Read here.
It’s just too depressing for us to describe a school in the US capital in which the only composers the students ever heard of are LvB and the Venetian monk.
The story was originally published in Theology of Home.
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At what number did Die Soldaten rank?
Struggling to write this because of all the adverts jumping around this site, but why am I not surprised about this? We should be thankful that they have even heard of Beethoven and Vivaldi, and at least there is no mention of Florence Price…
It’s not just the USA. A German doctor friend of mine, examining patients during his training, asked a man for his address, who obliged on the following manner: ‘Vivaldistraße 41. V-I-V, dann Aldi’.
Funny but you made this up. Its ofcourse possible the patient was american (as in US American) certainly not German.
Well, at least he didn’t spell it “V-I-V dann Lidl”
Was the patient member of VERDI perhaps?
If you read the article, it is actually quite positive. Rather than stay comfortable with Beethoven 9 winning each year, they got behind Vivaldi one year, Holst another, Mussorgsky another. What other school has a group of students so energized by classical music to throw an election to different classical composers year after year! Good for them, and for their teacher and school.
The article mentions Beethoven, Vivaldi and Mussorgski, so the kids seem to know more than what you might think. It is quite remarkable that they are interested in classical music at all in 2024. Should we not be happy about this, instead of criticizing for absolutely no valid reason?
The reason would probably be that they’re American and young women. You can decide if that’s valid.
Read on further: the students have also heard of Mussorgsky and Holst.
Did you read the entire piece? Holst and Mussorgsky are also mentioned. Sure it’s juvenile but we are talking about kids having fun with classical music. Lighten up, everyone.
F”’k fun.
Remember that when you’re speaking to a sensationalist tabloid reporter, only headlines matter.
But the article explicitly says that they also promoted Holst and Mussorgsky, that the school has an “instrumental music director”, and the pictures show that it also has an orchestra whose teenage members were obviously sufficiently excited about classical music to go home and engage with a classical radio station in large numbers.
Maybe I’m missing something here but that sounds to me like a school that really cares about classical music and is doing everything right. I know we’re all supposed to be permanently furious about everything now but this isn’t so much stretching a point, as turning it inside out and flipping it on its head.
Who is this vivaldi guy?
Sally
A question which might have actually been asked at even the finest music schools and conservatories pre-1900!
A: A popular composer (maybe this is a foreign concept to some).
P. S. The commenter above wasn’t kidding about the “ads gone wild” on this page. Hard to type even a brief comment.
Here’s what’s depressing: you claim the students have heard of only two composers, even though the linked article names two others and mentions “a remarkable music program” with “a very active harp circle and chamber orchestra” and separate courses for music theory and music appreciation. When decrying education standards, try not to make it quite so obvious that you flunked reading.
Did you even read the article? They picked the Four Seasons in ‘22, followed by the Planets, and this year they went after Pictures at an Exhibition. (It even said some students voted for No. 9 anyways!) So your one sentence remark falls flat. IMO, picking the same piece every year is pretty lame. Talk about rigged elections…
A rigged Election, many People are Saying!!
But this is not what the article says, at least as far as I understand. It’s not that the girl know “only” Beethoven and Vivaldi (“the only composers the students ever heard of are LvB and the Venetian monk”) . Proof is that in 2023 they voted for ‘the Planets’ and in 2024 for ‘Pictures at an exhibition’.
Or do you expect that a highschool class (anywhere in the world, not just the US) would vote as the top favourite classical piece (which is the topic of the story) Ligeti or Boulez?
After reading the article, I absolutely LOVE this music teacher and what she is getting the students to learn and embrace. What is depressing? The teacher has inspired an entire school to become more immersed in classical music (not just Beethoven and Vivaldi which the headline would have you believe). This is all in fun and a great teaching device. Bravi to all. And, I bet they had a blast.
I have learned to actually read the articles this site puts up for general condemnation, because the summary here is often wildly off base. Here’s the takeaway from this one: High school kids have a passionate interest in classical music. And Norman is outraged. Honestly, we have a death wish in our world.
A music teacher at the school in which I taught used to ask the first years, in her first lesson with them, to write down the names of any composers that they had heard of. One boy sidled up to her and said: “Is Picasso a composer, Miss, or is it a type of food?”
Vivaldi was an ordained priest, Norman – and thus could say mass. Not quite the same as a “monk.”
Did you even read the article?! You may disagree with placing the Four Seasons ahead of LvB’s 9th (I do), but there is absolutely NOTHING in this article to suggest that those two works are all the students know. On the contrary, they are clearly studying a variety of composers and works. Two other quite different composers are explicitly mentioned in the article, as well as preparation of multiple concert performances, which certainly implies familiarity with other repertoire. There is nothing depressing about that. In fact, we should rejoice that this school is providing music education.
These days, sadly, many students (and some teachers too) in UK state schools have probably never heard of even Beethoven and Vivaldi, let alone other composers.
Pretty soon Vivaldi and Ludwig will be ranking up there with Beyonce.
Were it that even a quarter of the schools in the United States had even half so much interest in classical music as the students and wonderful teacher in the full article… we might have fewer *actually* depressing articles about various misadventures in keeping American classical institutions afloat/otherwise uplifting a culture of musical engagement.
Looking forward to seeing (and hearing) where the young harpists and other musicians from Oakcrest wind up in the future.
I thought Vivaldi was a priest…, “il Prete Rosso”.
Having misread the headline, I was agast at the thought of topless Beethoven.
Vivaldi was famously the “red priest” but I had never previously heard of him belonging to a monastery. His best kown occupation was as music teacher in an orphanage (quite different), and he seems from all descriptions to have lived a public rather than monastic life.
Considering that the vast majority of today’s students don’t listen to anything beyond Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and the like, these girls are to be applauded.
As for Vivaldi, he was a priest, not a monk.
I must have read a different article…what exactly is “depressing” about the story? I think it’s actually quite uplifting and inspirational.
I know this school and program very well. The students are exposed to a staggering amount of music from Alfonso X (and before) to Piazzolla (and after).
The music theory students wanted to unseat LvB 9 (and I say good for them — it’s not even top-level Beethoven) and settled on the Vivaldi because they love it. What’s wrong with that?
Then they enlisted their friends and families (and the orchestra and chorus students).
A bunch of young people are listening to something beyond the latest break-up song from Tay-Tay and they should be encouraged to continue listening.
There’s a direct line from Vivaldi to Wagner — I seem to recall that you were once interested in him.
That 3-4 more composers than most high school kids know.
Seattle’s KING FM about 40 years ago (and perhaps even now) does a Top 50 weekend, based on listener votes. The Four Seasons would usually win the balloting, so no surprise there; no campaign needed.
One year they played works 100 to 51, which was a bit more interesting.
Such vote stuffing used to happen even at the Grammys, where the Atlanta Symphony Chorus all became members of the Academy and voted for their Robert Shaw-directed recording of the given year.
But contrary to a lot of propaganda on this side of the pond, it hasn’t been happening in our elections.
Well done, students!
I think it’s time they try voting for a piece of sacred music. Messiah would be the (too) obvious choice, but I’d recommend Bach’s Mass in B minor.