Episode 6 – Historical Techniques for Teaching Music to Children – with Charlie Weaver
Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast
On today's episode, we'll look at how choristers learned music in times past. Our guest is Charles Weaver. Charlie is on the faculty at the Juilliard School, where he teaches performance practice on plucked instruments. He has performed with Quicksilver, Piffaro, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Folger Consort, Apollo's Fire, Blue Heron, Musica Pacifica, the New York Continuo Collective, and Tenet. He is the associate schola director at the Church of St. Mary in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he has worked in the past with the student schola program, and where he continues to sing and do some directing with the St. Mary's Schola Cantorum, specializing in Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian chant. He is also known for his careful and excellent preparation of performing editions from original manuscripts. More information about the St. Mary's Schola Cantorum is available here: http://www.stmarynorwalk.net/music/ A recent project for a historically-informed performance of the Monteverdi 1610 Vespers in which Mr Weaver was involved can be heard here: https://youtu.be/ifchV9VBA20 A recent recording of the St. Mary's Schola Cantorum can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP-qiggAd28&list=OLAK5uy_kK9s1nHuds5I54uQD6ckiVfCF9Lu-ayew More information on the summer courses at St. Joseph's Seminary, including "Teaching Gregorian Chant to Children" can be found here: http://jenniferdonelson.com/classes
About Podcast
Welcome to Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast with your host Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka. We address topics of interest both to priests and liturgical musicians, as well as a general audience of Catholics interested in learning more about the Catholic Church's teachings and treasury of sacred music. Our topics range from discussion of Church documents on sacred music, to the music of certain composers or eras, Gregorian chant, the role of music in Catholic education, and techniques for directing a better choir rehearsal. We'll interview bishops, priests, music directors, composers, teachers, philosophers, and theologians. We'll talk to people who found a home in the Catholic Church because they heard the call of Christ in the Church's sacred music. We'll ask questions about how really great music programs are doing their work. We'll introduce you to Catholics who love their faith and, through sacred music, offer all their efforts for his glory and the sanctification of all who hear them.
We aim for our podcast to be thoughtful, encouraging, and informative. We hope, too, that it will inspire and motivate you to work for the renewal of authentic beauty in sacred music—whether you're a working church musician or an average Catholic in the pews wondering what's going on. With the prayers of our patronesses, Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom and Saint Elisabeth of the Trinity, we hope to help draw souls to Christ through the beauty of the Church's sacred music.
Square Notes is the official podcast of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music. http://catholicinstituteofsacredmusic.org/