Dr. William Mahrt offered a treasure trove of historical, liturgical, theological, and anecdotal information to those of us fortunate to be in his sessions at the NOLA Chant Intensive. Some of the gold glimmered immediately, and so many of the gems will refract and challenge us to examine them with reflection for years.One of the most compelling notions for me was his depiction of how the oral/aural transmission of chant melodies, associated with specific psalm texts succeeded by their inculcation with very young children in monasteries. Basically, Mahrt explained, the innate capacity of pre-adolescent children to permanently absorb environmental input by rote experience was capitalized upon by generations of monks, who as children themselves, were vessels storing vintages of chant, and ultimately transmitters of the continued progression of the repertoire necessary to celebrate the hours of each day, and each week.
After coming home from NOLA, one of my fellow teachers at our parish school who is also our accompanist for our Friday school Masses, as well as for weekend liturgies relayed to me that, as I was absent for our Friday Mass that week, the celebrant had his wires crossed, and recited the Kyrie, and as it was the feast of St. John Neumann looked over to her to initiate the singing of a Gloria, which is normally not part of the school’s repertoire.
In my mind I instantly linked that need to what Mahrt had said about the capacity of young children to easily learn, and decided to teach the ICEL MR3 Glory to God chant to the entire student body in one week. This was certainly not their first experience with learning chant. That’s been part of the curriculum for years. But this was a matter of intent and purpose from my perspective. I even created a score for our Bell Choir, knowing it would take them longer, as they are the 8th grade, outside of the “sponge” maxim.
The second week back, I prepared the school Liturgy of the Word for today on Monday, and having explained the “why” of singing the Gloria on the feast day of a saint during the previous week, was further motivated by knowing we would celebrate the life and sainthood of St. Agnes at the week’s end. So, refinement and practice, along with context was heavily accentuated in this week’s classes.
So, all I want to share is that likely for the first time in decades, students from our parochial school prayed, not performed, the Glory to God in the unique language of chant. I had provided all with half-sheet scores, but I know they could have sung the new translation even without them, and will likely do so next time around. They sang earnestly, some imperfectly, but most of them in a very solid, tuned unison. They phrased knowingly, keeping the text moving effortlessly and cadencing at full bars through listening together.
This is not about verifying Dr. Mahrt’s cognitive theories of learning modalities, or my ability as a teacher, or their ability to acquire a fairly formulaic setting. This was about their understanding, from the adolescents down to the primary first grade level, that this is how we best pray and praise God. It is not at all like some of their favorite songs or hymns, or akin to the “hiccup” style of recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or the Pledge of Allegiance. I felt the joy of the angels as my baritone flowed with their treble purity. And they know that the Gloria was a hymn given us by the angel choirs upon His birth, and a foretaste of unheard-of musics that attend our singing praise to our Creator and Father in the heavenly Kingdom.
I don’t think I want to think in terms of bricks anymore. Child by child, no matter what their age. Yeah, that works.
The teaching must start now – God willing…or another generation will escape us…God forbid.
Yes, Charles, I am in complete agreement with the teaching of young children in the "sponge" age. I, myself, am an example of this theory. Now that I am a senior, I notice that at Schola rehearsal, memories of the good nun teaching us grammar school children the chants that were sung at Mass and Benediction. They are stored deep within my brain. When our esteemed director hands out chant notation, the chants flow forth, even though we, as children, used modern notation.
At my last parish, a very small children' choir was attempted. No chant, just hymns and children's songs written by their director were taught. What a missed opportunity! At that time, the renewal of the use of chant was not in full swing. Yet, this is where our hope lies – in our youth. They will remember if we provide them with plenty of opportunity to hear and sing chant. We should start with the littlest ones. They will grow into the young adults who will be praising God with the music that we think is closest to that of the angels.
So awesome
Lovely post! Now, suppose a music-loving homeschooling mother with absolutely no background in chant wanted to begin sharing its riches with her children…what would you suggest as a starting point?
Thank you, Beth. I'm not the expert on this board, but one thing I notice in the primary levels' classes is that the kids "get" the difference between spoken recitation and cantillated recitation. I prepare this by having them recall how people learn to "cadence" commonly recited texts, such as the Pledge or the Our Father, so that there's a semblance of unison recitation. Then I demonstrate how one of these could not be done "chorally" in the manner we use to normally read or speak prose, without the measured pauses (hiccups.)
Then I'll just pick up the nearest book, read a passage without rhythmic accentuation, but observing natural pauses due to punctuation. I like to pick something dry, like instructions from a repair manual. Then I repeat the same passage, but cantillate it with various words being "pointed" by using upper/lower neighbor tones, sentence endings denoted by the final syllable being sung a minor third down from the reciting tone, etc.
You could start with various devotional prayers with invocational phrases of various lengths, and work with your kids on how to identify syllables that could be "pointed" to indicate importance or stressation as a means for both comprehension and cadence. Once you have the prayers pointed, you can work on having your children acquire the ability to sing evenly through the texts while observing where the point markings shift the pitches.
Just a start.
Noel Jones, over at Musica Sacra Forum, has a literal primer "coloring book" method that is very interesting.
At the Musica Sacra website, you could research the methods of Justine Ward. There is one collection of hers, "The Story of Salvation" that appeals to kids 2nd and up.
