William Walker (composer)

Walker learned shape note music in singing schools; it had been used by Baptist and Methodist preachers in the Second Great Awakening to help spread Christianity in the South.

Because the music could be read and sung by amateurs, hymns in shape note annotation became the centerpiece of many revivals and camp meetings on the frontier.

[3] In 1835, Walker published a tunebook entitled The Southern Harmony, a compilation of hymns using the four-shape shape note system of notation.

After the Civil War, Walker published a tunebook entitled The Christian Harmony (1867), in which he adopted a seven-shape notation.

For the additional three shapes, Walker devised his own system - an inverted key-stone for "do", a quarter-moon for "re", and an isosceles triangle for "si" (or "ti").

Glenn C. Wilcox (references below) describes the process as follows, quoting from Walker's own introduction: to a "great many good airs (which I could not find in any publication, nor in manuscript)" he has written parts and assigned himself as composer.

This ... shows his tacit acceptance of the commonality of many of the tunes... and the probability that many had achieved the status of folk song, although he of course did not use that term.In working from original tune to finished hymn, Walker borrowed lyrics from established poets such as Charles Wesley (a common practice in his tradition), who had set many of his works to music earlier.