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The Tuesday
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Shape Note Music The 18th century English
settlers took their church music to the new colonies in America where, after the War of
Independence, a new generation of local composers wrote tunes to replace the English ones
which had fallen from favour. They developed a style of music with even more robust
harmonies and often with intricate "fuging" passages. Itinerant singing teachers
toured the countryside running singing schools and a special musical notation was devised
to help the congregational singers to cope with this music. This notation used different
shapes for the note heads on the stave to denote relative pitch - hence its name
"Shape Note Music". This music soon spread to the new colonies in the
south-eastern United States, where its popularity grew enormously. Many tune books were
published, the most famous of which "The Sacred Harp" has been in print
continuously since 1844. Until interest was revived by folklorists in the 1960s, Shape
Note Music had died out in its home states of New England but in the southern states of
Alabama and Georgia and surrounding areas it has remained popular to this day - a living
tradition which can trace its roots back to the parish churches of 17th century England.
Play a sample Shape Note tune : Exhortation (First) Links to Shape Note Music Sites There are numerous US web sites covering Shape Note Music. Two which give a good introduction to this music with links to many other sites are: FaSoLa - information on all US Shape Note Singing Sacred Harp Singing - history and information about singings using the most popular of the American Shape Note Hymn books http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/harp.html Pictures from the Second UK Shape Note Convention
http://members.aol.com/judyshapes/shapepic.htm |
