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kbfsc
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| Posted: May 23 2013 at 4:23pm | IP Logged
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Are there any recommendations out there for books of music for family singing? Ideally, I would like to find something in at least two-part harmony with simple accompaniment. Religious music would be great, but I am interested in folk music, too. I don't know where to start to look for something along those lines, so any ideas are much appreciated!
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Kiera
happy mama of ds '02, dd '03, ds '06, dd '09 and little ones in heaven
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stellamaris
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| Posted: May 23 2013 at 5:39pm | IP Logged
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I just ordered some books I used when I was in grade school to use with my boys next year. They are still available and each has a lovely collection of folk songs, hymns, patriotic songs, and other songs geared for children's capabilities. They are also available cheaply online  . They are part of the "Music for Living" series from Silver Burdett:
Music Near and Far (4th grade level)
Music Around the World (6th grade level)
You can also find teacher's guides online. If you go to this Permathread and scroll down a bit, you will see a list of all the "Music for Living" books. Either click on a title or keep scrolling down to see the table of contents for each book in the series.
It looks as if there was another series published in the 1960's that was titled "Making Music Your Own".
I ordered one book per every two children. I also got the teacher's guides, which include complete piano scores as well as teaching information. The scores in the student books include the basic melodies as well as chords (e.g., C, F, G above as in a guitar book) to allow you to teach some harmonies and rounds to the children. Some of the pieces also have harmonies and second parts. I really like that the musical scores are included in the children's books so they can see the notation and become familiar with it. In the back of the student book, in addition to an ordinary index, are indices by various topics. Some are in a section "To Make a Play" and list the songs that might be sung around a campfire, on a whaling ship, or in a rain forest. Another index lists the songs by subject headings such as types of songs (question and answer, riddles, rounds, folk dance related), types of instrumentations (drums, piano, autoharp,etc), or topic of song (food, occupations, animals, countries, ways of travel, worship). You should know that there are a few pagan songs included (2 or 3). Some are American Indian songs and some from other primitive tribal cultures. On the other hand, there are some very lovely selections of songs based on melodies of Handel, Bach, Mozart, Grieg and others.
We sing hymns daily from the Adoremus hymnal, but we are adding a singing time each week next year to work on vocalization and harmonies more directly.
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Caroline
Wife to  dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
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SallyT
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Do you like to sing rounds? We're really enjoying that as a family now (though we haven't mastered any really solidly), and rounds are a great stepping-stone to singing in parts, because they get you used to having other people around you not singing the same thing you are.
Some good ones:
Dona Nobis Pacem
Frere Jacques (or anything to that tune. Our best round to date is the German alphabet song, which uses that same tune)
Row Row Row Your Boat
When Jesus Wept (an early-American song, still done by sacred-harp/shape-note singers)
The Tallis Canon, with words by Thomas Ken (who was a virulent anti-Catholic, sadly, but the words of this hymn are beautiful, and we sing it in non-round form at our bedtime prayers):
All praise to thee, my God, this night
For all the blessings of the light.
Keep me, O keep me, King of Kings,
Beneath thine own almighty wings.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
We're just now really trying this as a round . . . it's kind of a cacophony at the moment, but we'll master it eventually.
I'll try to hunt you up some YouTubes of these as I have time . . . that's how we learn lots of things . . .
Sally
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stellamaris
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| Posted: June 08 2013 at 6:27pm | IP Logged
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My favorite rounds are O, How Lovely is the Evening and a Swedish round that starts, "Boom-bar-dina, Boom-bar-dona" that my grandfather taught me. I have asked my Swedish cousins about it, but they don't know it. I'm not even sure I spelled (or learned!) it correctly, but it reminds me of my grandfather.
We need to work on rounds! They are fun! That's part of my plan for next year with incorporating an actual "singing" time, as distinct from a singing a hymn.
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In Christ,
Caroline
Wife to dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
Flowing Streams
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SallyT
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Jubilate Deo!
Sally
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kbfsc
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| Posted: June 12 2013 at 4:32pm | IP Logged
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Excellent recommendations, thank you! I think singing in rounds would be a great, simple way to begin.
Sally, the Thomas Ken hymn you mentioned has a special place in my memory. Way back when, I shared a meal with a good college friend's very musical family and that hymn was their blessing before meals - in amazing four-part harmony! Rounds are probably a more realistic place to begin with my little crew... but there's always the future!
Thanks again for the suggestions!
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Kiera
happy mama of ds '02, dd '03, ds '06, dd '09 and little ones in heaven
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4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday
Topic: singing as a family
