Shape-note singing was an important part of the social and religious life of rural America before the Civil War. Entire communities gathered for all-day singing. Some of these gatherings, called conventions, lasted several days. In some parts of America, these shape-note singing festivals are held yet today, offering a very unique and vibrant style of music that could well be sung in churches of many traditions.
Beyond the singing and related activity, a real sense of fellowship is evident at the singings, an emotional bond compounded of mutual affection and appreciation and the knowledge that all are joined in a common cause. (Buell E. Cobb, Jr., The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and its Music [Macon: University of Georgia Press, 1978, 1989])
If these people were not happy, in the best and fullest meaning of the word, then I have never seen human happiness. (George Pullen Jackson, White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1933])
These quotations from two of the classic works on shape-note singing give some insight into the survival, virtually intact, of an American hymn-singing tradition that dates back nearly 200 years.
Its name is derived from the notation system that associates four different shapes with notes in the scale. This system first appeared in The Easy Instructor; or a New Method of Teaching Sacred Harmony, a songbook published in 1801 and used by itinerant singing masters in New England to teach sight-reading and other rudiments of music. With the urbanization of New England, wider use of pipe organs in churches, and the ascendant influence of Lowell Mason and others who favored music imported from Europe, the singing masters carried their music and teaching methods to the South and West, settling in areas which remained rural. Their singing schools became an integral part of community life in these places, creating a heritage that survives to this day.
As interest in this music grew in the south during the nineteenth century, several new hymnals were published, including Southern Harmony, New Harp of Columbia, Missouri Harmony, Kentucky Harmony, and the one which, after several revisions, remains in widest use today, The Original Sacred Harp. Contemporary editions preserve the fuguing tunes and anthems of William Billings (1746–1800) and hymns of his fellow New Englanders Justin Morgan and Daniel Read along with ancient folk tunes and works added by more recent composers. new britain, to which the text “Amazing Grace” is set, and “Wondrous Love” are shape-note tunes that have become familiar to the general public.
Most tunes in contemporary editions of the hymnals are arranged in four parts, with the melody in the tenor. Each part is written out on its own staff, highlighting the linear or contrapuntal nature of this music. Harmonies result from the interplay of these horizontally conceived lines, making music that sounds quite different from that having a soprano melody supported by a predictable progression of chords. The frequent occurrence of fourths and fifths has more in common with the music of the Middle Ages than with the close harmonizations of conventional hymn tunes and gospel music.
The fact that many shape-note tunes are based on ancient modes or “gapped” scales instead of the more familiar diatonic (major and minor) scales also contributes to its distinctive character. George Pullen Jackson, whose 1933 work White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands was the first serious study of the shape-note tradition, points out that many of its practitioners in the period 1800–1860 were of Celtic origin. The melodic characteristics of their ballads, fiddle tunes, and dance music are reflected in their hymns.
What distinguishes the singing of these hymns from other kinds of musical experiences is its strongly democratic, participatory nature. In its traditional stronghold in the South, shape-note singing is practiced by everyone from pre-schoolers to the most senior of citizens—no one who wants to sing is excluded. Shape-note singing is not a performance for an audience but is done for its own sake.
Singers are divided into four sections: treble, alto, tenor, and bass. In the treble and tenor sections, men and women sing together, each in his or her own octave. Singers are seated with trebles facing the basses and altos facing the tenors, forming a hollow square. They take turns choosing and leading the songs—there is no conductor and no accompanist. The leader or someone in the front row chooses the starting pitch in a range that is comfortable for all the voice parts. No pitch pipe is used.
To begin a song, the leader steps to the center of the square, calling out the number of the tune (“Number 49 on the bottom,” for instance). Holding the hymn book in one hand, the leader directs with the other using a simple up-down motion. The shapes (fa-sol-la) are always sung first, helping the singers to learn or to recall their parts. The leader decides how many verses will be sung and what repeats will be observed; it is considered bad form to request all the verses of a hymn at a large singing where many will want to take a turn leading.
The sound of shape-note singing bears little resemblance to conventional choral singing. Most of the singers are going “hellbent-for-election,” singing the words with deep feeling, not creating an effect to please an audience. Because there is no accompaniment, the music is not tied to equal temperament, and singers are free to tune their intervals as they wish. The level of sound is generally loud—the subtlety of dynamics is not a part of this tradition.
The only place where the effect of shape-noters in full cry can really be felt is in the center of the hollow square, the place reserved for the leader. The person who stands there is surrounded by all four voice parts and hears them in balance, a phenomenon which is physically impossible from any other location (and which explains the generally disappointing character of recordings of this music). Newcomers to singing are sometimes invited to come and stand next to the leader in order to share in this remarkable experience.
Certain themes recur in the texts of shape-note hymns. The transient character of life on earth, the soul’s longing for its destiny with God and its dread of separation from him, the sorrow of parting, and the hope of eternal happiness are ideas that show up again and again. Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley are among the English writers of the eighteenth century who are most frequently represented in shape-note hymnals. The fervent texts that appealed so greatly to the rural Southerners who formed the shape-note tradition are finding an appreciative new audience in the present generation.
Shape-note groups are springing up all across the country among people who value not only the music and the words but also the fellowship and camaraderie of the singing. Many who would not consider participating in Christian worship can be found on Sunday afternoons singing with full hearts “Shout on, pray on, we’re gaining ground … ” (No. 277, Original Sacred Harp) or “Death, ’tis a melancholy day / To those who have no God … ” (No. 29 on the bottom, Original Sacred Harp). In a letter to the Chicago Sacred Harp Newsletter, a singer identifying himself as an Orthodox Jew (“Sephardic, for that matter”) writes, “The music means a great deal to me … each time I walk away with a tremendous sense of peace and spiritual fulfillment.”
Singings begin and end with prayer, and most incorporate a memorial service. Names of those who have died in the year since the last singing are read, as are the names of shut-ins who are unable to attend this day’s event. Someone from the memorial committee may offer a brief reflection, and usually a hymn or two will be sung in commemoration of those who are bound for glory.
All-day singings in the South have traditionally been held in rural churches during the summer and early autumn when the crops are “laid by,” the interval between the final cultivating and the beginning of the harvest. Dinner on the grounds follows the morning singing, featuring the specialties of local kitchens and gardens and plenty of homemade lemonade and iced tea to soothe the throats of the singers. After socializing over lunch and perhaps walking down a shaded road to spend a reflective moment in the adjoining cemetery, the singers reassemble to sing until the end of the afternoon. A hundred or more hymns may be sung by the end of the day, at which time there may still be a barbecue or other social gathering to look forward to.
The accessibility of this experience to people of varying religious persuasions, all ages, varying educational and cultural backgrounds, and different levels of musical proficiency is genuinely amazing. For Christian believers, it can offer a new dimension to the concept of community. It is best sought out in its homeland, the South, where those who have been brought up in the tradition still gather to sustain it. To be enfolded in this deeply felt music and gracious hospitality has inspired more than one Northerner to join a shape-note group at home or to found a new one.