The first homeschooling book I ever read, once I began to get serious about actually homeschooling, was The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. Something with the classical (or neo-classical) approach to home education really resonated with me. Maybe it's because I could see what my own education had been lacking and how I had tried to make up for that in my last couple of years of college. When my brother, who is nearly 8 years my senior, had been in high school, he took part in what I considered a brilliant experiment: something called the humanities curriculum. Essentially, history, geography, art/architecture, music, and literature were taught collectively with history at the core. Sadly, the curriculum never took hold or was phased out by the time I reached high school, so I was left with a collection of bits and pieces of the "great conversation", with very little sense of continuity or the flow of chronological history. Perhaps it is this reason that I keep striving to help my children see how all these wonderful fields are related.
It makes sense, when using a history-centered approach to home education that the study of the history of music, or music appreciation, follow the same chronological stream as history, art, literature, etc. Naturally, this makes an in-depth study difficult when studying ancient times, since there is not much out there to read about, let alone listen to. One remedy is to embark upon the study of orchestral instruments for that year, and then pick up with listening to examples of the various time periods in the following years.
One thing I have found lacking in various homeschooling curricula is a serious enquiry into the development of western music during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Here and there some suggestions are made, perhaps a tip of the hat to Gregorian Chant or Palestrina, but nothing deeper. What a wealth of music history people are missing out on!!! What about the non-liturgical chants of Hildegard von Bingen? How about the development of secular music in the High Middle Ages? The rise of polyphony, anyone? Fortunately, a couple of years ago I came across an excellent radio show of "early music" that's available online called Harmonia, which you're able to listen to with Real Player.
Below is a framework to assist you with music appreciation in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Please note that the links for the Harmonia shows open Real Player directly and start streaming the shows. I also tried to link to the playlists for the Harmonia programs when I could. That way, you can actually see what pieces you are listening to and get a lead on recordings you might be interested in purchasing. Harmonia is in the process of updating their website and archives, so if you come across a broken link for a show, you can search through their archives.
~~~Early Middle Ages~~~
Gregorian Chant
Read more:
Learning About Gregorian Chant by the Monks of Solesmes
Gregorian Chant For Church and School (pdf): See the section titled “The Story of Gregorian Chant”
St. Gregory the Great
Minimum Repertoire of Plain Chant or Jubilate Deo (pdf) from St. Cecilia Schola (Short form ordinary in modern notation)
Ut Queant Laxis, basis for solfege
Music: An Appreciation by Roger Kamien: pp. 65-67 (part 2, section 2), multiple choice quiz
A Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Instruments
Listening:
The Soul of Chant: Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo De Silos
Kyriale MP3s
Ut Queant Laxis (8th c.) mp3
Harmonia: Revisiting Chant and Women’s Voices, Medieval Chant
Music History Listening Test 1 (first four links are gregorian chant examples. You can right click/Save Target As to download MP3 files to computer!
Hymns:
Veni Creator Spiritus from Wikipedia
Veni Creator Spiritus (choose the audio format you wish, or have it streaming)
Other:
Harmonia: 1000: A Mass for the End of Time (Anonymous 4)
1000: A Mass for the End of Time (the album promoted in the show above, available for download purchase, with audio samples)
~~~High Middle Ages~~~
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
Read More:
St. Hildegard
Translations of some of Hildegard's chants (Norma Gentile's site, a "sound shaman"...not sure about the content of the rest of the site...may be borderline "new age", but she has sound clips and has a lovely voice)
Hildegard of Bingen and the Re/Visionary Feminine (a paper written by my friend, Krista)
St. Hildegard von Bingen: The Genius of Woman pdf (from Catholics United for the Faith)
Listening:
Harmonia: Discovering Hildegard (playlist of music from the show) and Hildegard: Sybil of the Rhine (playlist)
Nunc Aperuit Nobis mp3
Ordo virtutum (excerpt) mp3
Other:
Harmonia: Music of the Crusades (1071-1291) (playlist)
Harmonia: Music for St. Francis (1181-1226)
Sumer is Icumen In (a round, written c. 1260)
Hymns of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): Pange Lingua, Tantum Ergo, Panis Angelicus, Adoro Te Devote
Harmonia: Marco Polo (1254-1324)
Phillippe de Vitry (1291-1361)
Harmonia: The De Vitry Code (playlist)
Classical.Net: Philippe de Vitry
Ars Nova