Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Shape Note: Four voices stacked, text aligned to the part that leads
- Type
- Set in Shape Note's manner (Triangle, square and diamond heads, one shape per syllable), and let Sheet Music Cover's lettering (Title in ornamental lettering, composer credits dropped to light type) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Shape Note's material (A binding that lies flat open, light enough to hold standing); bring in exactly one thing from Sheet Music Cover (Three or four flat lithographic colors over a yellowed paper ground).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
These two are already listed as related, so the join should come easily.
Caution
- Shape Note Using the shapes as decoration while breaking their tie to syllables destroys the sight singing advantage and merely complicates reading.
- Sheet Music Cover 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.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Shape Note (Style, 1801–) and its accent from Sheet Music Cover (Style, 1820s–1920s). Structural cues: Differently shaped note heads; Fa-sol-la solmization; Four-part tunebook typesetting; Singing in a hollow square. Accent cues, used sparingly: Scenes of the song; Ornamental title lettering; Lithographic color; Publishers' stock frames. Composition: Four voices stacked, text aligned to the part that leads. Type and lettering: Triangle, square and diamond heads, one shape per syllable. Let one material quality come from the second style: Three or four flat lithographic colors over a yellowed paper ground. Mood: Intimacy, Trust, Nostalgia, Exhilaration. Color: build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Shape Note 1801– / Style / Notation Systems
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 1820s–1920s / Style / Printed Ephemera
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.
Share this pairing:https://indexstyle.org/compose?ids=shape-note+sheet-music-cover