Klarinet Archive - Posting 000355.txt from 2002/06

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Is any 'tone' always awful?
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 22:24:04 -0400

on 6/10/02 11:47 PM, William Wright wrote:

>A few months ago, I had to get a copy of "Marita and Her Heart's
>Desire", which (in part) demonstrates to school children the sounds of
>the various families of orchestral instrument. (but Marita is also
>pleasurable listening for adults, IMO) Now that I've heard the
>Takemitsu myself, I think that any child who listens to "Marita" should
>listen immediately afterwards to the Takemitsu. Let the students hear
>that the 'classical' sound character is not the only one available!
>Nor is it the only one that can fit with a demanding audience!

One of the interesting things I learned from 23 years of concerts for
school kids is that, at least at age 9-12 or so, they're much more open
to what "music" is. Only after a lot of training do we learn to revere
Beethoven, Mozart, etc., and detest anything "new" that may challenge our
comfortable definition of music by introducing new sounds or new
arrangements of the old ones.

David

David Niethamer
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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