Elementary Music

"Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good and just and beautiful."

Welcome to another exciting year of music at St. Mary's! 

Music plays an essential role within the Classical Education model. Engaging with music from a young age enhances memory, language skills, mathematical abilities, and pattern recognition. It promotes emotional growth by allowing children to express and understand complex emotions, thereby increasing empathy and self-awareness. Exposure to classical and cultural music enriches cultural knowledge and historical context, connecting students with timeless artistic traditions. As children grow and become more aware of the world around them, music provides an avenue for expressing and exploring the culture developing around them. At St. Mary's, our goal is to support our students' holistic development and thereby nurture well-rounded, intellectually curious individuals.

Every music class begins with sung prayer. This year as we move toward full integration of a Classical Education model, I've selected several ancient prayers of the Catholic Church, sung in Latin, to begin class with. For anyone who would like to see and hear these beautiful prayers, I'll post the links below as I add them to class.

If you would like to support the music program, please consider donating one of the items found on our Amazon Wish List. 

1. Ave Maria
2. Salve Regina
3. Veni Creator Spiritus
4. Veni Emmanuel
5. Ave Verum Corpus
6. Ubi Caritas
7. Jesu Dulcis Amor Meus
8. Regina Caeli
 

Here at St. Mary's, we use curriculum based on the work of Dr. John Feierabend. 

First Steps in Music is designed to prepare children to become musical in three ways:

1. Tuneful - to have tunes in their heads and learn to coordinate their voices to sing those tunes.
2. Beatful - to feel the pulse of music and how that pulse is grouped in 2s or 3s.
3. Artful - to be moved by music in the many ways music can elicit a feelingful respnse. 

 Children who learn to be tuneful, beatful, and artful grow into adults who can sing lullabies to their children, sing in worship services, learn to play an instrument, dance at their wedding, and appreciate the arts by attending an opera performance or a symphony concert. They can develop a love of music that stays with them for the rest of their lives.

Conversational Solfege is designed to develop musical literacy in a natural and logical way. True music literacy develops the ability to hear what is seen and see what is heard. This is not a recent insight. The sequential development of skills which allows for true music literacy has been explored as far back as Guido D'Arezzo in the 11th Century. Other historical advocates for hearing eyes and seeing ears have included Lowell Mason, Sarah Glover, John Curwen, Thaddeus Giddings, Zoltan Kodaly, Edwin Gordon, and many others.

For more information on Dr. Feierabend's methodology and philosophy, please visit www.feierabendmusic.com