adjusting its original meaning: Ne impedias musicam! (Don't obstruct music)1193 Don Bosco’s views on music can be neatly summed up in his “An oratory without music is like a body without a soul”, 1194 a line he employed on many occasions.1195 It was the theoretical expression of a conviction which had
been a practised reality from the very beginning of his educational activity.
Reminiscing about his very early collab orators when he began gathering young people (1842), Don
Bosco wrote in the Memoirs of the Oratory:
These helped me maintain order and they read and sang hymns. From the very beginning I
realised that without songbooks and suitable reading matter, these festive gatherings would
have been like a body without a soul.1196
Reminiscing in the same 'Memoirs' about the establishment of the first night schools, during the winter
of 1846 -1847, Don Bosco wrote:
The classes were animated by plain chant and vocal music wh ich we always cultivated
1197
There is a mixture of reasons for Don Bosco's interest in the educational role of music. During the first years music was primarily considered as a preventive means:
An extraordinary number of people joined music classes. Vocal a
was taught to draw the young away from the religious and moral dangers to which they
were exposed.
nd instrumental music
We thought best to add piano and organ classes and also instrumental music to the night and day classes.
1198
Later on a new religious mot ive was added especially in reference to sacred music and Gregorian chant, plainchant:
It was Don Bosco's desire and aim that the young, when they returned to their native towns,
would be able to help the pastor by singing at sacred functions.
1199
An added reason was to fight against idleness. “You have to keep the boys constantly busy”1200 Finally, we also ought to keep in mind the particular 'pedagogical' value given to music.
In the first volume of the Salesian Annals, Fr. Ceria dedicates an entire chapter to summarising what Salesian music is all about: “The main reason (for music) can be found in the healthy effects which music has on the hearts and imagination of the young, according to Don Bosco, as it aims primarily at refining, uplifting the young and making them better”.1201
5. Outings and walks
In the pages on the preventive system and in Don Bosco's activity as an educator, besides the weekly
1193 Sir. 32; 5; Cf. MB V 540.
1194 MB XV 57.
1195 This was heard at Marseilles in 1881, speaking with a French priest who had founded an Oeuvre de Jeunesse, run
rather more austerely than his own oratory. Lemoyne mentions it in MB V 347.
1196 MO (1991) 123.
1197 MO (1991) 176.
1198 MO (1991) 182 and 190
1199 MB III 150-152; cf MO (1991) 50. 176, 182, 202.
1200 MB V 347
1201 E. Ceria, Annali della Società salesiana dalle origini alla morte di S. Giovanni Bosco (1841-1888). Turin. SEI
1941, p. 691; cf Chap LXIV La music salesiana, pp. 691-701.