Evening star., 1937-03-13
Encourage
Children
TO Sin g
1t Will Help Them
Later Over a Hard,
Uneven Road.
BY ANGELO PATRI,

IT Is as natural for children to sing
and whistle and make joyful noises
In time and tune as it is for them to
breathe. The baby in his crib will
smile with pleasure when some one
sings to him softly, in lifting rhythm.
Something deeprooted in the human
race responds to music.
In the beginning the music has to be
simple, in marked time and in light
and lifting rhythm, the rhythm that
children love to mark with their hands
and feet. Let them do this and try not
to let 1t bother you Just know that
they are setting this love Of rhythm
deep in their mind and bodies, from
whence it will come again to help
them over a hard, uneven road.
Let the songs they learn be real
I have no fault to find with modern
songs if they are real and by that I
mean If they have an honest emotion,
an actual beauty, worthy appeal to
the emotions that music can stir. I
don't object to repetitive songs that
very young children sing They are
| nisms, and the practice does no harm.
But deplore the wasted time OF the
older children when they sing sense
less, meaningless noisy songs They
might better be learning their prayers.
Such songs are spiritual waste
There is nothing wrong with old
songs that have stood the test Of time.
am not shame-faced in offering the
school children such songs as The
Last Rose of Summer" THE Minstrel
Boy" "Old Black joe" Home, Sweet
Home" "Old Kentucky Home" Long,
Long Ago." MY Love Is Like Red,
Red Rose" and the rest of the true and
tried. Those old songs were an honest
expression Of emotion set in the words
Of the poet who felt them, set to the
music OF composer who understood
them. cannot say as much for some
Of the songs I hear the children sing
ing today.
There isn't enough singing in home
and church and school for the chill
dren. Somehow it has been crowded
out by the important things like tests,
speeches, listening to radio programs,
vocational work, home work and the
like. would place music, the singing
OF songs, the playing Of musical in
strument, among the important activ-
tiles Of childhood and youth. 1t is
health-giving. 1t expands the lungs
and the spirit at the same time. It
makes an outlet for suppressed feel
inRs. There was less petting, less get
in-the-corner business when gather
Ing about the piano and singing In
chorus was In style.
School singing, In assembly, has
oeen heading toward the uplift idea toe
swiftly to carry the children along
with It. Before youth can soar in
heavenly flights Of sound it must at
Tend 70 its earthly hungers and sing
itself into the mood for soaring School
children need the folk songs, the gay
glad songs Of childhood, the love songs
that youth adores and needs.
I like to hear children in assembly
sing expressively, provided they fee
the need Of the expression. l have
always found that they are N better
mood for singing Handel's Largo
after they have sung themselves free
by singing Il Would Were a Maying, ,
"Hark, Hark the Lark" Row, Row
Row Your Boat" I find that there /.
much more gracious reception waiting
for the Largo" If the assembly has
been warmed up on something nearer
the chiidren's standard 1t doesnr
hurt the classics TO be introduced By
Yankee Doodle" Their welcome /.
assured thereby
tCopyrigh. 1887