Tell me about shape-notes

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I'm listening to an album by The Joggers called Solid Guild and I've seen a reference to their four part vocal harmonies being based on shape-notes from the 18th century. What is this all about then?

― Dale the Titled (cprek), Monday, 13 October 2003 13:25 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.greenmanreview.com/images/CD/shape2.jpg

Shape note notation was a method used to teach people who couldn't otherwise read music to sing from manuscript. You still hear this occasionally in rural areas, or at least you could in the last century. Alan Lomax captured some of this in his folk music collection.

― dleone (dleone), Monday, 13 October 2003 13:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, I've been really fascinated by "shape-note harmonies" ever since my dad used to drag me to folkie festivals where they taught them. (The harmonies, that is The Adironidack Folk Gospel Festival where we worked as soundpersons used to do a workshop on them that sounded way cool..) I never actually knew the shaped-notes that they refered to.

― kate (kate), Monday, 13 October 2003 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

My friend Jay did a couple of Black Sabbath songs at Bread and Puppet, using shape notes to teach the crowd.

really.

― gage o (gage o), Monday, 13 October 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

*googling furiously*

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 13 October 2003 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.fasola.org/ is a good resource for this stuff--there are a couple of good recordings in print of Sacred Harp sings.

I was actually introduced to shape-note singing by Cordelia's Dad!

― Douglas (Douglas), Monday, 13 October 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

this record has been playing at least once a day in my house recently... it is hair raisingly good. sound samples at the website.

it's gospel, but la monte young seems much less strange after ingesting this music...

http://www.rounder.com//index.php?id=album.php&catalog_id=5026

― (Jon L), Monday, 13 October 2003 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

(volume 9 is good too, but volume 10 goes slightly deeper for some reason)

― (Jon L), Monday, 13 October 2003 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

nine months pass...

My father, Wade Brazell, who died in 1974, taught singing at local churches (SC) using the "shaped note" method. I recall choir members could sing the entire song using the do, re, mi instead of the words. Also, to ensure that each harmony section (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) had learned their parts, he would sometimes require each section to sing only the tenor, bass, etc. While it sounded odd to hear the bass notes without the accompaning harmory, it was an effective way of teaching.

Our small church congregation (Pentecostal) still uses hymnals written in shaped note edition. Music in shaped notes has become increasingly difficult to locate.

― Gerald Brazell, Friday, 16 July 2004 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

I Belong To This Band

Southern Journey, V. 10: And Glory Shone Around -- More All Day Singing From the Sacred Harp (linked above) is an incredible recording. Not for everyone -- the singing is ragged and intense, it's one step removed from La Monte Young & Tony Conrad, and like most spiritual music it has a cumulative effect, when you listen through you reach a bit of a trance state. it's transparent, you're in the room with those 50 soloists all going at top volume, sheer power, it's one of the better psychedelic drone records out there.

You don't get the same effect with a compilation like I Belong To This Band, every time it moves to a different track, you're in a different room with different people & the production quality changes -- you snap back a bit into being a removed listener. I like the title, it's a critical reminder that no one is really meant to be a mere audience member passively listening while this is happening -- if you're in the room, you're singing -- any overview compilation like this is going to diffuse that sense a bit. But the sense of variety is just as important and it probably appeals to a wider range of people who aren't looking to go into a trance state every time they play a record.

Who else is listening?

― milton parker (Jon L), Monday, 22 January 2007 21:43 (eighteen years ago)

sounds dope

― Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Monday, 22 January 2007 22:16 (eighteen years ago)

actually, looks like this new comp is doing fine with reviews already

http://webapp.pitchforkmedia.com:9005/article/record_review/40441
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/review.asp?id=113717
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/various-artists/i-belong-to-this-band-eighty-five-years-of-sacred-harp-recordings-how-low-can-you-go.htm

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 02:12 (eighteen years ago)

I still don't get what the actual shape notes on the page do - is it just a way to make it easier to remember which note is which?

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 02:15 (eighteen years ago)

they still do shape-note singing up at the little church near where I lived in high school.

― attack all monsters (skowly), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 02:35 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.stmaryschurch.us/virtual_tour/church_3.jpg

― attack all monsters (skowly), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 02:37 (eighteen years ago)

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