A style of sacred choral performance, popular almost exclusively in the Southern United
States. It is based on religious songbooks employing a nonstandard method of musical
notation in which rectangular, circular or half-circular, triangular, or diamond-shaped
characters are correlated with the traditional naming (solmization) of pitches in the major
diatonic scale—that is, fa sol la fa sol la mi fa or do re mi fa sol la ti do. These “shape notes” (also
known as “patent,” “character,” or “buckwheat notes”) accordingly lent their name to the
style, sometimes also described as “fasola,” “dorayme,” or “Sacred Harp singing,” this
last after the most popular of the shapenote hymnals, The Sacred Harp, by B.F.White and
E.J.King, first published in 1844. Part of an organized movement to improve rural- and
small-town hymnody, the shape-note method enabled individuals unacquainted with the
rudiments of formal composition to sight-read. It was disseminated and perpetuated
through “singing schools”—usually held in the summer and lasting for around two
weeks—taught for a nominal fee by itinerant “masters”; through community “singings”
(described in the traditional advertisement as “all day with dinner on the grounds”); or
through county, state, or national conventions.
American singing schools first appeared in 18th–century New England with efforts to
reform congregational singing in colonial churches, and they were rapidly carried to the
rural South by singing-school teachers and songbooks employing various systems of
nonstandard notation. The four-shape method, still in use, first appeared in 1801, and by
the second decade of the 19th century it had spread south through Pennsylvania and the
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and west to Kentucky. Around mid-century, a sevenshape scheme was also introduced and gained wide popularity, though the four-shape
system retained its adherents, supported in large part because of extraordinarily
successful four-shape songbooks such as The Sacred Harp and William Walker’s The
Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, first published in 1835.
Soon disappearing in the urban Northeast, shape-note singing and its attendant
institutions perfectly suited the social conditions and cultural climate of the South,
abetted by the region’s numerous and energetic singing-school masters, composers, and
songbook compilers. From its hearth in the Deep and Upper South, the practice
eventually spread as far west as east Texas, in the 1990s the site of some of the most
active shape-note singing circles. Aside from their role in religious observance and
musical expression, singing schools and similar gatherings constituted important social
occasions in areas where such opportunities were otherwise limited. Indeed, while shapenote hymnody was especially associated with denominations or sects that prohibited
many of the secular entertainments and musical traditions of their less devout neighbors,
the style gradually assimilated much of the general character of Southern folksong.
Written in three or four parts with the melody in the tenor, the songs typically employ the
gapped scales found in much folk music, often even borrowing specific melodic or
textual elements directly from secular folksongs; such is the case, for example, with the
popular hymn “Wondrous Love,” set to the air of the older British ballad “Captain Kidd”
(Laws K 35); or “The Old-Fashioned Bible,” whose melody is a variant of the fiddle tune
“Fisher’s Hornpipe,” its text a parody of “The Old Oaken Bucket.” Harmonies often rely
on nonstandard intervals that are nonetheless common among Southern folksingers (such
as harmonic progressions in parallel octaves or fifths, frequently lacking the third), while
the style as a whole offers individual singers considerable latitude to vary or ornament
parts in actual performance.
More specifically, there have developed within the shape-note repertoire a number of
distinct song types or styles representing different traditions or historical periods. In
addition to “folk hymns”—that is, religious texts set to existing folk melodies
harmonized in the traditional manner—“psalm tunes” have perpetuated the large corpus
of northern European hymnody formally transmitted via the church. Another
commonplace type is the “fuguing tune,” an inheritance from the New England
composers that is characterized by a distinctive counterpoint in which the lead shifts
between the registers. Originating with the religious revivals of the early 1800s, “campmeeting songs” are similar in their sources and structure to the folk hymns, distinguished
mainly by their lively tempos, syncopation, and use of refrains. Still another parallel to
secular folk tradition is the religious ballad, some instances of which (such as “Wicked
Polly” [Laws H 6] or “The Romish Lady” [Laws Q 32]) have rivaled their secular
counterparts in popularity. Though primarily a White tradition, shape-note singing also
gained some currency among Blacks, whose songbooks and singing style more overtly
reflect African American traditions and musical traits (here as in other aspects of
Southern folksong, however, it is often nearly impossible precisely to distinguish the
interrelated strands of Black and White tradition). In the early 20th century, there also
arose a quartet style more typi-cal of the modern gospel idiom, a trend promoted by
professional touring groups sponsored by large songbook publishers. Moreover, while
shape-note singing has remained primarily associated with the print medium, alternative
channels such as records and radio have in the 20th century exercised a growing
influence.
Like many older singing traditions, shape-note hymnody has suffered somewhat in
popularity of late, especially in the years since World War II. However, the style appears
to be experiencing something of a revival in the 1990s, as Southerners, sustained dirough
the years by state and local organizations and now often encouraged by the interest of
folklorists, increasingly recognize shape-note singing as an important aspect of their
musical and cultural heritage.
John Minton
References
Eskew, Harry. 1980. Shape-Note Hymnody: An Inheritance from the New England Composers. In
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan.
——. 1989. Sacred Harp. In Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed. Charles Reagan Wilson and
William Ferris. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Jackson, George Pullen. [1933] 1965. White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands: The Story of the
Fasola Folk, Their Songs, Singings, and “Buckwheat Notes.” New York: Dover.
Lomax, Alan. 1977. Liner notes for White Spirituals from the Sacred Harp: The Alabama Sacred
Harp Convention. New World Records LP NW 205.
Steel, David Warren. 1989. Shape-Note Singing Schools. In Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed.
Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Walker, William. [1854] 1939. (rev. ed.) The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. New
York: Hastings House.
White, B.F., and E.J.King. [1859 (3d. ed)]. The Sacred Harp, with Introduction by George Pullen
Jackson. Nashville: Broadman.