There’s something wrong with an education system that denies children music-making with real instruments, says James Rhodes.
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is horrified, quite rightly, that hundreds of thousands of British children have never heard of Beethoven or Mozart. This, however, is only the tip of a particularly bleak iceberg. The number of people in this country who have never heard a Beethoven sonata in its entirety must run into the tens of millions. And we should all feel slightly ashamed of this.
I am, of course, biased. Not only do I make my living as a concert pianist, but it was Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Bach and others who reached into my soul, ripped out whatever was in there, shook it about, polished it, took it for a ride and then put it back again in a way that just fitted a bit better.
I was lucky, though, that the north London middle classes were a hotbed of piano lessons and school orchestras when I was growing up, and exposure to classical music was as ubiquitous then as buckets of chicken are now. I am grateful for this every single day and, knowing the impact it had on me, I am more concerned than ever about the state of classical music teaching in schools.
It has to start with education. I recently visited a middle school in leafy Hertfordshire as a pre-production trip for a new Channel 4 series. I wanted to see the state of music tuition in schools for myself, and was confronted, delightfully, with a class of 30 children who were engaged, eager, passionate and genuinely keen to immerse themselves. Even if it meant practising scales. Even if it meant getting to school early or staying late. Their (brilliant) music teacher has a total annual budget of £400 for 160 pupils. That is £2.50 per child per year. Or the price of whatever adjective-overloaded tall cappuccino you fancy.
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is horrified, quite rightly, that hundreds of thousands of British children have never heard of Beethoven or Mozart. This, however, is only the tip of a particularly bleak iceberg. The number of people in this country who have never heard a Beethoven sonata in its entirety must run into the tens of millions. And we should all feel slightly ashamed of this.
I am, of course, biased. Not only do I make my living as a concert pianist, but it was Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Bach and others who reached into my soul, ripped out whatever was in there, shook it about, polished it, took it for a ride and then put it back again in a way that just fitted a bit better.
I was lucky, though, that the north London middle classes were a hotbed of piano lessons and school orchestras when I was growing up, and exposure to classical music was as ubiquitous then as buckets of chicken are now. I am grateful for this every single day and, knowing the impact it had on me, I am more concerned than ever about the state of classical music teaching in schools.
It has to start with education. I recently visited a middle school in leafy Hertfordshire as a pre-production trip for a new Channel 4 series. I wanted to see the state of music tuition in schools for myself, and was confronted, delightfully, with a class of 30 children who were engaged, eager, passionate and genuinely keen to immerse themselves. Even if it meant practising scales. Even if it meant getting to school early or staying late. Their (brilliant) music teacher has a total annual budget of £400 for 160 pupils. That is £2.50 per child per year. Or the price of whatever adjective-overloaded tall cappuccino you fancy.