Thie things kids say...
  • WendiWendi
    Posts: 638
    I had my Gregorian Missal sitting open on the table and my ten year old daughter happened to look at it.

    Her question...

    "Why are those notes so fancy looking?"

    Not... funny looking, odd, strange or any of the other negative words she could have chosen to describe the square note, but fancy looking. I thought you all might appreciate that.
    Thanked by 7CHGiffen Mark M. Ben M. Jackson Osborn Kathy Earl_Grey Casavant Organist
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    The fact that she asked and opened it up for explanation is encouraging. Keep those books open!
    Thanked by 1Mark M.
  • WendiWendi
    Posts: 638
    I ended up taking her to this month's chant workshop at my parish. She took four pages of notes complete with illustrations and asked some pretty good questions.

    If I were gazing into the future (which I'm not because Catholics can't do that whole fortune telling thing) I'd say she has a promising future in sacred music.
    Thanked by 2SamuelDorlaque Casavant Organist
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,937
    Wendi, we don't gaze into the future, we make educated guesses. ;-)
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    When my son was about four years old, we were in your typical Haugan/Haas parish. Once we were in the car and some plainchant came on the radio and he said, "That sounds like church." That is to say, it sounded like it belonged in church in spite of the fact that he had never heard it in that context. A four-year old can get it right; what's our problem? :)
    Thanked by 5CharlesW Earl_Grey Jeffrey Quick SamuelDorlaque Casavant Organist
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 892
    Story one: When I first started introducing chant--particularly a cappella and more florid, like a Kyrie (something the adults don't let me do too often) I'm always amazed at how many young children and infants will chant along as if it's familiar to them.

    Story two: I was rehearsing the hymn "Take Up Your Cross" with a group of school children and one noticed that I wasn't playing the notes as printed in the hymnal (i.e. I was playing ERHALT UNS HERR while the hymnal had O WALY WALY). I played a few bars of each for comparison and explained that another tune of the same meter can be substituted. The astute 10 year old then said that she liked the way I played it better, because the melody was "heavy like the cross."

    I believe it was at that same rehearsal when I was going over a more "contemporary" hymn (from the 70s, though I can't remember which one) when the same child said that she didn't like that one because it was silly.

    There's always hope.
    Thanked by 1SamuelDorlaque
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 417
    For some reason a majority of people think guitars and contemporary music will keep kids in church...
  • WendiWendi
    Posts: 638
    Charles...as the twig is bent...so grows the tree. :) Bending some twigs over here.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    My (mostly) non-Catholic school choir is learning to sing Credo I. We sing other stuff in Latin, too, and the children enjoy singing without accompaniment. Imagine if we disbelieved all the other lies the contemporary musical scene sold us?
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    What's so amazing to me is that the children are eating up the chants and polyphony, while the adults are complaining. One child recently told me...."this kind of music makes me feel like I'm in Heaven"......well, isn't the point? There's hope, but in the meantime, the adults are always an uphill battle.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 892
    "Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." --Jesus (Matthew 18:3)
  • WendiWendi
    Posts: 638
    Be of good cheer music teacher. Not all adults are complaining. I had five different people tell me after Mass today that they loved the music and thought it was so beautiful and reverent. I was completely stunned by two of them since I expected them to be in the complaining camp.
    Thanked by 1SamuelDorlaque
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
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