Holly Grove AME Church, 400 Holly Grove Church Rd., Peachtree City, will sponsor a Shape Note Singing Worship Service, featuring the Middle Georgia Note Singers, this Sunday, Oct. 23, at 1:30 p.m. at the church.
Shape Notes are a music notation designed to facilitate congregational singing, Shape notes of various kinds have been used for over two centuries in a variety of sacred music traditions practiced primarily in the Southern region of the United States.
Though it’s not clear who invented shaped notes, the innovation came from an Italian concept called solfeggio which assigns a syllable to each note in a musical scale. In teaching students to read these notes, some innovators came up with simple shapes representing notes on the musical scale.
As the frontier expanded, shaped-note singing spread from New England to the South and then to the Midwest and further out West.
“African Americans sang and taught shape notes when pianos, organs, and other instruments were not available for our use, “ a spokesperson said. “Shape note singing is harmony from the soul with deep feelings. You are welcome to experience this tradition with us.”
The pastor at Holly Grove is the Rev. J. Larry Ervin II. President of the Stewardess Board is Sister Annie Hammond.
