New Harp of Columbia Shape Notes

[danielmusician]

The New Harp of Columbia, by M.L. Swan, is a shape note tunebook still in use in Tennessee and North Carolina. It uses a system of 7 shapes similar to the other three 7 shape note systems already in the SMuFL spec (Aikin, Walker, and Funk).

In order to add support for the shape note system used in the New Harp of Columbia, the note heads for Do and Re would need to be added. Do is an hourglass, and Re is a reversed c with a vertical bar in the middle. For the shaded or black head versions, for Do, the hourglass is shaded, and for Re, the half circle section created by dividing the reversed c with a vertical bar is shaded. Ti is the same as "Triangle up" which is the Do in Aikin 7-shape system. Mi, Fa, Sol, and La are the same as the Aikin system.

[dspreadbury]

For the time being (primarily because we don't have enough room in the Shape notes notehead supplement range, which only has room for two more glyphs), I propose that we will add just the white and black forms for these noteheads, rather than also adding whole and double whole noteheads.

The new glyphs will be:

Name	Code point
noteShapeHourglassWhite	U+E1CC
noteShapeHourglassBlack	U+E1CD
noteShapeReversedCWhite	U+E1CE
noteShapeReversedCBlack	U+E1CF

[JeremyShipp]

"Do" (hourglass) is symmetrial: The stem is always attached to the center of the notehead. The black notehead may be drawn ever so slightly tighter at the "waist", so that white and black read as balanced.

[JeremyShipp]

"Re" (reverse 'C') always has its stem attached at the middle of the circle of the 'C', and it always opens to the left, whether the stem points down or up.

On the white head, the stem extends through the center of the 'C', such that the white space on the left equals the white space on the right. The line through the center of the notehead is ever-so-slightly wider than the stem line.

On the black head, the space of the 'C' is split exactly in half, with the left half white and the right half black. Thus, the dividing line through the middle of the shape does not have any width, which is different from the white head.

[JeremyShipp]

The other shapes are unique in the Swan system, although similar to other systems.

The "Mi" (diamond) in black form is narrower than in its white form; the black "Mi" head is a square that is ever-so-slightly stretched width-wise; and the top point is ever-so-slightly leftward of the bottom point, while the left point is ever-so-slightly lower than the right point.

The white head "Mi" is more elongated. Two sides are fatter (fattened toward the inside, not to the outside).

[JeremyShipp]

The Swan "Fa" is at a right angle with a 45 degree diagonal; it is not elongated at all. The white head has the same perimeter as the black head.

The vertical and diagonal lines are the same weight as the stem. The horizontal line, which is always closer to the center of the stem, is thicker--fattened toward the center, not toward the exterior.

[JeremyShipp]

"Sol" is quite different between black and white.

[JeremyShipp]

"La" has the same perimeter whether black or white.