Have I asked this before? Why don’t we do a better job of teaching kids the full range of music when they are in elementary school?

I grew up in a musical family; even had a great aunt who was an opera-class singer and my Grandmother had an incredible voice before her stroke when I was young. My mother could sing and still knows the words to more hymns that most choirs on the planet. George Beverly Shea’s voice (he of the Billy Graham Crusade crew) once was mistaken by a cousin for my dad. My two sisters have great voices and my brother has made a living not just as a composer and guitarist, but as a singer as well. Me, well not so much, but that isn’t the issue for my thoughts today.

As kids we all took piano lessons — my first teacher was a Miss Thompson who came out from Calgary two days a week (she stayed overnight at one of my friend’s house) to Bassano to tutor many of us — mostly without lasting success!! At home, we had a record player — a 78 with a big record-changer apparatus so it could play up to ten records at a time. Most of the music was stored in albums and was predominately of the classical genre. But none of this connected to our schooling.

While I took a type of music class at school from almost the get-go through to Grade IX, there was very little variation in the subject matter. We usually sang ditties or folk songs from Newfoundland or Quebec. When I moved to Ontario I was introduced to the Maple Leaf Forever. I was in the Junior Choir at church for a very brief time but only sang basic hymns as anthems. Never was I introduced to, in a formal way, rock & roll or jazz or classical music. After I got my B.A. degree I found out that the famed UofA Music department did offer a credit course in “music appreciation” but by then I was beyond being able to take it as an option.

As a result I have come to my appreciation of music by very limited incremental steps. The organ and a good choir has always got my attention and as I know the background of most of ecclesiastical music, good church music can be uplifting for me (e.g. I never miss a chance, when in Montreal, to attend St. Andrew and St. Paul Presbyterian or in Ottawa or Toronto at St. Andrew’s or Grace Presbyterian in Calgary). Folk music did grab my interest with the Kingston Trio, the Limelighters, Ian & Sylvia, Harry Belafonte, and the New Christy Ministrels, then later John Denver, John Stewart, Valdy, and Chris de Burgh — no one tried to help me analyse or parse the words or music, I just sang along or turned up the hi-fi stereo a little bit louder. It was the same with rock & roll — first though with Pat Boone (who I thought made music very romantic — which was something for a kid in grade VII), Buddy Holly and the Lettermen, but ramped up (along with the volume) with the Moody Blues, Glenn Yarbrough (he having left the Limeliters), the Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane/Starship, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, and Bruce Springsteen/Bryan Adams. But this was all self-explored; not necessarily well understood.

Then in the seventies as I tired of excessive commercials I began to listen to CBC Radio 2 — people like Jorgen Goethe’s Disc-Drive, Bob Kerr’s Off-the-Record, and Russ Porter’s late night jazz started to slowly expand my appreciation for music of many shades. I began to go to symphony concerts and to jazz performances. I also started to become a bit more discerning in the folk or rock concerts I attended. Occasionally before a classical concert someone like the late Stanley Chappel would come out and explain what we were going to hear and how we ought to listen for the special moments. But that was seldom — often hit and miss.

Last Saturday the Okanagan Symphony put on a concert in Penticton entitled “Airs and Graces”. Before the concert, the Music Director (and Conductor) Rosemary Thomson gave a half hour “talk” to perhaps 75 people on what the concert was all about. She discussed the composers, the pieces selected, the contexts they were written in and what all we could/should listen for throughout the evening. She also took a few moments to give us some background on the special guests that evening. It wasn’t the first time I had attended one of her talks but this one reinforced a feeling I had that I really knew very little about music. The concert afterwards was so much more incredible as I was actually able to follow what was happening and better discern some of the nuances.

To be brief, the concert program included:
Respighi’s Antiche danze ed arie Suite #1 (Ancient Airs and Dances)
Jocelyn Morlock’s (resident composer of VSO) Aeromancy for Two Cellos and Orchestra
Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos RV531 in G minor
Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, op 90 in A major “Italian”

The two cellists were siblings who had never played together publically. Arnord and Estelle Choi were/are magnificent. They attacked the music with passion yet it seemed cerebral. They were animated but oft-times the music literally floated out onto the audience. Their command of their instruments was something to behold. And while I enjoyed the Morlock piece, it was the Vivaldi composition that really blew me away. However, no matter how good these musicians were, the fact that I had a better understanding of what to expect, helped me elevate my listening and thus the comprehension of the music.

The Mendelssohn piece also brought much joy, again because I was listening for certain instruments, for certain cadence, for particular moments. And so as I pondered all this for a few days I realize that we need to encourage school boards to increase the presence of music in the curriculum. And in this context also expand the pedagogical frameworks so that students get to experience, in a live way, music in many formats. Why should we wait until we are in our 70’s to finally start getting how individual and intense, classical music can be — especially when you get to know it better? Where can we better understand the context and musicality of heavy metal or gospel jazz? How can we significantly help young people to realize that immense benefits of music outside their comfort zone, if only for an occasional moment?

I have known people who actually played in symphonies such as the PEI Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Edmonton Symphony, the Richmond (BC) Symphony. I’ve attended concerts featuring my brother’s group Tamarack and others where he was solo. I’ve heard my sisters sing in church choirs. During my college days I even managed a rock band and emcee’d a number of shows ranging fromt he Backporch Majority to Gordon Lightfoot. It’s not that I don’t have a personal connection to diverse music. It’s that it has taken me too long to become adequately educated in it, thus allowing me to fully enjoy each musical moment.

If you know a school board member, or a professor in a faculty of education, or a Minister of Education, take some time and press upon them the importance of their support for more and deeper musical education in our schools (right through to Grade XII).

g.w.