« Previous: "Whoever is doing your music needs to be drawn and quartered."
Next: Dominica XXVI Post Pentecostem (1962 Missale) »

Ward Method Video

The Church Music Association of America has released a video (WMV format) of the Ward Method of music instruction in action. Gisbert Brandt is the instructor, and the students are from the Koelnerdomsingschule (Cologne Cathedral Choir School).

The Ward Method is unique amongst all methods of music instruction in that it has a basis in Gregorian Chant. Thus, it is a uniquely Catholic method of music pedagogy.

[soapbox]While the reason this method was suddenly discarded in the late 1960s is obvious to anyone conversant in Catholic liturgical history, it does not change the fact that its lack of use by schools that bear the name Catholic is a grave injustice to Catholic art specifically, and art in general. It is past time for this method to be re-implemented on a large scale.[/soapbox]

Posted 11.12.2005
by Aristotle Esguerra
5 comments.
Filed under: Relevant Reading.

Other posts on this date

Leave a Reply




*Required. E-Mail will not be published.


*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
Click to hear an audio file of the anti-spam word

5 Comments

I had a discussion about the Method with a grade-school music teacher (a nun) who was VERY sympathetic to Chant and rightly-ordered Liturgy, and quite experienced in teaching chilluns–AND experienced with the Ward Method.

Her summary: “Very difficult to use this method.”

Personally, I do not know…


Dad29
11.12.2005 @ 4:04 pm #

Although I never received Ward Method instruction per se, many of the ideas have worked their way into the mainstream of music instruction. Other than the melodic hand gestures (which *are* cute), I have seen most of the bits and pieces in various classrooms (though none of the Catholic ones, oddly enough).


blahedo
11.14.2005 @ 9:58 pm #

Ah, so that method has a name? It was how Maryknoll Sisters taught us music in the (Catholic) schools I went to in the Philippines!


marie
11.16.2005 @ 5:07 am #

I think my elementary music school teacher must have learned by that method, because she taught us using solfege and with other similar pedagogical techniques to the Ward Method. We all learned how to read basic music and understood notation down to the 16th note and basic syncopation, if I recall correctly, by the end of elementary school. In my case, it prepared me very well to enter the band in grade 5 and continue in music through my first year of college. I am so glad to find that there is the beginning of a renaissance in this method, and hope that it will become widespread again. Folks who are interested in acquiring instructional materials can do so through Catholic University of America Press (scroll down to “Ward Method” in the list).


Un Séminariste
11.17.2005 @ 12:18 pm #

I agree, Ward is great for Catholic schools because it is based on chant. I studied it at CUA for three summers, taught it for four years, loved it totally, it’s very effective and inexpensive. No Orffestras needed! All you need is a pointer stick, a pitch pipe, and some printed posterboard sheets.
The frustrating part was only having students once a week for 45 minutes, for Ward was designed to be practiced for a few minutes a day in the regular classroom. It really helped my elementary-age choir students, and even pitch-challenged kids improved.
I used many elements of Ward in music classes outside of parochial school as well. I hope it has a well-deserved renaissance.


SimmEcats
01.02.2006 @ 4:44 pm #

« Previous: "Whoever is doing your music needs to be drawn and quartered."
Next: Dominica XXVI Post Pentecostem (1962 Missale) »
A Musical Journey through GIRM