Forming the Hollow Square: The Birth of Country Gospel

How a church singing technique influenced a uniquely American subgenre.

A detail of "A Country Church Amongst Hills," circa 19th century, by John Laporte. Yale Center for British Art. Public Domain

On a Sunday morning in a rural Alabama town, when the weather is mild and the sun is shining, a congregation sets up chairs and folding tables on the grounds outside of their church. An assortment of homemade dishes is displayed, from macaroni and cheese casserole to seasoned green beans. Hymn books are placed on the chairs set up to form a large square. Soon, churchgoers from surrounding areas will take their seats and open their books to a traditional hymn such as “Amazing Grace.” Conducted by a volunteer lead vocalist, they sing together in four-part harmony.

The focus that day isn’t a service or sermon. Instead, the church is throwing a special event, one that music producer and engineer Marlin Greene described as an “All Day Singin' and Dinner on the Ground.” On a celebratory day such as this, the congregation comes together to worship in the form of music, group-hymn singing that can last for hours, as well as a hearty meal.

People who attend Southern churches in small towns sometimes participate in this type of event, called a “singing.” At the heart of these present-day gatherings is a technique called “shape-note singing,” which formed in the United States’ earliest years. It produces such a distinct vocal sound that it could be classified as its own genre. What’s more is that it was invented to help people who couldn’t read music learn hymns quickly.

Shape-note singing events create a celebratory moment in time. Soft falsetto voices are seldom heard. The congregation sings full-throated and with passion as they tackle the chorus melody or their various harmony parts.

Shape-note singing got its start in churches across the nation. It went on to be a defining influence on country gospel music of the 20th century.

A Marriage of 2 Genres

A Sacred Harp singing event and buffet meal in Tifton, Ga., on May 1, 1977. Library of Congress. Public Domain

Interest in country gospel peaked in the 1950s and 1960s. Groups such as the Stanley Brothers, who fused bluegrass, gospel, and country, helped solidify it as an enduring subgenre. But artists added to the canon of country gospel music in earlier decades as well.

One of gospel’s most prolific writers, Albert E. Brumley, wrote his signature tune that went on to become a country gospel standard, “I’ll Fly Away,” in 1929. The Carter Family’s often-covered 1935 single, “Can the Circle Be Unbroken,” is classified as one of country gospel’s most influential compositions. And country’s pioneering artist, Hank Williams, included gospel elements in his most successful songs, such as “I Saw the Light.”

For artists such as Bill Monroe and Johnny Cash, church music proved to be just as important as music from genres such as bluegrass and folk.

Spending time in church while growing up meant many of the United States’ formative musical traditions were carried on. Many of the hymns that Cash and Monroe sang were also cherished by American settlers. One tradition that helped spiritual music become universally enjoyable dealt not with a particular song but with a particular way the song is sung.

The rise of country gospel music in the mid-1900s was driven in part by the teaching of shape-note singing in communities throughout the United States’ rural areas and the Northeast.

A shape-note singing convention at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Damascus, Ga., 1977. Library of Congress. Public Domain

Musicians such as Brumley, Monroe, and Cash were exposed to this style of singing, which married the United States’ two distinct country and gospel genres.

A Sense of Community

Shape-note singing was taught to various music schools in New England starting in the 1800s. As its popularity rose, Southern communities embraced the technique as well. According to online publication Americana Music Magazine, the invention of shape-note singing can be traced back to a Philadelphia business owner, John Connelly, as far back as 1790.

Frontispiece for "The Easy Instructor," 1798, by William Little and William Smith. Internet Archive. Public Domain

“He sold his idea to a pair of musicians named William Little and William Smith,” an article from the magazine states.

In 1798, these musicians published the first shape-note music book, “The Easy Instructor.”

“It contained an anthology of popular New England psalm-tunes and anthems by William Billings, Daniel Read, and their contemporaries,” the article reads.

Because virtually anyone could learn shape-note singing, the technique created a heightened sense of community.

The sheet music for shape-note singing comes with music notation and lyrics. But instead of the standard musical notes one generally sees in hymn books, the musical notation of shape-note singing takes the form of four different shapes. Systems implemented later, such as the solfège scale (in elementary school, one learns this scale as “do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do”), revolve around learning pitch. But the shape-note singing system uses a fraction of these syllables because it revolves around the space between pitches.

