Shape Notes
There are many Churches of
Christ that still use shaped notation for their hymnals:
History of Shape Notes:
-
A
capella singing (see * for exceptions). The more conservative congregations use songbooks with
shaped
notes (doh through ti, each having a different shape).** Churches of
Christ (south) split from the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ (north)
during the Civil War over instruments of music used in worship and
denominational organization. ***
-
The
tonic sol-fa originated with
Guido Monaco in
the 11th century in Italy, a priest who took a Latin
hymn that
climbed the seven note scale one note at a time (similar to the the song,
Do Re Mi, from the musical
Sound of Music) and
used the first syllable of each line to denote the seven notes: Ut, re,
mi, fa, sol, and la. He also added the letters a, b, c, d, e, f and g to
each note (adding the seventh note). This was called the Gamut scale at
one time. It was used in various ways by people until the time of
Sarah Ann Glover
(1845) and John Curwen
(1843) who popularized it as an easy way to learn music.
-
Shaped notes
date back to the late 1700s as a help for people to learn to
read music.
These shapes started
with only four shapes for the seven note scale: fa, sol, la, mi, fa, sol, la. A hundred years later
seven shapes
(known as the Aikin
system, 1846) became popular (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti).
-
The
conservative Churches of Christ,
Primitive Baptist,
Independent Fundamental Baptist, the
Holdeman Mennonites and a small Presbyterian group are among
the last to still use shaped notes, (though some Southern Baptist,
Methodist and Pentecostal churches have been known to use shape note
songbooks--7 shapes).
-
Also
Sacred Harp singers
have clubs all over the United States to sing 200 year old songs a capella
in four part harmony, using only 4 shapes for the notes.
The Sacred Harp songs have Celtic or
Appalachian harmonies (using open fifth chords), and are darker, more
somber, more focused on sin, death and the afterlife, than gospel music
from the 1880s on (e.g.
Stamps Baxter
music). There was a concerted effort
to modernize the music and the message in hymns at this time.
History of the
Churches of Christ.
|
* There is a sizable instrumental Church of
Christ group in the west,
using instrumental music, associated with Midwestern School of
Evangelism in Ottumwa, Iowa.
***There is also a sizable
group in Australia called the
Churches of Christ
that are similar to the
Independent
Christian Church/Disciples of
Christ in the USA (though there are many congregations in Australia that are the same as, and
closely connected to, the a capella Churches of Christ in the USA.) |
