I am pleased to offer on cameratapress.com a new arrangement of a folk hymn from William (Singing Billy) Walker's 1854 edition of Southern Harmony. Please click on The People Called Christians in the Mixed Voices, A Cappella section to see and hear this piece that originated in the shape-note singing tradition. That method of learning new music was especially popular in singing schools and a cappella church traditions of the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, but it continues to this day.
The first music I read was as a youngster in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The Mennonite hymnals were printed in shape notes. That was the music I knew, and I readily latched on to those seven shapes as an easier way to read the "do re mis."
When using shape notes, someone sight-reading a new song does not have to determine the distance of a note in lines and spaces from "do," the keynote. Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti each has its own shape. This addresses the visual part of sight-reading. The ear still must hear where that shape/pitch is in relation to the keynote, but the overall learning of the song has been found to be faster.
Shape notes were useful in the churches and singing schools of early America. Settlers from the learned circles of western Europe brought with them classical music techniques. But many of the hymn writers/collectors and singing school masters created a singing style that reflected the brawn and vigor of American pioneer living. The sound was not refined in terms of choral polish or rules of harmony. However, it was spirited and energetic, important values on their own.
William Walker (1809–1875) of Spartanburg, South Carolina, was one such hymn writer, collector, arranger, and publisher. His Southern Harmony of 1835 and its editions that followed used a system of four shapes for the notes. There were three voice parts: treble, tenor (the tune), and bass. Women and men often doubled each other's parts at the octave, especially the trebles and tenors. Walker's Christian Harmony of 1866 employed the more popular seven shapes and added a fourth part specifically for altos.
Some of the shape-note hymn sings that exist today continue the old tradition of singing the pitch names the first time through. In "The People Called Christians" I began in that manner. Walker's three parts from Southern Harmony, 1854 edition, are there, plus an alto part I added. "The People Called Christians have many things to tell." Please check it out!
–David A. Seitz