And I'm sure the real experts will chime in with some solid direction for you. (Kathy?)
Thanks again, Beth. Two of my grandsons, by the way, were among the student body chanting the Glory.
Beth,
I'm not an expert, tho thanks, Charles. But I do have a children's chant program that works.
For a long time I've been aware of the fact that we rehearse before the Blessed Sacrament. I think this is important. I'm beginning to consider the fact that we do not sit around a piano, and that we consistently do not rely on any instrument for pitch or melody. This means that before introducing a chant to the children, the teacher has to learn it, at least in a provisional way. I do a lot of rote learning, and gradually teach them how to read. They always have the books in their hands. Usually we sing from the Parish Book of Chant. One of many stories I could offer in thanks to Richard Rice happened yesterday. We are learning the solemn Salve and a question arose about a salicus. The kids–these particular kids were 8 and 9–drew my attention to the relevant passages in the explanatory pages in the back of the PBC.
A completely separate story is how they talked me into teaching them about the Solesmes Method.
So my basic advice is, buy some Parish Books of Chant, teach yourself some chants, pray with the kids, and sing with them. Perhaps you will find, as I have, that the challenge is to stay a step ahead 🙂
Children at a young age can learn chant as easily as other languages. By the time I was 10, I could sing 5 Latin Ordinaries by heart, Credos 1 and 3, the Ambrosian Gloria, and many chant hymns. This just underscores that. When the "reforms" to the Liturgy came in 1964, I saw no real point to them because I was actually (and actively) participating in the Mass in both word and song.
Beth,
To amplify what Kathy and Charles have said, I'll add my experience with my own children.
I started, for myself, with recordings. Listening to recordings until I could sing with the recording. That gave me a "feel" for it.
Then, using the Parish Book of Chant and, later, the Liber Usualis and the Monastic Antiphonale, I started reading along with the neumes as I listened to and hummed the recording. Eventually, I dropped the recording for some pieces that I know well-enough to sing from memory. When I get lost with a new piece, I try to ground myself in a similar phrase from a piece I do know and just keep hammering at it.
I'm using, basically, the same approach with my kids: they're learning it all by ear. I play good recordings of a specific piece and I sing it either from memory or while reading the notation. Enough repeated exposure and they will start to imitate.
I elected to start, in our home, with sung Compline. We follow the Benedictine formula so it never changes: same Psalms and prayers every night. The stability of the texts is important, since we sing it in Latin. It goes slowly but it is working. We also sing the Angelus (but in English). Four months in, our 3 and 5 year olds can hum along or sing a word here and there with the Psalms and they can confidently sing the Versicles and Responses. Our 7 year old is a bit more reticent.
They all have the Angelus and the Salve Regina (not the Solemn Monastic, just the "regular" one that "everyone knows") memorized and all three have been observed singing it quietly to themselves at different points.
Learning by rote and singing by rote will get you and your children through the basics. There are excellent recordings available for both the Mass in either form and for parts of the Office.
I'll stress here a distinction that I apply when teaching Latin: there is a difference between teaching the Latin (or chant) and teaching the science of Latin grammar (neumes and interpretation). So often the two get conflated.
Focus on the one (the act of chanting) until you build up a good stock of chants in your memory. Then start trying to learn, by yourself or through a chant workshop, the science of chant. A five year old doesn't need to know that we're chanting this Psalm in Tone 8G or that Father sang the Preface last week in the Solemn Tone. It's important to know once you've hit a certain point. But more important for those of us starting out is to just learn to sing a few chants by rote and build from there.
I'll also second the recommendation of The Story of Redemption for Children. It strikes at several points that all need coverage and does so efficiently: a gentle introduction to chant, a recapitulation of the essential movements in Salvation History and the Liturgical Year, well-structured English rhyme, and (for those of us trying to learn the science at the same time we learn the chant) identification of what tone or mode or hymn served as the metrical base for the English poetry. It is written with modern notation with one exception (and that piece's "tune" is covered earlier in the text in modern notation).
Please let me know if you have any questions. I'm not a music educator — just a layman with a growing family concerned to recover and preserve what has been so nearly lost.
Agree completely with the previous Anonymous. By sixth grade we had been studying the Square Notes workbook for several years. The whole school sang the parish Mass on a regular basis using a card from GIA (when it actually printed out GREGORIAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICA): Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Mass XVI, Gloria XV and Credo I (by the way, why are all the Vatican televised Masses stuck on Credo III and Mass VIII?). In high school we had the little red Kyriale from McLaughlin and Reilly and could do Masses I, VIII, IX and X (for Our Lady's feasts), XI (for the green Sundays), XV, XVI, XVII and XVIII and, of course, the Requiem Mass. Along with the Ambrosian Gloria and Credos I, III and IV. One of the seniors directed, using a special Kyriale that had the red lines in it for him to move his hand as he directed. And the highest level of technology in these schools was the Palmer Method with our Shaeffer fountain pens. So I KNOW today's kids could CERTAINLY learn at least the ENGLISH chants with no problem – but we did it in Latin (and we were not the brightest candles on the altar, you know?)
If you think chant is important, the kids will learn it.
Where there's a will there's a way.