Friends, I am working on a project for Catholic missionaries to use when teaching music history to their students all around the world in places such as Guyana and Taiwan, and also for the education of priests and religious, seminarians, etc. These articles will be posted on a website that my husband and I are currently developing for a religious order, but will be so useful to many in the Church to have this "one semester course", so to speak. The topics are, for example, "St. Hildegard" or "Keyboard music of the Baroque". It is general, and not intended to be overly academic, but roughly a two-page article for each subject/topic. These can be fleshed out with recordings and photos/graphs on the website also.

Since this project requires such a large scope - I am looking for helpers to give submissions for this worthy project of educating about the history of Catholic Music. It is called the "Treasure Trove Series" and it will be freely available for all. We will credit your authorship, if you'd like, link to other websites, etc. You may also submit a brief bio. If many people contribute just one portion, then it will make for light work for everyone, and a beautiful result for the Church.

If you are interested in contributing to this project over the summer, please email me at: ldknutson@gmail.com
I will then give you a current list of "chapters/article titles" and see if that fits with what you would like to contribute.

This project began when a missionary sister contacted me and asked about giving a brief overview of "Music in the Middle Ages" from a Catholic perspective, because she was teaching a Middle Ages unit to her high school girls in Taiwan, where textbooks in English were not available. Often, missionaries do not have a lot of time to devote to research, and what is available on the internet is often incorrect or overwhelming... As St. Ignatius says, "Those who have the knowledge should share with those who do not... and this is love." (my paraphrase of Spiritual Exercises, 231)

Of course, it should be mentioned that books can and should be recommended, as there are so many very good books to read, but the idea in our project is to give a "newsletter edition" that is for a general audience, and is brief. For example, we could send every missionary a copy of a book (Deacon Schaefer's for example), but the internet allows us to expand with images and recordings at the same time, but also to bring out the essentials for a non-musician or high school student to know.

Consider contributing an article or two as part of your charitable giving this summer!

+AMDG

Thank you,
Lisa Knutson