From Britain's Catholic Herald (hat tip to Amy Welborn for the article) - England parish's children find traditional sacred music exciting as well as eminently singable. (Yes, I love talking about music; I enjoyed hearing about this).
A mass of bouncy children appeared at my feet in the main hall of St
Wulstan’s in Wolstanton, Staffordshire. They had run down from their
choir practice in the organ loft, where they had been rehearsing the
plainchant Orbis Factor Mass and a couple of Renaissance motets.
Were they enjoying it, I asked? “Yes!” they screamed.
And what was their favourite piece to sing?
“Agnus Dei and the Sanctus from the Orbis Factor,” said a couple of the nine-year-olds, quick as a flash.
David and April West...converted from the Anglican faith in 1993 and had no sooner
entered their new Catholic community than they had begun to reorganise
its musical foundations.
They were trained musicians and were sick of hearing people say there
was no decent music in the Catholic Church. “It was crazy to think
people actually believed this. I mean, think of all those great
Catholic composers,” says David.
So, instead of grumbling, they decided to do something about it.
“We’ve never sung ‘Bind us Together’, nor have we done a single Israeli
Mass, nor the [shudder] ‘Gloria, clap, clap,’ ” says David with pride.
Contrary to popular belief, these pieces did not have a cachet with the
young.
So
when the Wests set up a junior choir to run alongside the senior one,
they didn’t shy away from the hard stuff – they embarked upon teaching
the children serious, unadulterated Church music.
There was to be no talking down to the young’uns; instead, they were to
be introduced to some of the finest music ever written. The kids loved
it, and were eager to learn.
As a result, they quickly got the hang of the plainsong notation and
the Latin, and now have several heavyweight pieces under their belts...
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