YES, JESUS LOVES ME. THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.
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Dr. Carol Reynolds (Professor Carol) combines her insights on music history, arts, and culture with her passion for arts education to create curricula, inspire concert audiences, and lead lively international tours. Songs from Carol's Hurrah and Hallelujah! are now taught in Simply Classical Levels 4-12.
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as this your first sacred song? If so, you had a perfect start for the journey into sacred music. Sacred music evokes or expresses the Christian faith, either through specific words describing God's qualities and scriptural events, or by the creation of a musical atmosphere designed to foster reverence. While children experience sacred music first through simple songs and hymns, they are able at young ages to enjoy chunks from larger compositions that are regarded as masterworks in the Western classical heritage. In short, the gap between "Jesus Loves Me" and the "Hallelujah Chorus" may not be as large as it seems. Children of all abilities perceive and absorb the technical elements of music effortlessly. True, they may have limited vocabulary to describe these elements, but they instinctively respond to music's mechanical ingredients, categorizing what they hear according to basic qualities such as whether the music is slow or fast, loud or soft, whether it is filled with the same sounds or a variety of instrumental colors, or if it is characterized by a catchy set of words. Sacred concepts, therefore, when expressed through music, shape and intensify any child's faith. When a melody with sacred words enters a child's heart through the eye or ear, a version of that melody is likely to exit the child's body via his own arms, legs, or singing voice. Technical elements like tempo and rhythmic patterns cause expressive physical reactions in a child, even if the child cannot hear or speak but can rather feel and sense. Musical color (the sound of differing instruments and voices) affects the cognitive development in a hearing child in the same way that a seeing child comprehends visual colors. In addition, musical form (the reassuring patterns of contrast and repetition), which is common to all Western music, helps a child organize his perception of time as well as regulate the flow of his emotions. It's not surprising, therefore, that sacred ideas and images, when expressed through musical elements, will be implanted forever in a child's mind and heart. That is why adults recall so fondly their own singing of "Jesus Loves Me." But the power of this recollection is not based solely on nostalgia. It is also based on repeated exposure and careful consideration of the musical and spiritual elements of a real song at a young age or with immature ability. So let's take a minute to analyze some of those elements. The tune of "Jesus Loves Me" is simple, limited to five different pitches. (In the key of C, these would be C, D, E, G, A.) These five pitches form a scale pattern called the pentatonic scale. The highly singable pentatonic scale appears SimplyClassical.com
