PERFORMING & SACRED ARTS
An integral part of our program is the performing and sacred arts. Our English program involves performing plays, reciting poetry, and learning the art of rhetoric. Our Sacred Music choir sings at various Masses throughout the year, as this is the most fitting setting and purpose of studying Sacred Music. In addition to studying Art History and Art Appreciation, students will also have the opportunity to write an icon.
SHAKESPEARE
All literature written in the English language for the last four hundred and more years owes a debt to William Shakespeare. His plays and poetry have been endlessly adapted and used as sources of inspiration. The beauty of his language and the complexity of his characters continue to enthrall modern readers. This beauty can be difficult to penetrate for the modern student, but it is well worth the effort. The beauty of Shakespeare is truly capable of transcendence. While even on the page Shakespeare’s texts live and breathe, for many students they remain dead and divorced from their original theatrical context. Through the Academy of Our Lady, we hope to kindle a love of the Bard not only through textual study but also through theatrical performance.
PERFORMING ARTS
SACRED MUSIC CHOIR
SACRED ART
The noble task of committing literary works to memory and acting them out causes a deeper integration of the work itself along with the moral lessons learned. Students find themselves excited and enriched through the hard work of performing a play.
Students will be exposed to various styles of Sacred Music from Mass parts, Gregorian chant,
Motets, and Polyphony.
Our Vocal Technique and Musicianship classes will equip the students with the skills necessary to sing these works beautifully.
Sacred art invites the viewer to contemplate the mysteries of God.
The Academy of Our Lady offers students an opportunity to study, appreciate and develop skill sets to create Sacred Art, including iconography and manuscript writing.
SACRED MUSIC CHOIR
Sacred Music Choir, Vocal Technique, Musicianship
The vast majority of music written in the Medieval and Renaissance years was written for the Church. The text is set to music for prayer, for the Divine Office and the Mass. Gregorian Chants are hauntingly beautiful because they came from singing in prayer. Motets and polyphony often took Gregorian chants as their melodic inspiration drawing out greater depths of beauty. Sacred music, when sung well and prayed, not only touches the soul through beauty, but it also raises the soul to God and draws one into deeper prayer. Today one is more likely to hear these works performed on a concert stage than in a church. Through the Academy of Our Lady, we hope to do our part to present these musical treasures in service of the Mass, allowing congregants to hear them anew.
JUNIOR SACRED MUSIC CHOIR
Grades 3-6. Students will learn simple Gregorian Chants, Mass parts, simple rounds
and 2 part harmony.
Vocal Technique is a requirement.
Grades 7-12. Students will learn
4 part harmony hymns.
Vocal Technique is a requirement.
SENIOR SACRED MUSIC CHOIR
VOCAL TECHNIQUE
Students will learn vocal techniques and how to combine them for optimal sound.
Classes will include Musicianship training according to skill level.
*This course is required for all Sacred Music Choirs.
Musicianship I: Students will learn the basics of reading music. This is a prerequisite for Musicianship II.
**Students who already know how to read music can write a challenge quiz to enter Musicianship II.
Musicianship II: Students will learn how to sight-sing using Sol Feg.
Exercises will include scales, intervals, rhythm, and a sight-reading textbook.
Musicianship III: Advanced sight-reading, including sight-reading parts within harmony.
Sacred Music Choir Sample Repertoire
Junior
Senior
Schola
SACRED ART
Our courses on Sacred Art involve studying and appreciating art through Art History. Students will also be taught art skills and techniques to create beautiful artwork. Beginning in the junior program, students will study great works of art both sacred and secular. They will be given the keys to understanding beauty objectively through studying aspects such as proportion, symbolism, colour, and depth. Students will learn about various art traditions, such as iconography, church architecture, stained glass, and manuscript writing. In the senior years, students will study Art History in greater depth, including the cultural context of each work, the impact of art on society, and the great influence of theories of proportion, in particular the Golden ratio.
ART HISTORY &
ART APPRECIATION
Students will be exposed to great works of art from various traditions particular to the Faith including iconography, stained glass, church architecture and manuscript writing. They will study concepts such as perspective, proportion and symbolism, in order to help them understand and appreciate visual art. In the upper years, they will also learn Art History and Art Appreciation.
ICONOGRAPHY
Students in the Senior years will have the opportunity to learn about icons and write an icon.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
With the goals of writing an icon and producing an illuminated manuscript of their own, the Academy of Our Lady will teach their students the skills required to create these pieces of Sacred Art. This will include calligraphy, cursive writing, colour theory, tone and shading, sketching and painting.
ICONOGRAPHY
Icons are Sacred Art from the Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox Traditions. The one who writes an icon will study the life and history of the person whom they are writing, whether an Angel, a biblical person, or a Saint. Every step of writing an icon is steeped in prayer. Thus the experience of writing an icon is an interaction with God and the intercession of the Angel, the biblical person or the Saint; it becomes a co-creation with God. The act of writing icons is focused more on prayer than on the fundamentals of art. It causes a deepening of faith within the iconographer. This is why icons are called windows to Heaven. Having been co-created with God, and steeped in prayer, the icon reveals to us the presence of God and draws us into His heavenly mysteries.