Ideas Wanted - Lecture on Teaching Gregorian Chant to Children
  • OlbashOlbash
    Posts: 314
    OK, CMAA hive mind, here it is:

    I've got an opportunity to present a lecture on "Teaching Gregorian Chant to Children" at the AGO (American Guild of Organists) National Convention in Boston this summer. Any advice on what to present? Do you have ideas? Handouts/materials?

    This is an opportunity to present something very near and dear to us to a national audience, an opportunity to promote the CMAA to a group of people who (can you believe it?) may have never heard of the CMAA. How can I use this great opportunity to promote our great organization and all the good work YOU are doing?
    Thanked by 6CHGiffen canadash expeditus1 M. Jackson Osborn noel jones, aago MaryAnn Carr Wilson
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    I would definitely arrange for some of your choristers to accompany you there and perform. It's impossible to believe what children can do unless you actually witness it.

    Congratulations, Michael!!!
    Thanked by 2Ben BruceL
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    I second Kathy's suggestion about arranging for your choristers to go with you and perform there. Nothing gets the message home better than a live demonstration by an accomplished group such as yours, Michael. A lecture/presentation such as this sounds perfect.

    Congratulations, Michael, and thanks for your hard work on behalf of the CMAA.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    I'd immediately contact Dr Alise Brown at the University of Northern Colorado. She's an expert in teaching Ward Method and very helpful. I'll PM her contact details.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    A CMAA table at the convention would be a Good Thing (tm).
    Thanked by 4CHGiffen noel jones, aago Ben BruceL
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Start with the Missal Chants and keep on using them.
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    Great ideas above!

    If you cannot bring your choir with you (which, with children requires a lot of help, organization and money), record them and play the recording throughout your talk. Something like this might be effective: http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_whitacre_a_virtual_choir_2_000_voices_strong.html

    I agree that Missal Chants are a great way to begin as well as a Marian Antiphon and a chant from Good Friday/Pentacost/Corpus Christi - something practical they can use right away.

    Congratulations!
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    With genuine (and I mean it!) respect, I am rather astonished that what with the strides in chant scholarship in recent decades, the pairing of Ward Method and Gregorian chant would be seriously entertained by anyone who would wish to make a good impression on a scholarly community. Perhaps you might contact Fr Columba Kelly for some sage advice to lead you down the right path. I have had great success with engendering a mastery of solfege as a means of chant reading fluency among both children and adults.

    Liber Cantualis is an excellent place to start for basic repertory that graduates from the very easy to the not easy. Also, be sure to include chant in English as well as Latin. For this the work of Fr Columba and Fr Weber is a must, as would be some exemplary repertory from Bruce Ford's American Gradual. When you use Gregorian hymns, teach them in Latin, and in English that can be sung.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    I am not Ward trained, though I defer to Jeffrey Morse and Dr. Brown, who have fine academic credentials and have had much success using Ward. I'm sure there are others that have adapted Ward, too.

    Speaking for my program, I use lots of exercises and games, Ward-based and otherwise, to train children in solfege. I am very grateful to Jeffrey Morse, who has given me so many good ideas. I do not use any particular text or method, but rather have designed the program based on repertoire we sing in the Mass.

    Currently, we have 40 children in the program. More advanced choristers sing the propers in a schola. Intermediate singers master the responses and the ordinary chants. Newbies sing chant hymns (and vernacular hymns). The sing 6-8 times a year, but have classes from September-late May/ early June.


    All chants are learned acapella, with solfege. If I may suggest, and considering your audience, I would stress how valuable it is for children to learn to sing acapella, in tune and with good tone and flowing tempo. This is essential if the goal is music literacy. The singers need to develop responsibility for tuning and tempo, and most can do so rather quickly. I've seen several trained young people in their early teens go on to sing polyphony with ease as a result. When they're not in the loft, they're belting out the people's chants and vernacular hymns in the nave. :)

    Teaching children acapella chant in Latin is not a Herculean task, and I've found it surprisingly easy, as the younger voices have more energy and fewer bad habits than older singers in general. They are eager to learn and very eager to pray and build their singing voices.

    Treating Choristers as a class, with homework expectations and lots of fun amidst the hard work, is bearing fruit for the program. Roughly 1/3 of the 26 member Adult Liturgical Choir members are now teens, 3 sop, 1 alto, 2 tenor, 2 bass.

    Because Choristers is a class, and not the average club activity, there is an atmosphere where boys and girls learn side by side. It is not a fun and frilly, "girly" activity so young boys are interested, and generally comprise 40% of the members. It also helps that the priests are involved, and encourage the young men.

    I hope your presentation goes well- and thanks for taking the time to do it!! I think if more directors knew how well children can learn, and how eager they are to do so, there could be many more chant programs for our youth.
    Thanked by 6CHGiffen canadash Earl_Grey noel jones, aago M. Jackson Osborn BruceL
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    With genuine (and I mean it!) respect, I am rather astonished that what with the strides in chant scholarship in recent decades, the pairing of Ward Method and Gregorian chant would be seriously entertained by anyone who would wish to make a good impression on a scholarly community.


    You've got to be kidding me. First of all, that you believe this and second of all, that you believe NPM AGO is a scholarly community.

    The membership of NPM AGO is low on scholars and is full of average people who ended up doing music. That's what it was created for and what it is. CMAA is top heavy with people who think that they are scholars....and many who are.

    I sincerely doubt that anyone in NPM AGO cares a hoot about what the strides in chant scholarship are in recent decades because very few in this group do either. Otherwise we'd be discussing it.

    Both groups are not about elitism, they are about musicians doing a workmanlike job.

    If the NPM AGO people had an interest in implementing chant, they'd be here. It's absolutely wonderful that Olbash has this opportunity. Let's not bog down with criticism of very effective teaching methods.

    Next we are going to hear that Words With Wings, an extremely effective modern plan, contradicts recent strides in recent chant scholarship and should be abandoned before it...gets children and adults actually singing chant. Or chanting singing.

    Said with (irreverent and astonished) lack of respect.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Noel, this is about outreach at an AGO convention, not NPM.
    Thanked by 1noel jones, aago
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Never mind...well, no! Changes inserted above...

    There WILL be more interest in basic chant singing at AGO than NPM. A list, created by members for Olbash, of common organ repertoire based on chant with square note music included would be of great interest as a handout.
  • Ally
    Posts: 227
    What I have learned from Fr. Columba Kelly has been extremely helpful in teaching chant to children. We spend a lot of time singing a cappella, we learn solfege, but MOST importantly for chanting we spend a lot of time speaking through the texts (English or Latin - we sing a few Latin chant-hymns, and they sing some SEPs every time they sing at Mass). Kids are smart - they get how important the words are, the key to the chants.
    Thanked by 3noel jones, aago MaryAnn Carr Wilson CHGiffen
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    Michael,

    I doubt if you need much advice but make your emphasis the efficacy of chant, with its four-line staff notation, as a superior means for teaching music to children. Stress why many prominent choir schools immerse incoming students with chant from day one. (There are no key or time signatures to prolong and complicate the learning process; basic intervals, tone production, breathing, enunciation, phrasing, etc., are addressed from the outset and reap payoffs rather quickly; and, of course, chant provides a solid foundation for learning instruments such as the organ.)

    The AGO is a non-denominational organization so stay clear of any us-versus-them agenda. (I would suggest that even if it were a Catholic setting.) Let the performance of your choir demonstrate the validity of your argument.
    Thanked by 3noel jones, aago MaryAnn Carr Wilson CHGiffen
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