(no subject)
One Direction, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Lorde, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez and the Scene, Taylor Swift, Adele, Beyonce. These are just a few of the current “Top 40” musical artists of today. Walk into a middle school classroom and name off these people, and the students will most likely be able to launch into any number of their songs. But can the same be said for classical music? Could children and teenagers today name famous symphonies, or hum snatches of their melodies, or match compositions to their composers? The answer, sadly, is more likely to be no than yes. But there is one composition in particular that all children should be familiar with, in part because it was written specifically for children: Peter and the Wolf by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.
Peter and the Wolf was written in 1936, when Natalya Sats and the Central Children’s Theatre in Moscow commissioned Sergei Prokofiev to write a symphony for children. The intent was to cultivate “musical tastes in children from the first years in school.” This idea piqued Prokofiev’s interest, and he was able to complete the symphony in only four days. The work is 25 minutes long and has an accompanying story and narration, with each character represented by a different instrument and having their own musical theme.
The plot follows Peter, a young Russian boy who lives with his grandfather (and who are represented by strings and bassoon, respectively). One day, he goes out to a forest clearing, accompanied by his cat, a friendly bird, and a duck (represented by clarinet, flute, and oboe). Upon his return, his grandfather scolds him (“Suppose a wolf came out of the forest?”). Indeed, a wolf (represented by French horns) has come out of the forest and has apparently devoured the duck. Peter, the cat, and the bird devise a plan to capture him, which they manage to successfully do, to the great surprise and delight of the hunters searching for the wolf (who are represented by timpani). As the hunters carry off the wolf and Peter’s grandfather scolds and congratulates him, the listener is told that “if you listen very carefully, you’d hear the duck quacking inside the wolf’s belly, because in his hurry, he had swallowed her alive.”
Peter and the Wolf premiered on May 2, 1936, to a less than enthusiastic audience. Indeed, in Prokofiev’s own words, the debut was “inauspicious at best…attendance was poor and failed to attract much attention.” Ten years later, in 1946, Walt Disney produced an animated short film of the symphony, narrated by Sterling Holloway, which was better received and helped reignite interest in the piece.
Interest in Peter and the Wolf - or really, classical music as a genre - is something that should be encouraged from a very young age. A study in 1993 showed that college students’ test scores improved after listening to Mozart; this has been dubbed the “Mozart effect.” The researchers behind this study did not stop with college students, but began to study the “Mozart effect” on young children. Professor Francis Rauscher and Dr. Gordon Shaw found that preschoolers in Los Angeles who received keyboard lessons scored 34% higher on tests for spatial/temporal reasoning than children who received computer training, or no training at all. They also found that kindergartners in Wisconsin who received piano lessons were able to score 36% higher on the same kinds of tests than children who had received no training.
Although similar studies have produced varying results, this “Mozart effect” attracted the curiosity of the nation. And it is not the first of its kind, as research dating back to the mid 1800s has shown that exposure to classical music has various positive effects on children’s development and health. Children of varying ages are usually able to correctly identify the emotional mood of pieces of music, and playing background music while studying or learning has been shown to aid in memorization. As mentioned above, listening to classical music has also been shown to improve spatial/temporal reasoning, which is the ability of the brain to perform difficult, complicated tasks such as math or chess. Children can develop rhythm and motor skills by creating their own instruments, improvising melodies and rhythms, and performing for the rest of their class. They can be taught to physically express the music they hear through dance, by stomping, jumping, swaying, or marching. Humming and singing along with music helps develop language skills.
Music education is clearly a very valuable thing, and the earlier it is introduced, the better. Popular music is all well and good in its way - it is a source of entertainment, enjoyment, and often it provides a sense of solidarity among its target audiences. But popular music can be filled with many messages that are unnecessary, or often downright detrimental, to children and young people’s development. Lyrics filled with sex, violence, misogyny, homophobia, and drug use permeate much of today’s popular music. These musicians are often looked to as role models, but does the world need more young people behaving like Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber? When children could be improving valuable skills like language, motor and rhythm, and spatial/temporal reasoning, simply by listening to Bach and Beethoven instead of Kanye West and Eminem, the choice seems simple. And with fun, lively pieces like Peter and the Wolf written specifically for them, hopefully more and more children will learn to love classical music at an early age.
