Anthony Johnson Showalter: A Pioneer in Southern Gospel Music Education

Anthony Johnson Showalter (c. 1853–1924) was a music educator, gospel composer, publisher, and considered a pioneer in gospel music and education in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Showalter is notably mentioned in numerous texts and studies related to gospel music; however, little data has been collected regarding the tools he used in singing schools—namely, the rudiment books he wrote and the schools where he used the curriculum. The purpose of this study is to discover Showalter’s possible motivation to begin his career, his determination in writing music education curriculum, organizing singing schools, his reasonings for focusing on seven-shape note style, and his influence into the twenty-first century. Materials analyzed included Showalter’s rudiment books, extant copies of his periodical, “The Music Teacher and Home Magazine,” and interviews at present-day gospel singing schools. Extant research related to four-shape and seven-shape hymnody and education was also reviewed. Findings indicate that Showalter was a progressive student-centered educator who utilized alternate tools in helping many with literacy by organizing the Southern Normal Musical Institute. Showalter created materials and opportunities which were accessible to the advanced and the beginner, hence providing a future for gospel singing schools well into the twenty-first century.

Secular Music in Shape Notes

The distinctive repertory and performance practices of American shape-note (fasola) singing during the early 1800s, while sacred in origin, made a much wider impact in secular realms than one might suppose. The religious connotations of the music were readily accepted on the frontier but did not limit it to purely sacred uses (in other words, public worship). The singing school was a social institution as well as a religious and educational one. Contemporary accounts show that young people viewed singing schools as a valuable opportunity for courting in a relatively unsupervised atmosphere, and several writers noted the apparent discrepancy between the words sung and the deeds done at such gatherings. Tunebooks throughout the era reveal a highly diverse list of secular songs and song types.