Rick Mabry wrote:

>I actually think that it was the beginning of Beethoven's Ninth, played
>every night on the Huntley-Brinkley news when I was not yet a teenager,
>that was one of the seeds that grew largest.  When I finally heard the
>whole magnificent beast when I was 19 (shows how deprived I was at a
>critical time), I was blown away and finally knew what I had been missing.

Two hours from now it will be the first meeting of my Freshman Seminar,
a class devoted to development of the American school of symphonic music.
Psychologists tell us that we develop most of our critical thinking
between the ages of 16 and 21.  It is a critical time.

At the end of the semester I take a poll as to which piece had the most
meaning for them.  The range of responses is remarkable...some of the
likely suspects, Barber's Adagio, Copland's Rodeo...but then there are
surprises like Mennin's Seventh Symphony and Schuman's Sixth and then
there was one adventurous soul who listed Copland's Inscape!

The major challenge seems to be, to get a student to LISTEN to music.
Listening in a concert hall can make all of the difference.

Karl