Shape note singing in a recent novel

[Mark Wingate]

Some of you here will be interested ( I hope ) in the following portrayal of shape note singing.  It comes from The Moonlight School, by Suzanne Woods Fisher, page 116 and 117, from 2021.

==== begin excerpt 

After Wyatt passed out well-worn pamphlets, he stood in the center. Everyone stilled, and Lucy wondered what to expect next.

Wyatt sang a line, but not in words. In syllables: fa la la la la. One by one, each section followed his lead, singing back to him that limited scale in syllables. It sounded more like babbling than singing. Wyatt occasionally shot Lucy a look, checking if she was okay, but despite being thoroughly confused, she was oddly con- tent to sit back and take it all in as the outsider she was.

After all four pew sections had gone through the scales, Wyatt sang a line which Lucy recognized from an old hymn. Each section sang the line, this time in words, one after the other, so now it became four-part harmony. The woman next to her nudged her and shared the open pamphlet with her. It looked like musical notes on a staff, but the notes were different shapes, not circles.
Lucy stared at the pamphlet for a long time, until its mean- ing dawned on her. Each shape represented a different musical note: quarter note, half note, note, whole note. If a person couldn't read music, he or she could still sing along. But then Lucy real-ized there were no words written, either. Brother Wyatt provided the words to the songs, verse by verse, then each section would chant the line.

Her head bobbed up. Mercy. This entire group of people . . . they couldn't read.

On the way down the hill, Lucy peppered Brother Wyatt with questions about the singing school. "Who first thought of it?"

"Shape note notation? Dates back to the 1700s, I believe. It spread quickly throughout the mountains. It's a way to help folks who love music but can't read. By looking at the shape of the notes, they can participate."

"The scale doesn't have a wide range.
Good ear, Lucy. You're right. It's a limited scale." He shrugged. "But enough for most hymns and ballads. I adjust what I can. "So, then, you print up those pamphlets?"
He nodded.

An offering had been taken at the end, which she assumed would provide payment for him. A pittance.

"So that's what a singing school master does with his time."  She wondered what kept him so busy. He was rarely in town, and always seemed to have some errand or task on his mind. Always seemed to be on his way somewhere

==== end excerpt

The biggest technical error here is that shapes indicate time value.  But what got my attention was that shapes help folks that can't read!  But a quick web search showed that the connection has been made elsewhere.  See paragraph 2 on the Tulane website.

I recommend reading it all but here's enough for now:

• The term shape-note refers to a minimalist form of musical notation that is simpler than the standardized form. It was devised in the early nineteenth century when large segments of the American populace were illiterate.

Funny to say "simpler" when additional information is added and nothing is taken away.

As to the literacy connection, I'm open to being educated if there is one.  I just never thought of it that way.  Lining-out, yes.  But shapes?  Sometimes they don't help us reading folk.  [ Did I say that out loud? ]

Keep on singing,

Mark Wingate

Brevard, NC

 

[t...@risingdove.com]

On 27 Jul 2025 at 17:16, Mark Wingate wrote:

> The biggest technical error here is that shapes indicate time value.But what got my

> attention was that shapes help folks that can't read

In "To Kill A Mockingbird" (the book, although it's shown in the movie too), Calpurnia takes
Scout and Jem to her (Black) church. They wonder about the lack of hymnals in the pews
until the music leader lines out a hymn. Then they get it: the congregants can't read, so a
hymnal would be of limited use. I think that's what 's going on here: the singers can't read, so
the singing school teacher lines out the words. But the printed shapes make sense to
them.fasola-discu

--
Tim Slattery
TimSl...@utexas.edu

[rl_v...@yahoo.com]

I’ve never connected shape notes with reading literacy, though I can imagine the ease and simplicity of the system helps those folks as well as others. Additionally, perhaps, if you did not know the letters of the alphabet, you would not need to bother with them in learning the letters of the lines and spaces—just seeing shapes and hearing pronounced syllables.

Connecting the shapes to time value is a major error. Is that an error made by the character in the story, or by the author? I also wonder about the author’s meaning of “limited scale.”

Maybe not that important in a fictional work, but it also perpetuates the error that those who read shape notes cannot “read music.” There is more than one kind of musical notation. Any who read their particular flavor (e.g. tonic sol-fa) can read music.

Thanks for sharing. That was interesting.

Sincerely,
Robert Vaughn 
Mount Enterprise, TX
http://baptistsearch.blogspot.com 
Ask for the old paths, where is the good way
http://mtcarmelbaptist.blogspot.com 
For ask now of the days that are past...
http://oldredland.blogspot.com 
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

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[j frankel]

Amazing how wrong she got it.  And amazing she thought these people couldn't read English but could read classical music notation.

Its the intervals between the notes, folks.  And if you don't believe me, one of the early books, probably one I don't own, says so in its introduction.

From shape X to shape Y gives you the interval.  Once you've learned the scale.

When I was 7 or 8 I tried to invent my own way to write music.  But when I went back to what I had drawn, essentially a graph without the dots connected, I couldn't see "higher" but couldn't remember "how much higher". 

And of course when I looked at classical notation for songs I knew, it made no sense.  Because it *makes* no sense.

Unless you want to memorize seven zillion notes individually, with no relation between them.  Which is not what music *is*.

--

[j frankel]

Meant that to be "*could* see "higher"". My tablet has gremlins.

[Carlton, David L]

Another point of confusion: the author seems to confuse shape-note singing with lined-out hymnody of the sort still practiced by Old Regular Baptists in Eastern Kentucky and the various groups that use Lloyd’s Primitive Hymns.  Not only that: while there were, and still are, words-only hymnals, I’ve never heard of tunes-only tunebooks.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David L. Carlton

Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University

2307 Belmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37212

Phone: (H) 615.383.6293 (No Longer in Service) (M) 615.715.6183

E-Mail: david....@vanderbilt.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[B.E. Swetman]

My reaction is that the author is aware of shape note singing but completely misses the point.

I think technically a tune book does not have to have words. After all, the whole singing school movement that gave rise to shape notes was to teach new tunes that could be used with any hymn words of the same meter. I've always assumed that the reason for so many Watts and Wesley settings with just 1 verse was due to an expectation that the rest of the words were known or were in widely owned word only books. Mixing & matching words and tunes is at the base of traditional English hymnody and the reason we have tune names that are independent of the words.

I'm pretty sure I found a music only tune book in the library where I worked, probably late 19th cent. There was a book plate showing it had been owned by the College's president who also wrote hymns and compiled hymnals. I think there was some marginalia to the effect of his opinions on some of the tunes.

Here's a description of a Moravian book without words: 

Chiefly extracted from the Collection published by the Rev. C. Gregor, in Germany, entitled 'Choral-Buch enthaltend alle zu dem Gesangbuche der Evangelischen Brüdergemeinen vom Jahre 1778, gehörige Melodien; Leipzig, 1784.'
Without the words. The first line appears as caption to each tune.
Melodies with realized figured bass.

https://hamilton.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01HAMILTON_INST/15ojthq/alma9912678703404131

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[B.E. Swetman]

I took a look at that Tulane article and quote 2nd paragraph & beginning of 3rd.

The term shape-note refers to a minimalist form of musical notation that is simpler than the standardized form. It was devised in the early nineteenth century when large segments of the American populace were illiterate. The shape note system is typically based on a four-note scale, as opposed to the conventional seven-note increments of do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti. For further simplification and to make the system more accessible to people with little or no reading skills, each note of the four notes is depicted with its own distinct shape – a triangle, circle, square, and diamond. In conventional notation, there is no such shape differentiation. Some shape-note groups employ a system of seven shapes, however, these do not correspond to standardized notation.

It is generally accepted that shape-notes were first published in 1803 in The Musical Primer by Andrew Law, a minister and music teacher from Boston, Massachusetts.

Suggested reading:
America’s Music, Gilbert Chase, McGraw-Hill, 1955 (possibly out of print.)

