ST. PETER CATHEDRAL YOUTH SCHOLA
Welcome to the St. Peter Youth Schola page! You will find audio resources for practice tracks/videos here for various sacred music that will be used throughout the liturgical year.
What's a Schola?
Loosely translated as "a school of singers" the term Schola Cantorum was the trained papal choir during the Middle Ages, specializing in the performance of plainchant. This group was the ancestor of the Sistine Chapel Choir! Legend associates them with the papacy of Gregory the Great. In modern terms it is known as a group of singers who specialize in liturgical music.
The St. Peter Cathedral Youth Schola sings for the weekly Father Marquette Catholic Academy PK-8 school Masses as well as the First Saturday Masses (monthly) at the Cathedral and is open via audition to all children 2nd – 8th grade of the parish whether homeschooled, public school, or students at FMCA.
With the primary requirements of ability to hear and match pitch as well as beauty of vocal tone – this Youth Schola builds a strong musical foundation with each young singer teaching them the basics of music theory, sight reading, and vocal technique through the study primarily of Gregorian Chant. All of this serves to train these students to join more advanced choirs when they are older in Middle School, High School, and College and ultimately helps serve as a “funnel” to transition students directly into the Cathedral Choir right here in Marquette, MI when they are old enough (high school age usually).
Chant serves as the perfect foundation because monophony is the simplest of musical textures. Monophony is a texture comprising a single line of musical tones: that is, a single melody, or intonation, or cantillation. It makes no difference whether there is one singer, or several, or many singers – so long as they all sing the same notes together, it is monophony. So whether the melody be basic or very ornate and challenging to sing, all the voices are mirroring one another on one single pitch at a time. This creates the perfect training module for young singers to precede more complex forms of vocal music that will come later that contain harmony and varying rhythms as seen with adult-level choral music whether that be polyphony, hymns, anthems, etc.
With the primary requirements of ability to hear and match pitch as well as beauty of vocal tone – this Youth Schola builds a strong musical foundation with each young singer teaching them the basics of music theory, sight reading, and vocal technique through the study primarily of Gregorian Chant. All of this serves to train these students to join more advanced choirs when they are older in Middle School, High School, and College and ultimately helps serve as a “funnel” to transition students directly into the Cathedral Choir right here in Marquette, MI when they are old enough (high school age usually).
Chant serves as the perfect foundation because monophony is the simplest of musical textures. Monophony is a texture comprising a single line of musical tones: that is, a single melody, or intonation, or cantillation. It makes no difference whether there is one singer, or several, or many singers – so long as they all sing the same notes together, it is monophony. So whether the melody be basic or very ornate and challenging to sing, all the voices are mirroring one another on one single pitch at a time. This creates the perfect training module for young singers to precede more complex forms of vocal music that will come later that contain harmony and varying rhythms as seen with adult-level choral music whether that be polyphony, hymns, anthems, etc.
