Singing +

Last night Chris told me about the Langley Schools Music Project:

From 1976-77 Hans Fenger, a rocker and elementary school music teacher who had arranged a bunch of contemporary music for choral, got 60 untrained kids from Langley B.C. together in the school gymnasium to sing these songs and play Orff percussion. They were recorded on a 2-track tape deck and pressed into a vinyl LP that was sold to faculty and parents. In 2001 it was released on CD by Bar/None with the title Innocence and Despair.

I knew virtually nothing about conventional music education, and didn’t know how to teach singing. Above all, I knew nothing of what children’s music was supposed to be. But the kids had a grasp of what they liked: emotion, drama, and making music as a group. Whether the results were good, bad, in tune or out was no big deal — they had élan. This was not the way music was traditionally taught. But then I never liked conventional ‘children’s music,’ which is condescending and ignores the reality of children’s lives, which can be dark and scary. These children hated ‘cute.’ They cherished songs that evoked loneliness and sadness.

God Only Knows, Space Oddity, Sweet Caroline, Rihanna, Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft...

Listen to an interview w/ Hans Fenger here
to Innocence and Despair here
and see some video in 3 parts here