There is so much wrong here that it boggles the mind. It sounds like the author thinks only 4 notes of the scale are used instead of some shapes being used more than once in the scale.

Shapes might help for the musically illiterate but, as already observed, do nothing to help those who cannot read.

How do 7 shapes not correspond to standardized notation? What does he think they do correspond to?

I know Andrew Law tried to claim he originated the shape notes but where is that claim to general acceptance coming from?

I wonder if the book from 1955 was his sole source. The original author revised it twice before his death.

Barbara

--

[Carlton, David L]

Hi Barbara,

 

                Point taken.  The closest I’ve seen to this is a sort of dutch-door tunebook with the upper half of the book tunes and the lower half texts, with the ability to mix and match.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David L. Carlton

Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University

2307 Belmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37212

Phone: (H) 615.383.6293 (No Longer in Service) (M) 615.715.6183

E-Mail: david....@vanderbilt.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

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Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2025 3:55 PM
To: Fasola Discussions <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [fasola-discussions] Shape note singing in a recent novel

 

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[David Olson]

> a sort of dutch-door tunebook with the upper half of the book tunes and the lower half texts, with the ability to mix and match.

a split-leaf psalter?

I believe the crazy description given by Suzanne Woods Fisher is an asset. For cultural reasons unfathomable to me, and not discussed by cultural philosophers to my knowledge (would the field be semantics?) these days it's all the rage to begin an explanation with a false theory that needs to be debunked, followed by the Buttactually Revelation. Start by naming the organ producing the ****, then tactfully actually actually actually wipe it clean. Like sieving through the diatomaceous earth of kitty's litter box or cleaning a furball off the rug. Is it because so many experts have pets that this form of explanation has come to be preferred?

Two examples of Sincere Buttactually are given below (wikipedia on Crystal Skulls and Mark Solms on dreams).

In any case, now people will come to us, confessing fascination and wonderment at the creatively authentic cultural description of Shape Note Singing provided by Suzanne Woods Fisher, and we, too, can have our Buttactually Revelation moment!

What Suzanne Woods Fisher is doing might be called quantum exoto-harmonics (shared nomenclaturial karma with quantum chromodynamics), where two exotic grass-roots musical phenomena are superimposed in the fascinating, creative narrative. A great cultural achievement! The rest of the world comes to America to attend writers workshops and seminars in creativity. SWF gets A+ for creativity.

Do we need a Feynman diagram to indicate when the quantum collapse of a shape note function produces the duration of a note, and when it produces a degree of the musical scale? No! We need a Fisher diagram. Maybe this will be the subject of her next novel. Such a creative writer!

And so it goes,

David Olson

San Diego

postscript : Sincere Buttactually Example #1

For example, many wikipedia articles on controversial subjects (Crystal Skulls) begin in an amusingly confused manner, where the reader is presumed to be a believer in some false theory; the debunking begins before a clear explanation of reality is given. Debunking is more important than a clear explanation, because often (such as in the case of the Crystal Skulls), the rational explanation lacks notability. Would Crystal Skulls, as rationally explained, rate a Wikipedia article unless something needed to be debunked?s

postscript: Sincere Buttactually Example #2

Mark Solms is a neuroscientist whose research is to watch, and his seminar lectures are cool (The Brainstem Basis of Consciousness (29 January 2025, Oxford Cortex Club). In a short YouTube For The Rest Of Us, discussing C.G. Jung on dreams, he says that in dreams, the occipito-temporo-parietal junction generates the Space in which dreams take place, and the Dopamine System is lit up like a Christmas tree.

Looking for more of this, all I find is a long lecture on why Freud was wrong about dreams. Pure Buttactuallyism. Who is going to explain this (the need of outdated theories to give meaning to current theories) first? Jordan Petersen? Chris Hedges? Rebecca Solnit? Often journalists explain cultural phenomena before academics do. AND THEN the name given by the journalists to a phenomenon -- academics have to live with!!! Now they are doomed to begin every paper explaining why the nomenclature is misleading. Recursive Buttactuallyism.

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