Bibliography:
Journal of Research in Music Education
Effects of Exposure to Classical Music on the Musical Preferences of Preschool Children
J. Craig Peery
Brigham Young University
Irene Peery
Brigham Young University
“Snaring a fresh audience using a cautionary tale" by Elissa Blake, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August 2013
Prokofiev, Sergei (2000) [1960]. S. Shlifstein. ed. Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences. Rose Prokofieva (translator). The Minerva Group, Inc. p. 89. ISBN 0-89875-149-7.
https://www.teachervision.com/music-appreciation/listening/4756.html?page=2&detoured=1
The power of music: its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people. S Hallam - International Journal of Music Education, 2010 - ijm.sagepub.com
Peter and the Wolf was written in 1936, when Natalya Sats and the Central Children’s Theatre in Moscow commissioned Sergei Prokofiev to write a symphony for children. The intent was to cultivate “musical tastes in children from the first years in school.” This idea piqued Prokofiev’s interest, and he was able to complete the symphony in only four days. The work is 25 minutes long and has an accompanying story and narration, with each character represented by a different instrument and having their own musical theme.
The plot follows Peter, a young Russian boy who lives with his grandfather (and who are represented by strings and bassoon, respectively). One day, he goes out to a forest clearing, accompanied by his cat, a friendly bird, and a duck (represented by clarinet, flute, and oboe). Upon his return, his grandfather scolds him (“Suppose a wolf came out of the forest?”). Indeed, a wolf (represented by French horns) has come out of the forest and has apparently devoured the duck. Peter, the cat, and the bird devise a plan to capture him, which they manage to successfully do, to the great surprise and delight of the hunters searching for the wolf (who are represented by timpani). As the hunters carry off the wolf and Peter’s grandfather scolds and congratulates him, the listener is told that “if you listen very carefully, you’d hear the duck quacking inside the wolf’s belly, because in his hurry, he had swallowed her alive.”
Peter and the Wolf premiered on May 2, 1936, to a less than enthusiastic audience. Indeed, in Prokofiev’s own words, the debut was “inauspicious at best…attendance was poor and failed to attract much attention.” Ten years later, in 1946, Walt Disney produced an animated short film of the symphony, narrated by Sterling Holloway, which was better received and helped reignite interest in the piece.
Interest in Peter and the Wolf - or really, classical music as a genre - is something that should be encouraged from a very young age. A study in 1993 showed that college students’ test scores improved after listening to Mozart; this has been dubbed the “Mozart effect.” The researchers behind this study did not stop with college students, but began to study the “Mozart effect” on young children. Professor Francis Rauscher and Dr. Gordon Shaw found that preschoolers in Los Angeles who received keyboard lessons scored 34% higher on tests for spatial/temporal reasoning than children who received computer training, or no training at all. They also found that kindergartners in Wisconsin who received piano lessons were able to score 36% higher on the same kinds of tests than children who had received no training.
Although similar studies have produced varying results, this “Mozart effect” attracted the curiosity of the nation. And it is not the first of its kind, as research dating back to the mid 1800s has shown that exposure to classical music has various positive effects on children’s development and health. Children of varying ages are usually able to correctly identify the emotional mood of pieces of music, and playing background music while studying or learning has been shown to aid in memorization. As mentioned above, listening to classical music has also been shown to improve spatial/temporal reasoning, which is the ability of the brain to perform difficult, complicated tasks such as math or chess. Children can develop rhythm and motor skills by creating their own instruments, improvising melodies and rhythms, and performing for the rest of their class. They can be taught to physically express the music they hear through dance, by stomping, jumping, swaying, or marching. Humming and singing along with music helps develop language skills.
Music education is clearly a very valuable thing, and the earlier it is introduced, the better. Popular music is all well and good in its way - it is a source of entertainment, enjoyment, and often it provides a sense of solidarity among its target audiences. But popular music can be filled with many messages that are unnecessary, or often downright detrimental, to children and young people’s development. Lyrics filled with sex, violence, misogyny, homophobia, and drug use permeate much of today’s popular music. These musicians are often looked to as role models, but does the world need more young people behaving like Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber? When children could be improving valuable skills like language, motor and rhythm, and spatial/temporal reasoning, simply by listening to Bach and Beethoven instead of Kanye West and Eminem, the choice seems simple. And with fun, lively pieces like Peter and the Wolf written specifically for them, hopefully more and more children will learn to love classical music at an early age.
Bibliography:
Journal of Research in Music Education
Effects of Exposure to Classical Music on the Musical Preferences of Preschool Children
J. Craig Peery
Brigham Young University
Irene Peery
Brigham Young University
“Snaring a fresh audience using a cautionary tale" by Elissa Blake, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August 2013
Prokofiev, Sergei (2000) [1960]. S. Shlifstein. ed. Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences. Rose Prokofieva (translator). The Minerva Group, Inc. p. 89. ISBN 0-89875-149-7.
https://www.teachervision.com/music-appreciation/listening/4756.html?page=2&detoured=1
The power of music: its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people. S Hallam - International Journal of Music Education, 2010 - ijm.sagepub.com