I teach high school, and I play classical music in my room - although
almost never during class, except when I'm teaching the Willa Cather
story "A Wagner Matinee." But music is almost always on in my
conference/preparation periods (I get two as department chair), and
that's when students often step in for consultations on an essay.

FYI: I teach at a high school with a student body that's predominantly
Hispanic (about 85%) and "economically disadvantaged", in the harbor
area of Los Angeles.

All this is a preamble to a ramble, if you will, on why so many of my
kids dislike classical music. The most often heard complaint is the title
of my post - they can't understand listening to music without lyrics.
After all, how do I know what the music's about without words?

Today I heard this again as I looked at a sweet young lady's essay. She's
no genius, but she's sharp. Just at that moment the music (recorded from
local clasical station KMOZART) swtiched to Mussorgsky's "Dawn on the
River Moskva (sp?)" And just as a silly joke, i started to sing along
with some dopey, impromptu words, like these:

"Oh, look and see - the sun is rising
Over the river
it's so pretty
Look and see the sun - watch it rise!

Her eyes widened and she seemed to pause and actually start to listen
to the music - not just "hear" it . Then she asked me, "How do you know
what it's about?" I explained about the title, but I insisted that I
could sing to any number of classical pieces - they all evoke feelings
and associations. She looked doubtful and another student present suggested
that I don't really need to do any more singing!

Well, her essay was marked and she had to run, but the whole experience
really started me thinking.

I'm 47 - those of you in my generation and earlier may remember how
varied music was on the radio in the 1960s. Rock, pop, country, R&B -
and more. It was very common for there to be popular hits of instrumental
pieces. They could be Rota's theme from "Romeo and Juliet," which was
the junior high prom theme at my school. Or the adorably trashy "Love
is Blue" - also junor high for me. "Telstar"! A classic. One hit was a
travesty - but fun - of "Jesu, joy of man's desiring." There were many,
many more.

There were also songs in foreign languages that became hits, including
the lovely "Sukiyaki" (I know the Japanese, if my memory serves - "Ue o
muite arukuo") The Singing Nun's "Dominique"! "Volare." More here as
well.

My point now - I'm sure you are curious! - is how narrow the musical
world of so many young people is today, even just in the context of
popular music. Never mind the degraded state of songwriting. It's next
to unknown for an instrumental piece or something not in English (if
that's the language hip-hop artists are using) to become popular today.

So we have this large population of bright kids (many of my students are
very bright indeed) who are stymied just by the idea of classical music
- that so much of it is instrumental. And introducing "Das Lied von der
Erde" wouldn't satisfy them - "You can't understand what they are singing!"

There are so many reasons why classical music is "in trouble" - if one
accepts that it is - but has anyone considered that the pathetic state
of popular music is also playing its role? That's what I'm beginning to
consider.

I think I need to start playing some great classical music pieces, on a
rotating basis, at low level at the beginning of class, when the students
are settling in, copying the agenda, doing their warm-up. Maybe sooner
or later one or two will realize they've heard a certain piece before
and want to know a bit more about it - even if it doesn't have words!
Could work...

Maybe...

C Mullins
Redondo Beach