In one way modern shape note singing is a form of active preservation of a historical tradition. Imagine you are living on the frontier and separated from the trappings of formal worship. How else would song leaders communicate basic tune melody without getting caught up in sharps and flats etc? Voices become instruments and training to quickly recognize a shape and correlate it with an do ray me type of audible is easier than straining the eye to see if that little black circle is an A or a C and how do I then find that pitch on the spot. It is an interesting and joyful exercise to be a part of a sacred harp singing. The videos do little to capture the energy of the actual engagement. It is the music of the participation of everybody and not just for the musicians in the crowd.
Reid On Jan 11, 2011, at 6:44 AM, Dru Brooke-Taylor <[email protected]> wrote: > If you can follow this link, you'll hear them singing the sol fa for a hymn > called New Jerusalem first, and then the hymn itself. > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwUdlSHktmk > > There's still though the question 'why?'. I'd have thought if a person has > the ability to learn the sol fa and the shapes, it would be easier to learn > the ordinary notes. > > Incidentally, that shows some music. Could your singers try that in stead? > > Dru > > > On 11 Jan 2011, at 10:40, <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >>> If your question is why those >>> particular >>> shapes - I have no idea. >> >> No, it was why shapes at all? because if you remove them you are left >> with conventional notation. (I have perused a copy, but unfortunately >> don't own one). >> >> As you say: >> >> "people who didn't read music much but were used to seeing normal >> notes, the shapes just confused them and complicated things. I think >> maybe more experienced music readers could ignore the shapes more >> easily" >> >> This reminds me of the (very) old joke about television (It's amazing! >> if you close your eyes you could swear you were listening to the >> radio.) >> >> As they say in German: "warum einfach, wenn's auch kompliziert geht?" >> >> < whereas to use the shapes as they were intended you have >> to have been trained in that system and nothing else. >> >> Hmm.... >> >> Great music, shame about the notation! >> Thanks for the Wikilink. I will explore. >> C >> -- >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> > >
