Shape-Note Music
The shape-note notation was an American pedagogical tool designed to increase the music education of the average citizen who did not have the financial resources or time to learn the traditional round note notation. New Englanders William Smith and William Little patented the shape-note notation in...
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Auburn University Libraries
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| Online Access: | https://omeka.lib.auburn.edu/items/show/449 |
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Electronic |
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Alabama Cultural Resource Survey Collection |
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Auburn University |
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Auburn University Libraries |
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Cultural resources |
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Cultural resources Shape-Note Music Jesse Brock, University of North Alabama |
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Cultural resources Music; Culture |
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The shape-note notation was an American pedagogical tool designed to increase the music education of the average citizen who did not have the financial resources or time to learn the traditional round note notation. New Englanders William Smith and William Little patented the shape-note notation in 1796 and published The Easy Instructor, the first shape-note tunebook, in 1801. Smith and Little used four geometrical shapes to symbolize individual music notes on the staff instead of the traditional round note heads. Smith and Little’s use of syllables to designate and sing pitches is called solmization. The four-syllable solmization system in The Easy Instructor allotted a right sided triangle to indicate the note fa, an oval symbolized sol, a square was assigned for la, and a diamond represented mi.
Smith and Little initially created the system as a response to the widespread musical illiteracy among America’s common folk. The effects of this music illiteracy were most evident in Protestant church services during the eighteenth century, when congregations practiced a singing technique called “lining out.” Lining out, also known as “call and response,” involved a minister singing the words of a song as he saw fit, and the congregation repeating the words and melody. While lining out enabled them to sing, it did not require participants to be literate in music and many believed that it produced poor quality music. For instance, in 1721, music reformer Thomas Walter characterized call and response music as “hideous and disorderly … beyond expression bad … miserably tortured, and twisted, and quavered … a horrid Medley of confused and disorderly Noise.”
Not long after The Easy Instructor was published in 1801, other music composers acknowledged the shape-note notation’s pedagogical effectiveness in teaching music literacy. Many composers adopted the rudimental introduction and the system to notate songs. Over thirty-eight four shape-note tunebooks were composed between the years 1801 and 1855, many due to the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening spawned hundreds of new hymnals. Since camp revivals relied upon communal singing, shape-note tunebooks provided a means for the congregations to participate in hymn singing. Some religious denominations, such as the Primitive Baptists and the Churches of Christ, realized the effectiveness of shape-notes, and, as a result, adopted shape-note notation in worship hymnals for years following the Second Great Awakening.
From 1801 to the 1830s, the shape-note system was taught in singing schools established in urban and rural communities in both the North and South. These singing schools, taught by individuals considered to be vocal masters taught the schools, usually lasted from one to two weeks and relied on shape-note tunebooks to teach attendees the fundamentals of music. After the completion of singing school, many pupils went on to establish communal monthly shape-note singing events, normally lasting a few hours during the afternoon. In addition to these monthly meetings, shape-note singers started to organize state wide conventions that met anywhere from two to three days and targeted a wider geographical area than monthly local singings. Overall, these singing schools, communal singings, and conventions during the nineteenth century spread knowledge of shape-notes in American culture.
With the popularity of tunebooks and singing schools came new developments. Some shape-note composers believed that Smith and Little’s four-note system could be improved. One Pennsylvania composer, Jesse B. Aikin, believed all seven notes in the music scale should be taught with shape-notes. In 1846, Aikin’s tunebook The Christian Minstrel, continued to use Smith’s and Little’s geometrical shapes for the notes fa, sol, la, and mi; but he implemented new shapes for the notes do, re, and ti. Aikin “used an equiangular triangle for Doe, a wine glass for Ray, and a fan for See.”
Three elements played a factor in why the South far more than the North, enthusiastically embraced, shape-notes during the nineteenth century. First, they were linked with the democracy of music itself. Second, during the Second Great Awakening the singing of hymns unified Southern people in revivals. Last, with the demand for tunebooks during the Awakening, tens of thousands of shape-note tunebooks in the South during the nineteenth century. From the end of the Civil War until the turn of the century, Southerners strove to redevelop their culture and identity. Shape-notes were vital elements in both religious and secular settings during this time period in the South. By the late nineteenth century, many Primitive Baptists, Free Will Baptists, and Churches of Christ in the South adopted shape-notes in worship hymnals.
