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"shape-note hymnal" Encyclopedia Britannica
also called patent-note hymnal, or buckwheat-note hymnal, American hymnal incorporating many folk hymns and utilizing a special musical notation. The seven-note scale was sung not to the syllables do–re–mi–fa–sol–la–ti but to a four-syllable system carried with them by early English colonists: fa–sol–la–fa–sol–la–mi. Differently shaped note heads were used for each of the four syllables:
FA <!--[if !vml]--> <!--[endif]-->, SOL <!--[if !vml]--> <!--[endif]-->, LA <!--[if !vml]--> <!--[endif]-->, and MI <!--[if !vml]--> <!--[endif]-->.
The notation of the music was normal except that the note heads of the shape-note system replaced the regular ones. The singer read the music by following the shapes of the note heads, although someone unfamiliar with the system could read the notes according to their placement on the staff.
The hymns normally appear in three-part or, less often, four-part harmonizations. Traditional rules of European harmony are consistently disregarded, giving rise to a spare, vigorous style in which the movement of the individual melodic lines is of primary importance. The melody is normally in the tenor part. Melodies are drawn from folk hymns, religious ballads, revival spirituals (see spiritual), hymns of 18th- and early 19th-century Americans, and, to a lesser extent, popular hymns and anthems of European composers.
The shape-note tradition waned in New England around 1815, pressured by urban trends toward Europeanized music, but it thrived in the Midwest and South. Important hymnals from this period were John Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second (1813) and Ananias Davisson's Kentucky Harmony (1816).
Only in the 1880s did the shape-note system decline. Still in use among shape-note singers, who often meet in annual singing conventions, are William Walker's Southern Harmony (1835; 7th ed. 1854) and Benjamin Franklin White and E.J. King's Sacred Harp (1844; rev. ed., The Sacred Harp, 1991), both of which use four shapes. Walker's Christian Harmony (1866) used his own seven-shape system.
"shape-note hymnal" Encyclopedia Britannica
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Main Entry: shape note
Function: noun
Date: 1932
: one of a system of seven notes showing the musical scale degree by the shape of the note head
http://www.fasola.org/introduction/note_shapes.html
What are the Shapes and Why?
Sacred Harp Singing
Sacred Harp singing is a non-denominational community musical event emphasizing participation, not performance. Singers sit facing inward in a hollow square. Each individual is invited to take a turn "leading," i.e. standing in the center, selecting a song, and beating time with the hand. The singing is not accompanied by harps or any other instrument. The group sings from The Sacred Harp, an oblong songbook first published in 1844 by B.F. White and E. J. King. The music is printed in "patent notes," wherein the shape of the note head indicates the syllables FA <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->, SOL <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->, LA <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->, and MI <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->. The repertory includes psalm tunes, fuging tunes, odes and anthems by the first American composers (1770-1810), and also settings of folk songs and revival hymns (1810-1860). The current 1991 Edition contains many songs in these styles by living composers.
This style of singing stems from singing schools in the colonial period. Preserved in the rural South, Sacred Harp singing (also called fasola singing or shape-note singing) is making a major resurgence in cities and campuses throughout North America. North Mississippi is fortunate to have traditional all-day singings within easy driving distance. Most singings last from about ten in the morning till three in the afternoon, with an hour break at noon for dinner on the grounds.
Shape-note hymnody
A body of rural American sacred music published in any of several musical notations in which a note head of a certain shape is assigned to each of the solmization syllables fa, sol, la, mi (in the four-syllable ‘fasola’ system) or do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si or ti. Most shape notations (also sometimes called ‘buckwheat’, ‘character’ or ‘patent’ notations) employ key signatures, deploy the notes on a five-line staff and use the rhythm signs of conventional notation (see NOTATION, §III, 5, fig.151). They are intended to help singers with little musical expertise to sing at sight without having to recognize pitches on the staff or understand the key system.
1. Repertory and practice.
The shape-note tradition originated early in the 19th century and flourished among many whites and some blacks, particularly in the South and Midwest, where it still survives, and furnished the principal printed sources of folk hymns and white spirituals. A later 19th-century offshoot formed an important branch of white gospel music.
Much of the music in the shape-note hymnbooks was written by the late 18th-century singing-school composers of New England, who also introduced the practice of including a pedagogical preface to a tune book, and were responsible for its oblong format. To the New England repertory of psalm and hymn tunes, fuging-tunes, set-pieces and anthems the shape-note hymnbook compilers made a significant addition – folk hymns and spirituals drawn from oral tradition. All these types of music were set for three or four voices, with the principal melody in the tenor and the other parts composed quite independently to produce a rugged, harmonically crude, ‘archaic’ style that has reminded some (e.g. Seeger, 1940) of medieval polyphony. The first shape-note tune book to contain a sizable number of folk hymns and to influence later tune books published in the American South and West was the Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second (1813/R) compiled by John Wyeth.
Shape-note collections not only preserved the 18th-century New England repertory (when it had given way in New England to other kinds of psalmody) and introduced into print a large body of folk melodies, they also became the means of imparting to many generations the pleasures of choral singing by note and of sharing a rich repertory of Anglo-American music. Indeed, the practice of shape-note hymnody was more social and recreational than liturgical; the title-pages of the hymnbooks often emphasize their nondenominational character, and, from very early, groups met in ‘singings’ apart from worship services. Some singings were informal meetings of small numbers from a single parish or town, held perhaps one evening a month (often a Sunday); others were larger-scale, annual events which functioned as religious services, lasting for many hours and attracting perhaps as many as100 participants; largest of all, and least numerous, were annual ‘conventions’ lasting two days (often Saturday and Sunday) or even longer, and attracting singers by the hundreds.
Characteristic of shape-note singings, which persist to this day, are the disposition of the singers in the form of a hollow square; unaccompanied performance, with trebles and tenors often doubling each others’ parts; and the rotation among various singers of the responsibility for choosing the work to sing next, setting its pitch and leading the group (usually first singing the solmization syllables, then a second time with the text).
Shape Note Historical Background
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