Teaching hymnody

Teaching hymnody: a survey   Human beings are born with the ‘propensity to make and listen to music that was encoded into the human genome during the evolutionary history of our species’ (Mithen, 2006, p. 1). Mark J. Tramo’s (1956-) studies on the nature of brain functioning show ‘all of us are born with the capacity to apprehend emotion and meaning in music’ (Tramo 2001, pp. 54-56). Research by Barbara S. Kisilevsky, et al., indicates that by the final trimester of pregnancy, fetuses are able to hear (Kisilevsky, 2000, pp. 179-195). Fetuses can also recognize music played outside the mother’s body (Querleu, et al., 1989, pp. 409-420). Later studies on fetal musical development by...