Shape-note HymnodyThe American folk hymn tradition and the Singing School tradition came together with the invention of shape-notes. Intended to simplify music reading, the first shape-note collection was created by William Little and William Smith in 1802 with the publication of The Easy Instructor. Little and Smith's system actually corresponded to an Elizabethan English system of sol-fa "solmization" brought by American colonists from England. This system used four shapes, three of which were repeated to form a diatonic scale (see SWU, p. 181):
Fig. 1: 4-shape system of solmization See Sacred
Harp and Related Shape-Note Music Resources (Washington, DC Sacred
Harp Singers) See Sacred Harp: Related Shape-Note Music Resources This system of reading and singing music became quite popular, particularly in the South during the pre-Civil War years. The texts that were used were often the texts of the great British hymn writers of the 18th century, particularly Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, Samuel Stennett, Joseph Addison, etc. As Harry Eskew has noted in his Shape-Note Hymnody in the Shenandoah Valley... regarding the very popular Kentucky Harmony (Harrisonburg, VA 1816), "Strange as it may seem this tunebook composed almost entirely of American music has not a single text which has been traced to an American Author." (p. 32). Several collections were particularly well known and have contributed a number of important TUNES to modern hymnals:
After about 1850, most shape-note tunebooks were printed in the various 7-shape systems corresponding to the do-re-mi solmization advocated by Lowell Mason and other leading American music teachers [that is, Mason advocated the do-re-mi solmization method using "round notes", NOT the shape-note method]. These various 7-shape systems united in the 1870's and there after used the system of Jesse B. Aiken whose 7-shape system first appeared in the Christian Minstrel, 1846 [from Sing with Understanding, Eskew and McElrath, pp. 181-182]. shape-note hymnals in both the 4 and 7 shape systems continued to be used throughout the South well into the 20th century and singing Schools continued to be a popular social opportunity for many rural communities with the shape-note collections used as singing school instruction manuals. At least two shape-note collections continue to be published and USED today:
Today a small number of communities throughout the South continue to practice and cherish their heritage of shape-note singing. However, after the Civil War years many rural community churches gradually adopted various collections of what became known as "gospel songs." To understand this transition, see below a description of the development and influence of the Ruebush-Kieffer Publishing Co. In 1851 Joseph Funk began printing his Harmonia Sacra with a system of 7-shape-notes. Originally using the 4-shape system of Little and Smith, Funk added 3 new shapes of his own. His new system proved successful throughout the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and over into what is now West Virginia. Funk died in 1862 and after the Civil War his two grandsons, Aldine S. Kieffer and Ephraim Rhuebush (Ruebush) took over Funk's publishing business and began printing collections of songs for sunday schools, revivals and camp meetings, and home entertainment. After 1876, the Ruebush-Kieffer Company adopted the 7-shape system of Jessee Aiken and continued to be one of the most influential proponents of "patent notes" in the gospel music publishing business well into the 20th century. Here is an account by Grace Showalter of Jesse Aiken's visit to the Ruebush, Kieffer & Co., in 1876:
Gradually the new 7-shape gospel song collections of Ruebush & Kieffer grew in popularity such that they began to displace the traditional Harmonia Sacra collection. In addition, the singing schools began to adopt these new collections and consequently the success of the early gospel songs were in part due to the popularity of their use in singing schools as well as revival meetings. Ruebush and Kieffer were instrumental in starting an important school for teaching music in Dayton, VA in 1875. Early on, there was an emphasis on teaching the 7-shape system of notation but "round notes" were also taught. By 1900 the school had grown to the point where the United Brethren Church took it over and the name was changed to Shenandoah Institute and School of Music (later to become Shenandoah Conservatory of Music, now Shenandoah University and located in Winchester, VA). In 1883 when he was 19, James D. Vaughan (1864-1944) moved to Dayton, VA and studied music at the school established by Ruebush and Kieffer. Later, Vaughan went on to establish his own publishing house in Lawrenceburg,TN -- the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company. Vaughan became a very successful gospel music publisher, establishing offices in several southern cities including Jacksonville, TX. The manager of the Jacksonville office, Virgil O. Stamps, went on to establish his own publishing house, the Stamps-Baxter Publishing Company. Together, these three publishing companies -- (1) Ruebush-Kieffer, (2) James D. Vaughan, and (3) Stamps-Baxter were the primary sources for what is now called Southern Gospel music in the shape-note tradition. Stamps-Baxter Music was acquired by Zondervan Corporation sometime after1960. Zondervan Corp. was acquired by Brentwood Music in the 1980's and is today one of the three largest publishers of gospel music (along with Word and Hope). Shape-note Links:
See Lectures on American Music (North Texas State University) Recordings of shape-note singing: * UMH refers to The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989. Interesting tidbit: How "Si" in the Latin became "Ti" in English. Sacred Harp and Related Shape-note Music: Resources - compiled by Steven L. Sabol [Washington, D.C. Sacred Harp Singers] Three centuries of American hymnody, by Henry Wilder Foote. Foote, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard university press, 1940, [The Divinity School Library at Vanderbilt University] ML 3111 .F6 T4 Church music in America, comprising its history and its peculiarities at different periods, with cursory remarks on its legitimate use and its abuse; with notices of the schools, composers, teachers, and societies, by Nathaniel D. Gould (1781-1864), Boston, A. N. Johnson, 1853, [The Divinity School Library at Vanderbilt University], BV 313 .G69 |
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