Project Idea - Going Old School. Really Old.
One of my favorite subjects/lessons/projects to teach when I taught 8th grade general music was Gregorian Chant. The history of it. The beautiful illuminated manuscripts. Guido D’Arezzo. All of it.
Believe it or not, my students LOVED it too! Why? Well it could have been that when I was teaching (over 15 years ago now), Halo was a very popular video game and the students would tell me that Gregorian Chant sounded “just like Halo”. I played them tracks from the incredibly successful CD - Chant - The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de los Silos. I taught them all about neumes, the beginnings of both written notation, and modes. I took them to a site that explained what neumes were and what their modern notation equivalents were as well. Amazingly, that site is still up and running. I also created a PowerPoint presentation to teach with - included below (as well as a Keynote and PDF version).
I am often asked how technology can be integrated into any aspect of a music curriculum. Using Gregorian Chant as an example, the following is exactly what I did. Sometimes the end product shouldn’t be a technology project - sometimes the technology can simply be the resources that you point students to. I hope that you try this out with your students. Even the most jaded middle and high school kids should enjoy it.
Illuminated Manuscript Project
For this project, students will create their own interpretation of an illuminated manuscript. They will be provided with the following resources:
Illumintaed Manuscript website from the Victoria & Albert Museum
A 11” x 18” piece of white/off white construction paper (ask your art teacher nicely)
Once the students have learned a little about the history and structure of Gregorian Chant using the attached presentation, they will be asked to create their own illuminated manuscript. First, they will choose a funny Latin phrase to write their neumatic notation to. I prefer using these funny phrases because a) it stays away from religious scripture (personal preference) and b) the students LOVE them.
Next, the student follow the instructions in the “How to Age Paper” tutorial video. Be sure to tell them to ask their parents/guardians to help them. You might also want to have a few pieces that are already aged on hand in case students don’t have access to an oven where they live.
After their paper is aged, the students will write their staves, clef, and neumatic notation along with their chosen Latin phrases. There should be at least 3 staves on the paper.
Finally, the students will imitate the artwork viewed on the V&A Museum website to decorate their illuminated manuscripts. I always required that the first letter of the first word in the phrase be highly decorated.
When everyone is finished, you can hang their work around the music room. My students always loved this project and the results were often extremely impressive. If you do try this out with your students, please send me some pictures! I’d love to see them.