On April 1st, 1855, Sister Betsy Spaulding penned the following words:
"O hear the sweet music of angels divine, the praises of Mother how sweetly they sound." These words were set to a tune, and recorded in a Pleasant Hill manuscript hymnal which was possibly kept by Sister Betsy.
Sister Betsy Spaulding was not born into the Kentucky Shaker settlement known as Pleasant Hill. Rather, she was born in nearby Jessamine County on August 6, 1825. At the age of eleven years, she came to the Pleasant Hill community, and signed the Church Covenant in 1847. Sister Betsy's positions at Pleasant Hill included children's caretaker, teacher, and seamstress. In 1850, she took charge of the girls at the East Family Dwelling, and in 1861, she was appointed Family Deaconess at the East Family Dwelling.
Sister Betsy recorded "Music of Angels" in a Shaker system of notation known as "small letteral notation." Developed by Shaker leaders in the first half of the nineteenth century, this system replaced traditional note values with letters.
Example 1. Betsy Spaulding's "Music of Angels" Source: Manuscript hymnal probably kept by Betsy Spaulding, 14
Long before a uniform system of notation was deemed necessary, music played a vital role in the Shaker society. In the early years of their tenure in America, the Shakers followed an oral musical tradition. Songs were committed to memory, and only a minimal attempt was made at transcription. During the second and third decades of the nineteenth century, the search for musically-educated leaders began, and apparently, the desire for a uniform system of musical notation was conceived. This desire eventually led to the development of "small letteral notation," a system which turned from the practices of traditional notation. Traditional note values were replaced with letters, melodic direction was shown by the relative heights of the letters, and the staff fell into disuse, as shown in Example 1.
The most extensive information on Shaker small letteral notation is found in the treatises of Isaac Newton Youngs (1793-1866), a member of the New Lebanon, New York community, and Russel Haskell (1801-1884), an Enfield, Connecticut Shaker. Between the years 1831 and 1847, Youngs and Haskell produced four treatises which set forth the guidelines of small letteral notation, and included an abundance of material on melody, rhythm and meter.
While all four treatises contain valuable information on Shaker musical practices, a general understanding of small letteral notation can be gained by an investigation of Isaac Newton Youngs’ 1833 manuscript entitled Rudiments of Music, which was compiled in New Lebanon, New York. An initial note identified this extensive, handwritten manuscript as a "first draught, written under various circumstances and on poor paper" (Youngs 1833, prefatory note). Youngs perceived a need for a declaration of rules and explanations for the learner as well as illustrations relating to small letteral notation, and stated that these were not readily available through "worldly" instructional aids (1833, I). Apparently, Youngs had studied whatever "worldly" materials were available to him, as evidenced by the following remark: "there is an abundance of rubbish and useless matter, entirely unadapted and unprofitable for believers" (1833, I).
Youngs' stated objectives in the construction of Rudiments were twofold: first, to furnish the student with instruction in the system of small letteral notation, along with lessons for exercise and selected examples for study, and second, to produce a uniform system of music instruction for all Shakers. Youngs stated the following: "It is an undesirable fact that there are many or various ways among believers, in writing music, but it is self-evident that these various ways made needless labor & trouble; for as there is so much communication from one place to another, all are under the necessity of learning every way that is practised" (Youngs 1833, II).
Youngs felt the timing was right for developments in musical notation: It may be proper to remark, that about these days is as favorable a time for any reformation, or advancement in the science of music, as ever was, or is likely to be. It [small letteral notation] is not yet very thoroughly introduced among believers, but there is enough known to enable us to choose what to adopt, (provided we are agreed) and there is so little connexion between us & the world in general, that we stand perfectly free to pursue any manner among ourselves, independant of those without. (Youngs 1833, IV) As shown in Example 2, Youngs supplied his readers with a table which illustrated the tools of small letteral notation.
