An American composer and compiler who was instrumental in the development of shape-note hymnody. Notes were written with different shapes for each interval (doh, re, mi, fah, sol, lah, ti) in any given key. An example might be a square shape for doh (in any key) and a triangle for sol in the respective key. "Virginia Harmony" (Carrell and Clayton) was a collection of folk tunes, in shape notation, and contains the earliest printing of the melody "Amazing Grace". ~ Keith Johnson, All Music Guide