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00:26:18
00:29:37
00:26:18
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Transcription: [00:26:19]
{SPEAKER name="Martha Barrs"}
Well, they -- a lot of the songs now that are wrote in the round notes, they're not shaped notes. Those- now we can maybe sing you a song that way, but it doesn't sound like it does whenever we sing the note and then turn 'round and sing the song.

[00:26:35]
{SPEAKER name="Phil Tanner"}
The, uh, the shaped notes-- Well there's two systems. The sacred harp system-

{SPEAKER name="Minnie Davis"}
That's it

{SPEAKER name="Martha Barrs"}
Yup

{SPEAKER name="Phil Tanner"}
which was developed, uh, in the late 1700s. And, uh, actually draws on some musical ideas that come from England back at the time of Shakespeare and even earlier.

[00:26:50]
It's the fa sol la system. But the system that they use in their church is a 7 shape. The Sacred Hart folks use a 4 shape system.

[00:26:57]
They use a 7 shape system that was developed in the late 1840s by a fellow named Jessie Aken. In fact he's got a copyright, well he had a copyright on it from about 1870. And now about, I guess 65 maybe 70 percent of all the gospel and religious music that's printed in the Southern part of the country is in the 7 shape system.

[00:27:15]
A lot of folks play piano and they never even quite realize because it's printed on a staff that they're using shape notes until you say to them, "How come that note's got a little flag on the wrong side of it?" And then--

[00:27:25]
{SILENCE}

[00:27:34]
{SPEAKER name="Phil Tanner"}
Ah

[00:27:37]
{SPEAKER name="Minnie Davis"}
Uh-huh (affermative).

[00:27:39]
{SILENCE}

[00:28:02]
{LAUGHTER}

[00:28:05]
{SPEAKER name="Phil Tanner"}
Well, she's right. She's right, you see.

[00:28:08]
{SILENCE}

[00:28:16]
{SPEAKER name="Martha Barrs"}
That's right, I'm not doing this to say publicizing anything, but should you wanna learn or to get something that you could listen to to see how well the notes are sung in the 7 shape notes, Mr. Quailo has made a record from the people in from Irwin county. The name of it is "Yonder Comes Day."

[00:28:33]
So if you like, see if you can find your record. It is in the Smithsonian Institution. See if you can find your record. Pick out a song that you know, like "Amazing Grace," that's on there. Go by-- Look at your note as we sing it and it may help you to come out with something. Hope so.

[00:28:52]
{SPEAKER name="Phil Tanner"}
The, uh, the 7 shape system-- It's interesting because both of those, the Sacred Harp and the later system, were developed as a way of teaching music to the average person without having the necessity of a musical instrument. That a singing school teacher like, you say your grandfather? Or your uncle yeah.

[00:29:08]
{SPEAKER name="Minnie Davis"}
Yeah

[00:29:09]
{SPEAKER name="Phil Tanner"}
Yeah, could go around with nothing more than a tuning fork and, just to give them a pitch to start from, and, uh, and then they could just find where the voices fit and set the pitches for them all.

[00:29:21]
And then, I guess as modern times and folks got progressive and used pianos and organs and all, that system in a lot of churches in town fell out of use. But in a lot of the small towns and rural churches all over the Southeast, people still. Just doin' it.


Transcription Notes:
The silence section has a female voice in the background that is so low volume as to be undistinguished Discussion of shape note singing