Shape Note

シェイプノート / 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.

Shape Note — Amazing Grace in The Southern Harmony — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Amazing Grace in The Southern Harmony — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Shape Note — Page from a seven shape note tunebook — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Page from a seven shape note tunebook — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Differently shaped note heads
Fa-sol-la solmization
Four-part tunebook typesetting
Singing in a hollow square

Best used for

Getting an untrained gathering singing four parts within an hour
Setting a community tunebook meant to be used rather than admired

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Dictionary entry

Type: Triangle, square and diamond heads, one shape per syllable
Composition: Four voices stacked, text aligned to the part that leads
Material: A binding that lies flat open, light enough to hold standing
Caution: Using the shapes as decoration while breaking their tie to syllables destroys the sight singing advantage and merely complicates reading.
Further study: The Sacred Harp, 1844 / the singing-school tradition / the Little and Smith four-shape system

Related entries

Staff Notation (五線譜)Same Notation Systems lineage.Compare Shape Note and Staff Notation
Sheet Music Cover (楽譜表紙)Shared effects: Nostalgia / Intimacy.Compare Shape Note and Sheet Music Cover

Cite this entry

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Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/shape-note
Markdown: [Shape Note — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/shape-note)
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