Few musical genres in America have escaped the influence of shape-notes, especially in the South. Many southern gospel, country, and bluegrass musicians learned how to read music and gained the ability to harmonize their voice after studying shape-note tunebooks and attending singing schools. The spread of shape-notes as a result of the southern gospel movement greatly influenced both country and bluegrass music. As children, members of the Carter Family, the Delmore Brothers, and the Louvin Brothers, all three considered key innovators of country music during the twentieth century, attended singing school where they sang music from shape-note singing schools. Also at singing schools, the families learned how vocally harmonize with one another, which helped their music become hit records. Also, Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music, developed his high pitched singing voice that is considered to be a distinctively bluegrass sound, while attending singing schools as a child in Kentucky. A twenty-first century country duo from the Shoals, the Secret Sisters, personally acknowledged that their vocal harmonies were deeply rooted in the Church of Christ worshiping services from shape-note hymnals. In all, the notation entered into American culture during the nineteenth century and continues to affect both religious and secular music. The shape-note notation is the root of American music and is the first American music innovation to influence Europe’s music culture.
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Shape-Note Music |
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Shape-Note Music |
| author |
Jesse Brock, University of North Alabama |
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Jesse Brock, University of North Alabama |
| id |
AUcultural449 |
| url |
https://omeka.lib.auburn.edu/items/show/449 |
| _version_ |
1788802437006491648 |
| spelling |
Shape-Note MusicJesse Brock, University of North AlabamaMusic; CultureThe shape-note notation was an American pedagogical tool designed to increase the music education of the average citizen who did not have the financial resources or time to learn the traditional round note notation. New Englanders William Smith and William Little patented the shape-note notation in 1796 and published The Easy Instructor, the first shape-note tunebook, in 1801. Smith and Little used four geometrical shapes to symbolize individual music notes on the staff instead of the traditional round note heads. Smith and Little’s use of syllables to designate and sing pitches is called solmization. The four-syllable solmization system in The Easy Instructor allotted a right sided triangle to indicate the note fa, an oval symbolized sol, a square was assigned for la, and a diamond represented mi.
Smith and Little initially created the system as a response to the widespread musical illiteracy among America’s common folk. The effects of this music illiteracy were most evident in Protestant church services during the eighteenth century, when congregations practiced a singing technique called “lining out.” Lining out, also known as “call and response,” involved a minister singing the words of a song as he saw fit, and the congregation repeating the words and melody. While lining out enabled them to sing, it did not require participants to be literate in music and many believed that it produced poor quality music. For instance, in 1721, music reformer Thomas Walter characterized call and response music as “hideous and disorderly … beyond expression bad … miserably tortured, and twisted, and quavered … a horrid Medley of confused and disorderly Noise.”
Not long after The Easy Instructor was published in 1801, other music composers acknowledged the shape-note notation’s pedagogical effectiveness in teaching music literacy. Many composers adopted the rudimental introduction and the system to notate songs. Over thirty-eight four shape-note tunebooks were composed between the years 1801 and 1855, many due to the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening spawned hundreds of new hymnals. Since camp revivals relied upon communal singing, shape-note tunebooks provided a means for the congregations to participate in hymn singing. Some religious denominations, such as the Primitive Baptists and the Churches of Christ, realized the effectiveness of shape-notes, and, as a result, adopted shape-note notation in worship hymnals for years following the Second Great Awakening.
From 1801 to the 1830s, the shape-note system was taught in singing schools established in urban and rural communities in both the North and South. These singing schools, taught by individuals considered to be vocal masters taught the schools, usually lasted from one to two weeks and relied on shape-note tunebooks to teach attendees the fundamentals of music. After the completion of singing school, many pupils went on to establish communal monthly shape-note singing events, normally lasting a few hours during the afternoon. In addition to these monthly meetings, shape-note singers started to organize state wide conventions that met anywhere from two to three days and targeted a wider geographical area than monthly local singings. Overall, these singing schools, communal singings, and conventions during the nineteenth century spread knowledge of shape-notes in American culture.
