An Introduction to ShapeNote Hymnody

Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg, Woodruff Fellow and Doctoral Candidate in the Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts at Emory University, introduces shapenote hymnody. He focuses on the origins of this method of writing music and talks about its development in the 19th and 20th centuries, highlight the Southern Harmony and the Sacred Harp.

[@torysetliff]

Thanks for the information. My Church uses song books with shape notes, I was wondering how it started.

[@justforever96]

They should still use shape notes. They really work. I can read them easily, round notes make no sense to me.

[@No_auto_toon]

They only work for singers. Instrument players still have to learn the “round notes” and stuff.

[@AllenBarclayAllen]

You are wrong I traced FA-SO-LA SHAPE NOTES back to 4th century Catholic Church! Why is this history lost ?

[@wiktorwysocki]

show us your research please the shapes of noteheads used to be diamonds even in 14th century notation. Notation as we understand it doesn't really exist in the 4th century though I may be wrong

[@ralfi8882]

Thank you very much for this good explanations. Greetings from North Germany. God bless you.

[@charlesterrizzi8311]

That was as interesting as watching paint dry

[@bobbythompson3544]

Yes!