or a Choice Collection of Psalm Tunes, Hymns, and Anthems (Wings of Song ed.), St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society,  1-883982-54-5, xxxvii, 346 pp.

ISBN

Archived at and the Wayback Machine: Karlsberg, Jesse Pearlman. An Introduction to ShapeNote Hymnody. Emory University.

Ghostarchive

– web site of the Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association, dedicated to Sacred Harp and Shapenote singing

Fasola Home Page

– about a documentary movie The Story of Sacred Harp and Shaped Note singing

Awake, My Soul

– article on the evolution of shaped notes

Shape Note Historical Background

– article promoting the seven shape method

Shape Notes: the eight note, seven shape method

Archived 20 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine where you can hear a fine example of shapenote singing, including the first run-through with the shapenote syllables being sung

Shape-note Connexion & music of Jeremiah Ingalls

(PDF). Smithsonian in Your Classroom. Smithsonian Institution. October 2000. With lesson plans for teachers.

A Shape-Note Singing Lesson

– article on Sacred Harp from the Handbook of Texas online

Sacred Harp Music

article by Chiquita Walls

Mississippi's African American Shape Note Tradition

Pearl River South Singing Convention

– school furthering the Stamps and Baxter tradition

Stamps-Baxter School of Gospel Music

– official UK site with events calendar, resources and contacts for all UK shapenote groups

UK Sacred Harp and Shapenote Singing

– an extensive site of resources concerning Sacred Harp, other Shape-Note music, Gallery music, etc.

Sacred Harp and Related Shape-Note Music Resources

Archived 25 September 2004 at the Wayback Machine – article about singing schools and shape notes

Singing with Sol-fa Syllables

– book on teaching small children shapenote singing.

The Shape of Music

field recording from the Florida Folklife Collection

Where Could I Go But To The Lord

recordings

Art of the States: shape-note

. Electronic sound files of songs from several 19th century shapenote songbooks using Melody Assistant software.

Sacred Harp.mus

Archived 23 August 2022 at the Wayback Machine Open Hymnal Round Notes converted to Seven-Shape Notes.

Seven-Shape Note Sheet Music

Archived 23 August 2022 at the Wayback Machine Cyber Hymnal Selection converted to Seven-Shape Notes Book.

Seven-Shape Note Book

List of all-day and regular local singings from the Shenandoah Harmony.

Singings from the Shenandoah Harmony