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Date: | Thu, 27 Sep 2001 20:57:49 +0100 |
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Paul Silverthorne wrote:
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>>Is there any reason to believe that the person would start by preferring
>>the earlier composer and work him or herself up to the later ones?
>
>No, I don't think so. Some friends of mine who have been introduced to
>'serious music' in adulthood have found contemporary music more
>immediately involving than music of the past.
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. It may be that
the language of music that appeals is learned at an early age, much like
the verbal language that is learned. That doesn't stop us from learning
another language in later life, of course, but the imprinted language often
remains dominant.
I don't think it's just a matter of intervals, as someone suggested.
Scales and modes come into it, and also significant are both rhythm and
timbre. Personally I find it very difficult to listen to the bagpipes,
whatever they are playing, but of course there are many people for whom
bagpipe music is sweet indeed. Mood, tempo and energy are also important
- energetic music can be immediately appealing, whatever pitches (if any)
are employed. And any good film director will know how to enhance a scene
with the use of abstruse music which his audience would not likely listen
to on its own, but which can 'make' the scene and even sometimes the whole
movie.
Alan Moss
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