Well, I have just been down a musicological rabbit hole in a semi-scholarly search for commonalities with shape note music. It was fun. Really. Especially for someone as deep into music dork-dom as myself.

Shape note music was originally a technique to help music masters teach hymns to groups of singers. The harmonic basis for the music seems to date back to the Protestant Reformation as a rebellion against the much more studied High Church music of the time.

It’s not much like Gregorian chant. I find it to be more human, and much less divine. Not sure if that makes sense. But it has a similar capacity to transport and uplift.