Name that tune...

This week at our schola rehearsal we began with vocalization and then... a smattering of theory training. We worked on the basic solfege scale, highlighting the spots where there is a half-step in the tone vs. a whole step... Then we talked about the F and C clefs and their various positions on the staff...

The basic scale discussion was followed by some simple sight-reading with solfege and including work on some of the common intervals. It is going to take awhile, but I am hopeful that we will become more adept at sight-reading the chant notation over time if we spend a bit of time each week with these drills.

At the end, I had put together a 'name that tune' game with a chant notation phrase from a familiar tune... several of them were able to pick it out rather quickly... yes, it is one of the post Vatican II classics... one that I have sung at countless funerals... a perennial favorite of the parishioner in the pews... a piece that was sung not just once on Ash Wednesday last year, but THREE times... once at the Mass for the schoolchildren, again at the noon Mass -- and again at the 5:30 pm Mass -- "On Eagle's Wings" (I am very hopeful that this will not be repeated in the choir director's musical selections this year). My mystery tune got quite a few groans and chuckles at the schola rehearsal. What next... "One Bread, One Body"?