Up the Garden Path
a short journey to the classics
During the month of July, I have for the last two years run a mixed age-range music activity club. This has catered for my own pupils as well as those of other Suzuki teachers. The participants come for a minimum of five three hour sessions and we indulge in a wild extravaganza of solo and ensemble performances, as well as improvisation, percussion and art work, poetry or story writing and drama. At the end of each morning we stage an ad hoc performance. Despite the time constraints, the children always manage to pull something off, having learnt how to work together as a team. The results are often worthy of a much older age range.
We start each session by listening to two or three items of selected classical music which sets the scene for that day. I choose the classics not because I don't think that other types of music aren't important – my own tastes are eclectic – but because it is an area in which pupils tend to have the least experience. The material is selected according to the topic being covered and I am always impressed by the way the children all sit together quietly, no matter what their age, sometimes the gap has been as much as ten years! The rest of the morning is quite hectic as the participants are split up into sub-groups and given appropriate tasks. The older ones have special responsibilities, sometimes to produce the entire sound effects for the end of morning production. The music they have listened to undoubtably gives them inspiration and ideas.
Each session, therefore, begins with a restful and reflective time after which individual responses to the music, always positive, are encouraged and given. Their reactions are both fascinating and insightful.
The child of much older parents, I was exposed to classical music from a young age. I realise now just how fortunate I was. Each night I would fall asleep to the sound of piano music played by my father, which wafted up the staircase to my bedroom. Although he performed classical pieces there was always a mixture of styles which included some folk, blues or 'easy listening' music.
When my father was fourteen years of age he had no option but to leave school and join the Royal Navy. As a school boy he had never had any opportunities to have music lessons, but as he was walking home one afternoon he heard the sound of piano music coming from a house in the street where he lived. After that he heard the music often, until one day he marched up the garden path, knocked on the front door and inquired of the mystery pianist the title of the piece. It was called 'Clair de Lune' (yes! there is another version!) by the French Impressionist composer Claude Debussy.
At first my father taught himself to play by ear, which he continued to do in the navy, using any old honky-tonk he could lay his hands on. Then gradually he began to read music, also self-taught. Eventually he became a very competent pianist and could play most things.
He came from Portsmouth, a naval garrison town, which became a target for air-raid attacks during the second world war. While he was away at sea his home and family belongings were destroyed by a bomb which killed his mother and his first wife who happened to be in the house at the time. Consequently when my parents married soon after the war was over, they had very little and certainly no furniture. Yet the first thing my father bought was a reconditioned upright piano. And so, later on, I was lulled to sleep by the sound of 'Clair de Lune' and other pieces of music.
Some time ago, a Suzuki parent asked me for a list of suggested pieces of classical music that she could play to her children on CDs. Inspired by this request, I decided to experiment with a venture which I started last January. Each month parents have received by e-mail an information sheet which features a piece of music suitable for the time of year. For example, in June we had the 'Scherzo' from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by Felix Mendelssohn. The recommended extracts are short and a couple of optional points to listen out for included. Amongst the selected music are several pieces from the Suzuki piano repertoire: - Beethoven's 'Fur Elise' from the start of book five, for St. Valentine's in February,and 'The Cuckoo' (also another version!) by the French Baroque composer Claude Dacquin from book six, for the month of April.
When it came to running this year's Activity Club I decided to use some of these pieces as they fitted in with the topics we were doing. Of the children who attended the club and whose parents were also receiving the monthly sound byte only some of them had clearly heard the music before.
This didn't surprise me at all. At the outset, the scheme was greeted with much enthusiasm by those who opted to take part. Then came the reality. Not only was it necessary to purchase a copy of the CD but there was the discipline of finding the time to listen to it as well. Wasn't this something more that had to be fitted into an already busy week of juggling school, homework, after-school clubs, instrumental lessons and parties – not to mention practising!?
You-Tube was suggested as a good way of accessing visual performances without having to spend any money but this is a video facility which does not facilitate repetition of the listening process easily. Downloading from iTunes onto to an MP3 player was thought to be another and more satisfactory alternative.
However, of the families who joined in this venture, four stand out as having really benefitted. They made that extra journey. One already had a lot of the recordings and it encouraged them to take them down off the shelves. The mother reported on how much calmer her children were after listening to classical music. From the second family I received regular feedback; how they had enjoyed certain pieces in particular. This mother had purchased the recommended CD of the month, often very reasonably priced – most of the music was available on cheap labels from HMV and Virgin Megastore. More importantly, she had managed to incorporate the listening into their busy week by playing the music while homework was being done. These times, she said, became more relaxed and the music helped the children to concentrate better.
The third mother did use an MP3 player with speakers. The family took all the recordings they had received so far away with them on holiday. The children brought them along to their first piano lesson of the term and gave me a demonstration. I observed an even greater eagerness and enthusiasm. Finally, the fourth family have the recordings playing on car journeys, and like the Suzuki CDs, they are absorbing the music without being conscious of doing so.
The piano has a wide compass range, that of a whole symphony orchestra in fact. As the music becomes more advanced the textures are increasingly complex, sometimes embracing the equivalent
of up to three or more individual parts. Listening to instrumental music therefore helps the pianist to appreciate the subtle nuances needed at this level. But there are huge advantages to listening, no matter what instrument a pupil plays.
There is also the question of aural/listening tests in school music and instrumental examinations for those who choose to do these. Aspects of the tests are more easily addressed when the candidate has a good listening background. Naturally teenagers like their pop music so the time to start this listening is at a much younger age when foundations can be laid for life
The two schools I attended had very little to offer in the way of music. Everything I learned took place out of school, from choirs to private piano lessons and later tuition in harmony and counterpoint. But I am certain that my innate understanding of music was gained through the gift of listening as a young child at home.
We live in a comparatively affluent age with easy access to information and products. Thanks to the internet we often don't need to go anywhere to make a purchase. Either that or else it's unusual to have to go very far. Recently, I bought a CD of Debussy's 'Clair de Lune' from HMV in Princes Street, Edinburgh – it's close to where I live. But they do have a website and CDs can be ordered by post. HMV stock two cheap range labels, with over an hour's worth of listening. These cost £6, and there is also the Naxos label with CDs at the same price – hardly expensive! Even more economical are the boxed sets at £15.The music on these CDs are either arranged by composer or genre. Virgin Megastore have similar facilities and good deals. Then there are the local libraries, I'm told that they will always get any requested CDs for their members.
The path to the world of classics is much shorter and easier than the one my father took. So I would certainly encourage every parent to take that short journey out of the 'busyness' of life. And if it is done soon, the rewards will be great.
This article has been written for the first edition of Music Notes and is also posted on http://www.mariegbarton.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment