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 Staff Notation's lettering (Uniform head and stem weight, accidentals given clear space ahead) 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 Staff Notation (Thin staff lines, note heads printed darker than the spaces).
- Colour
- Build on #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Both belong to Notation Systems, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
- Roughly 1790 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Shape Note Using the shapes as decoration while breaking their tie to syllables destroys the sight singing advantage and merely complicates reading.
- Staff Notation Setting every bar to the same width breaks the link between spacing and duration, so fast passages jam and sight readers fall out.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Shape Note (Style, 1801–) and its accent from Staff Notation (Style, 11th century–). Structural cues: Differently shaped note heads; Fa-sol-la solmization; Four-part tunebook typesetting; Singing in a hollow square. Accent cues, used sparingly: The five-line coordinate system; Time running left to right; Clefs and key signatures; Bars dividing time. 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: Thin staff lines, note heads printed darker than the spaces. Mood: Intimacy, Trust, Nostalgia, Technology, Calm. 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.
- Staff Notation 11th century– / Style / Notation Systems
Notation that fixes pitch to a coordinate, running from Guido's invention of the line to the five-line staff. Time reads left to right and pitch up and down, a flat design still in use after a thousand years and the longest-lived format in information design.
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