Eight Melodies for Children
Date
2021-04-16
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Abstract
Before the development of written music notation, musicians transmitted both sacred and secular songs through an oral tradition. But even after a reliable notation system emerged, the practice of passing down songs in a less formal way persisted. A significant part of the sacred repertoire from ancient times to today involves the singing of scripture. This is an especially useful medium for teaching Bible stories and doctrine to children. My project consists of revising and transcribing a collection of children’s scripture songs collected by Milligan professor Dr. Ted Thomas so that they are useful and relevant for children's ministry today. This research project explores the challenges of transcribing orally transmitted songs into a standardized format, as well as the complexities of copyright law. In addition to preparing a written songbook for use in children’s ministry, this project includes the use of two of the tunes as the foundation for two newly composed works, one for piano and one for string quartet.
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Keywords
Music, Songbook, Transcription (Music), Oral tradition, Children’s ministry, RISE Above Research Conference