by Wayne S. Walker<\/p>\n
I’m still doing some research as time permits regarding hymnbooks and how certain practices arose among our brethren. I know the history of shape notes well, but not how the system came to be used (and how widely it still is) among our brethren. A couple of questions you may be able to help me with –and that would be greatly appreciated. First, how widely are books with shape notes used now in churches of Christ; have many congregations started using round-note books? Second, what religious bodies besides churches of Christ still use shape notes for congregational singing?<\/p>\n
As you may know, shaped note music is largely, though not exclusively, a phenomenon of the southern United States, historically speaking. A large number of hymnal publishers in the South of all stripes – Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc. – printed their books in shaped notes at least until around 1900, and some way beyond that. And the culture that has predominated in modern churches of Christ was greatly influenced by the congregations in the South which stood against instrumental music in worship and the missionary society.<\/p>\n
As you also probably know, the earliest hymnbooks of the “Restoration Movement” by Stone, Campbell, and others of that time had no music but words only. When publishers like Amos S. Hayden and the Fillmores began adding music, it was in round notes only. Even by 1921, when E. L. Jorgenson (no Southerner he) came out with the original Great Songs of the Church, he used only round notes.<\/p>\n
However, in 1889, when the Gospel Advocate published its first hymnbook, interestingly enough called Christian Hymns<\/em> (I have a copy), it was printed with shaped notes. I don’t know whether this was by choice because it was what the leadership in Southern churches was used to and preferred, or by default because whoever the Advocate got to engrave and print their books did so only in shaped notes. But after that, nearly all hymnbooks published by brethren for use in churches of Christ were in shaped notes. The demand was so great that Jorgenson published in 1925 a slightly revised edition of Great Songs of the Church<\/em> and the 1937 Great Songs of the Church No. 2<\/em> in both round notes, mostly used by instrumental churches, and shaped notes, mostly used by acapella churches.<\/p>\n All churches of Christ with which I am familiar use shaped note hymnals, but I have little knowledge of what is going on among more “progressive” congregations. I do know that Great Songs Revised<\/em> was published in 1986 with only round notes and didn’t fare very well. I do believe that Alton Howard published his 1994 Songs of Faith and Praise<\/em> (now I think published by R. J. Taylor Jr.) in both shaped and round notes. I don’t know how popular the round note version is – all the churches that I know have shaped note editions.<\/p>\n As to what other religious bodies besides churches of Christ still use shape notes for congregational singing, I know that Primitive Baptists and conservative Mennonites do. Beyond that, I really don’t know.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Wayne S. Walker Question: I’m still doing some research as time permits regarding hymnbooks and how certain practices arose among our brethren. I know the history of shape notes well, but not how the system came to be used (and how widely it still is) among our brethren. A couple of questions you may…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[520,573],"class_list":["post-60633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-music","tag-singing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":59338,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-review-of-the-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":60633,"position":0},"title":"A Review of the Hymnbooks","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Originally published in Torch, October 1988 Please understand that my review is of necessity going to be biased by my own view of what constitutes a good hymn selection. With that in mind, I shall begin by saying that I grew up using the old \"brown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35011,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-history-of-our-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":60633,"position":1},"title":"A History of Our Hymnbooks","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. 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Walker Anyone who has studied and is familiar with the history of the call for religious reformation and restoration in the early 1800s of this nation will certainly recognize these two names. Barton Warren Stone was born on December 24, 1772, near Port Tobacco in Charles County,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86709,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/songs-of-the-saints-paul-h-epps\/","url_meta":{"origin":60633,"position":3},"title":"Songs of the Saints: Paul H. Epps","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Paul H. Epps was born on Mar. 20, 1914, in Booneville, Arkansas. Living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, from 1923 to 1945, he attended West Texas University in Canyon, Texas. 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