Alan Moss <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>Simon Rattle has reported a similar reaction among kids he has worked with
>in deprived areas.  Kids, often from immigrant families, who have not had
>a background in Western 'serious music' tend to have far less of a problem
>in relating to what people with a more 'classical' background would regard
>as 'difficult' contemporary music, he said in a radio interview I heard a
>while ago.  He found that Mozart, Beethoven etc.  would leave them cold,
>whereas contemporary music was more real to them and more fun.
>
>It would be interesting to know if his experience is borne out by other
>musicians working in educational or outreach programs.

Working with children as soloists and chorus in and on many operas, my
experience mirrors Simon Rattle's precisely.  Give them 'difficult' modern
stuff; they take to it like so many ducklings to water, and love it.
Something like "The Magic Flute" tends to leave them baffled, undermined
and resentful.

This seems to me entirely natural and predictable.  The Old School which
advocates filling empty little vessels with Beethoven, Brahms and Bach has
a lot - an awful lot - to answer for.

The true number of people who start from a love of the German B's and
progress cautiously towards the 21st Century is perhaps about equal to the
number who start by speaking Latin and then graduate to modern English -
that is, if they're being honest and not idealising.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"