By definition, research is a “scholarly or scientific investigation or inquiry” (American Heritage). There are fortunately many types of research one can perform on any one particular topic or subject. My research topic is in the realm of sacred music and deals with a unique development in the history of singing and American music schooling. I had the advantage of discovering several different avenues for my subject.
The early singing school in the English parish countryside first developed the four-shape notational system by Little and Smith in 1801. It is mostly an oral tradition that is still preserved predominantly by rural southerners. In researching shaped-note singers, I discovered that it is quite a popular past-time to gather together for shaped-note singing. In listening to singers, I noticed that they do not always endeavor for an exact performance level, and that there is little room for solo-ambitions. They are singing solely to praise God. In my research, I wanted to address the issue of shaped-note performance throughout its long, religious history. How do singers determine pitch and intonation? How important is intonation? What is a successful performance: the more musical or the more soulful performance? What is perfection in shaped-note singing?
In researching the aforementioned problem, I found several websites that led me to books and articles which in turn led me to an immense amount of bibliography (whether in the bibliography section of the works or straight off the bookshelves beside the found works) the Sacred Harp singers and how the tradition of shaped-note singing developed. In order to comment on the current Sacred Harp performances, it is important to examine the history of the Sacred Harp. In doing so, I realized I needed to delve into the history of American music starting even before the start of the New England colonies. A few books and articles I found dealing with the history of England Church music were critical for the development of the topic. These writings were generally a historical analysis of music from the 17th to the 18th century. At the same time, I had in mind to look for previous research on the beginnings of musical notation. The relationship between the history of sacred music and the origin of musical notation were sometimes conveniently found in the same writings. One important fact I discovered was that the roots of public school music were to improve singing in the church. Thus, as church music developed, musical notation had to develop to reach the common masses.
After the important historical research of New England sacred music, next came the historical research for the development of music as it reached the colonies. Different regions of the frontier developed slightly different ways of notating and singing. I was fortunate enough to find articles ranging from as far west as California, to as far north as Canada, to as far south as Florida. I also discovered, on the side, articles on the shaped-note singing of Scotland and the Netherlands. Each region was strongly influenced by different denominations of Protestant music.
In between historical texts, I found several interesting biographical research on various pioneers of shaped-note singing, including Lowell Mason, William Walker, and William Billings. These papers sometimes strictly deal with the lives of the educators; others discuss the performances of their times and their methods for teaching music. It was also important to note that the Great Awakening’s revivalism movement was a driving force in spreading shaped-notation and Sacred Harp singing.
Balancing between historical and biographical research were amusing writings on the controversies to what was good singing and what was bad singing. Witnesses were and are torn between two camps: those that worship God with “bad” music, and those that possibly sacrifice text and meaning with “good” music. It is a delicate subject, of which I found a very aggressive Christian book by Dale Topp that was almost disturbingly cult-ish. The author stresses the importance of not valuing the music more than the worship words. The intensity in the modern address of the topic gives one a hint of the controversy involved in the history of sacred music. Quotes such as “aurally offensive” worship music, preferring the “right, scientific musical track,” and music that “violates the Rules of Good Manner” are found in these writings. Listening to current recordings on Sacred Harp singing, I do not have to guess that the singers’ only goal is to praise the Lord as loudly and enthusiastically as they can, rather than make “pleasing” music. It is no doubt still a question today, thus I’m doing my research.
Theoretical books that I found on my subject were of little help because they were too involved in the theory of music with built-in diagrams and figures that were presently meaningless. However, if one had time to really get into theory, it would aid in the learning of the fa-so-la singing method.
Overall, my research project was a fun, learning experience. I had initially thought that shaped-note singing was a rare hobby and anticipated a difficult time in finding references and sources for my topic. To my surprise, shaped-note singing is quite popular, and there are still many Sacred Harp conventions and singers involved. Another delightful and surprising discovery of researching the topic was that one could not take shape-note singing sitting down just like one cannot take the research of it sitting down. These people were all enthusiasts; from researcher to singer, there is something about their spirit that makes the research interesting and exciting. Many researchers were in fact singers. However, I do not think I will pursue the topic because as a pianist, I would like to write my thesis on something closer to my instrument, something that may help in my performance. One thing, in relation to finding other topics, that I found most distracting and fun was that while I was reading journals, many other topics would catch my eye, and I would literally waste time reading those instead of doing my research. One article I was interested in was on the subject of chromo-synesthesia. Synesthesia was initially the other option I was considering for my research paper. There were also many research papers on pianists and the study of their aptitude in relation to their musical skills.
There were minor difficulties, mostly in creating and maintaining the website. As one can tell, by comparison to my peers, I still have much to learn in the HTML language. I only know how to plug in text and have not learned indentation, complicated coloring, uploading (or downloading?) pictures, etc. I was actually proud of myself for the little I’ve learned in web-creation and am glad that I was required to do it. I spent four years of college with an available student website which I did not even know how to access. Now that I have the same thing available to me in graduate school, I feel like I’ve made a little change in progress as we move into the twenty-first century.