Overview
Charlotte Mason divided music into a variety of subjects. Her students were taught to play the piano and sing using solfa (solfège). They were taught to appreciate music by singing and studying various hymns, folk songs, and classical compositions (composer study). See the individual subject pages below for more information.
Subjects
Folk songs
Piano instruction
Blog Posts
I Need Thee Every Hour
This hymn was written by a tired mother—on a good day, of course! Here’s an excerpt of the story from Mormon Channel’s History of the Hymns podcast, quoted here: Annie Hawks [born in 1835] was the mother of three children when the hymn for which she is best known was written. Annie later wrote, “I […]
God of Our Fathers, Known of Old
Image credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images In the waning days of the 19th century, the United Kingdom was the most powerful country on earth. The British Empire was at its imperial zenith. More than a quarter of the world’s population—and a portion of every continent—was under its dominion, and ruling over it all was Queen Victoria, the […]
Be Thou My Vision
When we set about designing a hymn rotation, we hoped every once in a while we could introduce you to some of the more meaningful Christian hymns that aren’t in our hymnbook. (Don’t worry. We have a free PDF and recording of the piano accompaniment for you here.) This is one of my favorites: Be Thou […]
Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy
In one of President Boyd K. Packer’s last General Conference talks, he said, “There is in our hymnbook a very old and seldom-sung hymn that has very special meaning to me.” He goes on to quote the entire text of “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy”. It’s in our hymnbook arranged for men, but it is […]
Joseph Smith’s First Prayer
George Manwaring and his family converted to the Church when he was 17 years old; then they immigrated from Cheshire, England to Utah. At only 24 years old, he had the opportunity to see C. C. A. Christiansen’s newly finished painting of the First Vision, entitled “The Vision”. This painting seems to be the first […]
He Is Risen!
I confess that I’m going to cheat on this hymn post, for two reasons. Someone else has already done a better job with this hymn’s history than I would have, and we are busy designing a 12-year hymn rotation and it’s a lot of work. So, without further ado, I’m going to redirect you to Mormon […]
Holy Temples on Mount Zion
Tucked away in the hymnbook, accompanied by an unassuming tune, is a poem on temples which I’d like to share with you this month. In particular, I love the last verse, so I hope you’ll try to read that one with new eyes, even if you’ve sung it before. Holy temples on Mount Zion in […]