Singing through an Art Song or Gem Song and turning to the next page will not begin to unveil the wonder of the song, or capture your own musical imagination. Some of the Art Songs and Gem Songs are so short that you can hardly get into the song’s tonality in one hearing. You might conclude that the words to many of the Art Songs and Gem Songs are not relevant to the young child. You might even find the notation off-putting, as so many of the short songs need shifting meters to be expressed. You can hardly sense by reading through the collections of Art Songs or Gem Songs just how much music is packed into so few measures. We have to redefine the process of reviewing songs for young children, or you could easily pass by a volume of musically sophisticated little Art Songs or Gem Songs for young children and not even consider it as a resource for your children.
The process of reviewing and selecting Art Songs and Gem Songs for your children demands more than reading through each song. It requires numerous, successive repetitions of each song in singing and movement, inviting you to become the song—to become one with the artistry of the song. It is from inside the song rather than from outside, with your artistry engaged with that of the song, that you can begin to make a meaningful evaluation about the song. The final assessment comes only after engaging your children with the artistry of the song through successive verses, bringing them into it first through flowing movement and then through movement and singing. It is only then that you can know how much music is packed into so few measures, how your little artists relate to the intertwining of rhythm, melody, and words more than to the literal meaning of the words, and how such little kernels of choral art could grow into such rich, musical experiences in your classroom.
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