Singing schools were begun (ca. 1720s) to improve congregational singing, and their task was simplified when shapenotes were invented in 1798. Each note was given a shape that told the singer what degree of the musical scale it represented (no more learning to decode key signatures). Only four shapes were used initially, for the solmization syllables FA, SOL, A, and MI (MI is the "leading tone"). The use of shapenotes was, and is, quite effective in enabling singers to quickly sight-read and master unfamiliar music.

Shapenote music continues to be sung today by singers using tune books such as The Sacred Harp, first published in the early 19th-century and still in print. When folks gather for a day of singing, as they do with great regularity especially in the summer, songs are always sung through first with the solmization syllables instead of the lyrics so as to set the vocal parts in the singers' minds. This recording includes several examples of this practice. Whether sung with the surging beat and astringent vocal intonation of traditional singers, or given a softer interpretation, these songs retain the ability to move singers and listeners alike, to send us soaring away above the sky to see our God above.

-- KAREN E. WILLARD

R E V I E W S:

"The Shapenote Album will have you listening with a bubble of amusement. Loudly and lustily, the choir sings music from rural American singing schools of the 18th and 19th centuries. The music and its performance style have been carefully researched and replicated, and there's no doubt our singing ancestors had a good deal of fun."
— Seattle Post-Intelligencer