Shape note singing

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on_the_hill

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Once in a while I enjoy shape note videos on YouTube. They have an old-timey appeal for me.
I assume shape note singing is Protestant in tradition.

The reason I ask is because…I saw the CAF thread on “Abide With Me,” which reminded me of “It Is Well with My Soul,” a song I like, which led me to YouTube videos of “It Is Well…,” of which the popular one is by Audrey Assad, whomst I first assumed was a contemporary Christian (non-Catholic) singer, but it turns out she’s Catholic. I never woulda guessed it.

Anyway, I couldn’t find any shape note singing video of “It Is Well…”

Is there any Catholic tradition (small t) of shape note singing?

EDIT: I found this: http://thecatholiccatalogue.com/mis...lic-liturgy-from-an-old-protestant-tradition/
 
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on_the_hill said:
The reason I ask is because…I saw the CAF thread on “Abide With Me,” which reminded me of “It Is Well with My Soul,” a song I like, which led me to YouTube videos of “It Is Well…,” of which the popular one is by Audrey Assad, whomst I first assumed was a contemporary Christian (non-Catholic) singer, but it turns out she’s Catholic. I never woulda guessed it.
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I am not suggesting that the song itself is heretical — that would be a stretch — but one thing I notice about Catholic versus Protestant hymns is that in Catholicism, we generally do not say a lot about ourselves. We concentrate more on God Himself.

It would be difficult for me to sing a hymn declaring that it is “well with my soul”.
 
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on_the_hill said:
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I assume shape note singing is Protestant in tradition.

*snip

Is there any Catholic tradition (small t) of shape note singing?
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Yes, shaped-note singing does come from Protestantism. To the best of my knowledge, there is no parallel Catholic tradition.

My mother’s extended family (and ancestry) were big in shaped-note music, both Sacred Harp (which uses only four shapes and syllables) and regular gospel music (which uses all seven syllables and corresponding shapes). My Finale music-writing program has an option for making shaped note-heads. I’d send you a sample of my work, but those files are on my other computer.

D
 
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You learn something new every day. I’d never heard of shape note singing, and I have Baptist and Pentecostal hymnals from the late 1800s. I still am looking for an answer as to why Catholic Hymnals don’t include more than the melody.
 
Dlee said:
You learn something new every day. I’d never heard of shape note singing, and I have Baptist and Pentecostal hymnals from the late 1800s. I still am looking for an answer as to why Catholic Hymnals don’t include more than the melody.
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Just guessing here, but it’s probably because unlike most Protestant groups, Catholics are not used to part-singing. Prior to V-II I don’t think that the people in the pews sang at all, except maybe to chant some responses. Now that they are singing hymns, the best they can do is the melody line, and that’s all that gets printed in the hymnal.

D
 
DaveBj said:
Prior to V-II I don’t think that the people in the pews sang at all, except maybe to chant some responses.
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I never knew that. Must be why so many Catholics sit with stone faced frowns when there’s singing to be done. 🤔 😁 😆

I’m imagining all the responses you’d get from Catholics I know.
“Singing? No…not for me.”
“It’s–it’s just not what we do.”
“Sort of a girl thing to do, doncha think?”
“What, me sing? No one else is singing. They’ll think I’m some kind of weirdo.”

As for me, and my one daughter–we’ve got the Breaking Bread missalette out and we’re singing, baby. One of these years I’ll get that low C consistently.
 
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I recall that the soundtrack to the film ‘Cold Mountain’ had a lot of shape note singing on it; beautiful stuff but they almost overdid it.
 
I have entire hymnals of shape note music - including “It Is Well”! Of course, these are Protestant books, but I have (had?) an arrangement of that hymn that we used ages ago as a Thanksgiving choral piece in a Catholic parish. I see no theological issue with the text.
 
I grew up in a couple different Protestant denominations, one more liturgical and the other more evangelical low-church, roughly speaking. I can’t ever recall a time where we used shape note singing, though I could be mistaken.

In my time as a Catholic, I’ve never experienced anything similar to shape note singing, either. Although I have learned how to sing neumes as a Catholic, so that’s something!
 
tomarin said:
I recall that the soundtrack to the film ‘Cold Mountain’ had a lot of shape note singing on it; beautiful stuff but they almost overdid it.
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Yes, there were some genuine Sacred Harp singers sitting in as extras in those scenes. That would have been about the time that my great-great-grandfather was involved, but not in that part of the country.

D
 
Sorry to be so stupid, but what exactly do the shapes of the notes do?

I started learning to read regular musical notation when I was 6. It’s not hard. So I don’t get why people need to learn these weird shapes?
 
I’m completely clueless on that, as well. I imagine it is or was perceived as easier somehow than traditional musical notation? But not really sure.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Sorry to be so stupid, but what exactly do the shapes of the notes do?
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The shape of the note corresponds with the degree of the major scale – do - re - mi - fa - sol - la - ti - do. Each syllable corresponds a specific notehead shape, and people who learn that system automatically associate shape with degree. You could write the notes on a single line, rather than a five-line staff, and they could still read and sing it. My mother was shaped-notes all the way; if you gave her a song book with all round notes, she was lost. I, on the other hand, learned “normal” notation in school. She tried to teach me shaped notes, but I was like, what’s the point? I can already read the music from knowing the key signature and the position on the staff.

Sacred Harp is a little weird. The first three notes of the scale are fa - sol - la, and then the fourth degree of the scale starts over again, so the whole major scale is fa - sol - la - fa - sol - la - mi - fa.

D
 
I think you and I are the same in regard to regular musical notation. If you learn to read music really young, then a different notation system for sight-singing doesn’t seem to add much. (As opposed to say, finger diagrams for guitar chords or something that can’t be well represented on the regular staff.)
 
It’s somewhat akin to chant notation in that it’s specific to the group using it and therefore not written in the same way “regular” treble clef music notation is like you’ll commonly find in the hymnals at Mass. Chant notation indicates when the tones change pitch and so do the shapes - but they do so differently. Those who read chant (especially those in vowed religious life) know the intricacies of the way in which the notations tell them to sing the psalms, etc. Shape notes were for mostly rural folks, as I understood it growing up, who didn’t read music but could match pitch “by ear” and were trained to associate the shape to a certain pitch.
 
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