Example 2. Youngs' "View of the Length of notes & Rests" - Source: Youngs 1833, 12
As seen in Example 2, capital letters depicted Semibreves (whole notes), while Minims (half notes), Crotchets (quarter notes), Quavers (eighth notes), Semiquavers (sixteenth notes), and Demisemiquavers (thirty-second notes) were represented by lower-case letters. Differentiation between Minims and Crotchets was accomplished by the addition of a vertical line to the lower-case letter, as seen in Example 3.
Example 3. Minims (half notes) and Crotchets (quarter notes)
Shorter note values were indicated by the addition of small lines called "tyes, brevitures, or hooks," similar to the traditional flags attached to eighth notes, or further divisions of the beat. (Youngs 1833, 115)
Example 4. Quavers (eighth notes) and Semiquavers (sixteenth notes)
As seen in examples 3 and 4, the relative height of the letter indicated melodic direction, and diminished the need for a staff.
The traditional augmentation dot was called "the dot or point" by the Shakers, and its usage paralleled common practice. Youngs recounted that it was placed to the right of a note, making it half again as long (Youngs 1833, 4).
Example 5. The dot or point
Sister Betsy Spaulding was at ease with small letteral notation.In comparison to Example 2, Sister Betsy's notation showed slight variations, but her characters were in accord with the practices in Youngs’ Rudiments. For example, as seen in Example 1, entitled "Music of Angels," Sister Betsy connected the quavers (eighth notes) with a graceful, continuous "breviture." This practice was common among Shaker scribes, including Youngs himself.
Sister Betsy included a meter signature at the beginning of "Music of Angels." The symbol located to the left of the first line of text is displayed in Example 6.
Example 6. Shaker meter signature
This symbol, which represented compound duple meter, was one of many symbols designed by Isaac Newton Youngs, to clarify the concepts of meter and tempo.
As with any system of music notation, small letteral notation served at
least two purposes: first, to record compositions, and second, to allow
for a re-interpretation of the written notes. Small letteral notation
succeeded on both counts. Perhaps the system of small letteral notation
flourished because of the nature of Shaker music. Predominantly
monophonic, the body of Shaker song lent itself to a simple style of
notation. The use of letters to replace note values was indeed adequate
for the preservation of a body of largely monophonic song.
A search of the Shaker song manuscripts should provide a judgment on the accessibility and usage of the small letteral system of notation. According to Daniel W. Patterson, author of The Shaker Spiritual, his research yielded "nearly eight hundred manuscripts," and represented eighteen Shaker colonies (1979, xiii). Of these manuscripts, 744 contain examples of small letteral notation, bearing out the accessibility and usage of the notational system.
Summary and Conclusions
The creation of the characters of small letteral notation was an attempt to address an age-old problem faced by generations of musicians; that is, the development of a functional system of music notation. The Shakers apparently felt the need for a simple system of notation which could be uniformly applied at all Shaker colonies.
The materials and methods of instruction found in the four treatises of Isaac Newton Youngs and Russel Haskell comprise the most significant sources of information on the system of small letteral notation. While committed to a study of "worldly" musical practices, these two men were compelled to document a tradition that was exclusively Shaker. Utilitarian in nature, this system of small letteral notation was a significant factor in the musical unification of widespread Shaker colonies, and can be viewed as a mark of separation from "worldly" ways. For Sister Betsy Spaulding, as well as many other Shakers, the tools of small letteral notation served as a creative vehicle for the preservation of thousands of songs which might otherwise have been forgotten.
References Patterson, Daniel W. The Shaker Spiritual. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979.
Youngs, Isaac N. "The Rudiments of Music Displayed and explained. With a Selected Variety of Lessons and Examples." Washington, D.C., The Library of Congress Music Division, MT .Y56 case, manuscript treatise, 1833.
Youngs, Isaac N. "A Short Abridgement Of The Rules Of Music With Lessons For Exercise, and A few Observations; For new Beginners." New Lebanon, New York, 1843, 1846.