Shape Note vs Sheet Music Cover

シェイプノート / 楽譜表紙

Shape Note comes from Notation Systems and Sheet Music Cover from Printed Ephemera. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Shape Note

Shape Note — 『サザン・ハーモニー』のアメイジング・グレイス — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainShape Note — シェイプノートの歌の集会（CC BY-SA 4.0）Shape Note — 七音シェイプノート歌集のページ — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The American hymnody notation that reshaped note heads into triangles, squares and diamonds for fast sight-reading. The Sacred Harp tunebooks and singings made notation design a community tool.

Sheet Music Cover

Sheet Music Cover — ウィンズロー・ホーマーの楽譜表紙（CC0）Sheet Music Cover — 楽譜表紙の石版画（大英博物館） — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainSheet Music Cover — E.T.ポール《The Storm King》楽譜表紙 1902 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Lithographed covers kept alive by the piano in the parlor. Illustration of the song's scene combined with ornamental lettering into a single picture, and before the record sleeve existed this was how music was shown.

Shape NoteSheet Music Cover
Era1801–1820s–1920s
FamilyNotation SystemsPrinted Ephemera
KindStyleStyle
CuesDifferently shaped note heads / Fa-sol-la solmization / Four-part tunebook typesetting / Singing in a hollow squareScenes of the song / Ornamental title lettering / Lithographic color / Publishers' stock frames
Best used forGetting an untrained gathering singing four parts within an hour · Setting a community tunebook meant to be used rather than admiredAnnouncement visuals telling the scene of a song or a performance · Covers for reissues and compilations that borrow a period to signal content
TypeTriangle, square and diamond heads, one shape per syllableTitle in ornamental lettering, composer credits dropped to light type
CompositionFour voices stacked, text aligned to the part that leadsTitle across the upper half, scene below, publisher block at the foot
MaterialA binding that lies flat open, light enough to hold standingThree or four flat lithographic colors over a yellowed paper ground
CautionUsing the shapes as decoration while breaking their tie to syllables destroys the sight singing advantage and merely complicates reading.Lining up ornamental faces without painting the scene of the song leaves a cover holding the signs of a period and none of its subject.

Put these two together

Notation Systems ／ Printed Ephemera

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