Instruction on shape notes from page 9 of "The Easy Instructor," 1798, by William Little and William Smith. Internet Archive. Public Domain

Greene, who worked with artists in the famed music scene of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, explained on his Substack how shape-note singing works:

“Shape notes ... indicate intervals rather than specific pitches. The notation is built on four shapes for the notes: fa (a triangle), sol (an oval), la (a rectangle), and mi (a diamond). In practice, each shape represents the interval between the primary note and the new tone. So instead of a note designating a specific pitch, it designates the distance away from the basic note. The starting note, typically fa, was around middle C. The melody followed the intervals—dictated by the shape of the note at each syllable.”

The Birthplace of Southern Gospel

(Left) Frontispiece for Joseph Funk's 1869 "Harmonia Sacra," and (Right) instruction on shape notes. Internet Archive. Public Domain

Singers Glen, a settlement in Virginia, is named after the published works of one of shape-note singing’s pioneering figures, Joseph Funk. His work had such a profound effect on American music that his hometown is sometimes referred to as “the birthplace of Southern gospel music.” While living in the picturesque village, he established a publishing house and composed and taught music. He also developed an expanded shape-note singing system in 1851 that he printed in the hymnbook “Harmonia Sacra.” It became an integral part of his local Mennonite Christian community.

Funk’s published hymnbooks were foundational to shape-note singing. According to the Library of Congress, another book would become vital to the shape-note singing tradition.

“Christian hymnals using this system were among the most enduring uses of this notation,“ it states. ”Among the most popular was ’The Sacred Harp‘ by B. F. White, first published in Georgia in 1844. As a result of this popularity, the style of singing is also sometimes called ’sacred harp.’”

Page 52 of the "The Sacred Harp" showing the tunes "Albion" and "Charlestown" in four-shape notation, 1870 publication, by B.F. White and E.J. King. Library of Congress. Public Domain

When gathering for a sacred harp sing, participants arrange chairs so that everyone is facing the center, creating one big square shape with a lead singer standing in the middle ready to kick things off. This unique formation has come to be known as “the hollow square.” The hollow square allows singers to be grouped together with their appropriate vocal range, from treble and alto to tenor and bass.

The hymns associated with shape-note singing were brought to America by the nation’s pilgrims, arriving at the shores of the New World from European countries such as Ireland, Scotland, England, and Germany.

More hymnals using the shape-note singing system were published into the 1900s. By the 1920s, aspiring and visionary musicians naturally blended these hymns with the country gospel genre that was gaining significant ground.

Stewards of the Style

When Cash first learned to sing, he used his hymnal “Heavenly Highway Hymns,” which featured shape notes.

The Guardian states: “Shape-note singing is America’s most ancient form of choral music. It reached its apotheosis in the years before the civil war.”

"A Sermon at St. Lawrence's Church, Isle of Wight," between 1833 and 1849, by Richard Henry Clements Ubsdell. Public Domain

In 2003, shape-note singing experienced a resurgence thanks to a hit movie. For his classic Civil War-era film “Cold Mountain,” director Anthony Minghella hired musicologist Tim Eriksen to teach shape-note singing to actors Nicole Kidman and Jude Law, as well as record the soundtrack. Shape-note singing is associated with spiritual music; Eriksen has talked about how its books often cover a wide array of styles.

“You’ve got everything, ... Lutheran hymns, Scots jigs, Irish reels, field hollers, a smattering of Handel and Haydn,” Eriksen said.

Music publication Treble emphasizes just how much the culture surrounding gospel music and its various influences affected early artists of the country genre:

“The thorough permeation of the style ... throughout the Southern culture in which these and other early country musicians grew up made gospel a key part of the genre’s DNA, including its secular songs.”

Although shape-note singing doesn’t get as much attention as it once did, there are still contemporary stewards of the style who teach the system and host group singing events. David Sarten, who is a part of the Sevier County Old Harp Singers, said this form of music is alive and well.

He told the Great Smoky Mountains Association: “Some people have described this as being a dying tradition. If it ever took a dying breath, I was never aware of it. My ancestors have sung this type of music ... at least for five generations back. There are many that sing with us that can make that same claim and even longer.”

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