ACQ: W E B W O R D S 11 / STUTTERING / Caroline Bowen

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Webwords 11
Saints, Songs, and Sites
The ACQ Internet Column June 2002
Caroline Bowen

Saints
Born in Jonswil Switzerland in about 850, son of a distinguished family, Notker Balbulus, monk, musician, organist, librarian, teacher, poet and patron saint of children who stutter, was educated at a convent in St Gall founded by Irish missionaries, died in 912, and was beatified in 1512. Balbulus means "the little stutterer".

I have it on good authority that the multi-talented Notker, also known as Notkar and Notkat, was a firm favourite with Ekkehard IV, the historiographer of St Gall, who described him as "delicate of body but not of mind, stuttering of tongue but not of intellect, pushing boldly forward in things Divine, a vessel of the Holy Spirit without equal in his time".

Signs, symptoms and strategies
History does not recall how much its patron saint knew about stuttering and its management, but no doubt he would have been familiar with the story, now featured in the stuttering FAQ for kids of how Demosthenes of Athens (383-322 B.C.) put a mouthful of pebbles to good use in perfecting his skills as an orator.

Sequences
As a Speech-Language Pathologist, what really fascinates me about the Blessed N is that he is reputed to be the author of the Sequences. The Sequences (or Sequentiae) emerged from the custom of prolonging the last syllable in the Allelu-iaaaaa of the Gradual, in the Mass between the Epistle and the Gospel. This long, variegated, non-meaningful aaaaa, called a jubilus, was sustained while the deacon climbed from the altar to the organ loft, where he would sing the Gospel of the day. Contemporary mystical interpreters held that the jubilus lacked meaning because it represented an echo of the jubilant music of heaven. But then the BNB stepped in and found a way to set Latin words to the notes in rhythmical prose for chanting. The name Sequence was applied to these chants, and also to regular metrical and rhymed hymns. Notker's achievement, in taming and controlling the jubilus, marks the transition from the non-meaningful musical sequence to the literary or poetic sequence, and some thirty to fifty poems bear his name.

Songs
The thought of fluency and singing reminded me of the true story of Marty Jezer's palpable relief and astonishment when he found himself intoning sing-song Hebrew prayers at his Bar Mitzvah, against all expectations, completely fluently:

"I had found my voice and with it the rhythm of the prayer. I raced through the blessings in a clear alto voice, building confidence with each fluent word and able to segue, without a hitch, into the Torah text itself."

Morris Minor and the Majors' Stutter Rap is a far cry from Notker's Sequences and Jezer's Bar Mitzvah. But the message is loud and clear:

"Well no-one's ever seen what I mean
From the age of n-n-n-n-n-n-thirteen
We've all been caught in a m-m-mouth trap
So join with us and do the st-st-st-st-st-st-st-stutter rap

Well it was '82 when I joined the boys
And I was hip, and I was cool, but now I've lost my poise
The kids, our fans, are starting to doubt
When you open your mouth and nothing comes out

And it breaks my heart that we're not on the chart
'cause the record's nearly over when the vocals start
And I'm down and out, and I'm down on my luck
And I'm livin' on my own and I'm dying for a fr-riend to say "You're great!"
But I'm under the hammer
'cause all I seem to do is s-s-s-st-

Come on man!

s-s-s-st-stammer!"

Oh, yeah! Stuttering songs and stories abound on the Internet, as well as a vast array of discussion forums and web sites.

Sites
Of these areas of the web, none is better organised than the Australian Stuttering Research Centre site, none more thoughtful than Isobel Crichton-Smith discussing the Lidcombe Program, none more authoritative than The Stuttering Home Page, nor more family-friendly than the Kids Health pages for children, adolescents and parents, or more personal than Michael Sugarman's few lines about talking to his daughter about his stuttering.

Links
A Biblical approach to treating stuttering
Richard Mallard.
Some people just don't get it
Bob Quesal.
Tough Love & Other Shady Stuttering Practices...
Judith Duchan).
LOTS MORE! .

Page updated 05 Feb 2010

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