With the popularity of tunebooks and singing schools came new developments. Some shape-note composers believed that Smith and Little’s four-note system could be improved. One Pennsylvania composer, Jesse B. Aikin, believed all seven notes in the music scale should be taught with shape-notes. In 1846, Aikin’s tunebook The Christian Minstrel, continued to use Smith’s and Little’s geometrical shapes for the notes fa, sol, la, and mi; but he implemented new shapes for the notes do, re, and ti. Aikin “used an equiangular triangle for Doe, a wine glass for Ray, and a fan for See.”
Three elements played a factor in why the South far more than the North, enthusiastically embraced, shape-notes during the nineteenth century. First, they were linked with the democracy of music itself. Second, during the Second Great Awakening the singing of hymns unified Southern people in revivals. Last, with the demand for tunebooks during the Awakening, tens of thousands of shape-note tunebooks in the South during the nineteenth century. From the end of the Civil War until the turn of the century, Southerners strove to redevelop their culture and identity. Shape-notes were vital elements in both religious and secular settings during this time period in the South. By the late nineteenth century, many Primitive Baptists, Free Will Baptists, and Churches of Christ in the South adopted shape-notes in worship hymnals.
Few musical genres in America have escaped the influence of shape-notes, especially in the South. Many southern gospel, country, and bluegrass musicians learned how to read music and gained the ability to harmonize their voice after studying shape-note tunebooks and attending singing schools. The spread of shape-notes as a result of the southern gospel movement greatly influenced both country and bluegrass music. As children, members of the Carter Family, the Delmore Brothers, and the Louvin Brothers, all three considered key innovators of country music during the twentieth century, attended singing school where they sang music from shape-note singing schools. Also at singing schools, the families learned how vocally harmonize with one another, which helped their music become hit records. Also, Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music, developed his high pitched singing voice that is considered to be a distinctively bluegrass sound, while attending singing schools as a child in Kentucky. A twenty-first century country duo from the Shoals, the Secret Sisters, personally acknowledged that their vocal harmonies were deeply rooted in the Church of Christ worshiping services from shape-note hymnals. In all, the notation entered into American culture during the nineteenth century and continues to affect both religious and secular music. The shape-note notation is the root of American music and is the first American music innovation to influence Europe’s music culture.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey1800s
1900s
2000sfilehttps://omeka.lib.auburn.edu/items/show/449Text:
David Taddle. “Solmization, Scale, and Key in Nineteenth-Century Four-Shape Tunebooks: Theory and Practice.” American Music 1 (Spring, 1996).
Joyce Irwin,.“The Theology of ‘Regular Singing.” The New England Quarterly 51, no. 2 (June, 1978).
Irving Lowens and Allen P. Britton. “’The Easy Instructor’ (1798-1831): A History and Bibliography of the First Shape Note Tune Book.” Journal of Research in Music Education 1, no. 1 (Spring, 1953).
The University of Mississippi Music Department, “The Old Way of Singing,” The University of Mississippi, http://home.olemiss.edu/~mudws/oldway.html (accessed on September 9, 2014).
Richard Dalzell, “American Shape Notes: Background, Development, Practice and Present Status,” Ph.D. diss., University of Kansas, 1978.
The Center for Church Music: Songs and Hymns, “Lowell Mason,” http://www.songsandhymns.org/people/detail/lowell-mason (accessed on November 22, 2014).
Marian J. Hatchett. A Companion to the New Harp of Columbia. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2003.
Nathan Hatch.The Democratization of American Christianity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
Neil V. Rosenberg. Bluegrass: A History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.
The Secret Sisters, interviewed by Skip Matheny, Nashville, TN, 2012, http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/09/drinks-with-the-secret-sisters/ (accessed February 3, 2015).
George Pullen Jackson, White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands: The Story of the Fasola Folk, Their Songs, Singings, and ‘Buckwheat Notes’. Hatboro, Pennsylvania: Folklore Association, Inc., 1964
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George Pullen Jackson, White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands: The Story of the Fasola Folk, Their Songs, Singings, and ‘Buckwheat Notes’ (Hatboro, Pennsylvania: Folklore Association, Inc., 1964): 15.
Douglas Harrison, Then Sings My Soul: The Culture of Southern Music (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012), 5.
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