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Sep
5
Diverted By The Deeper Emotions
Filed Under Education, World Culture |
There was a lot of attention in England recently to the sensational Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.
(A video from their BBC Proms performance is here.)
A wonderful editorial in The Week magazine points out that the energy, pride, teamwork, long-worked-for skill and sense of belonging, though profound, is perhaps not the only reason for the success of El Systema, the Venezuelan music education system that pulls many disaffected youths out of trouble - serious trouble - and towards a better life. Those things are just the framework.
What the classics give to people that perhaps rap or pop do not, is an exposure to emotions that go beyond the usual limits of adolescent aggression and sexual longing; a set of emotions massively more complex and difficult, yet infinitely interesting and fascinating. For these children of the poverty ghetto, that provides a more powerful outlet for expression than could ever be achieved through drugs and crime.
By feeding these people classic musical works, the educators behind the scheme are offering them a chance to grow up. For many, this is their only chance.
It’s rare for the effects of music education to be measurable in any useful way. But this is one of the most powerful demonstrations yet of the direct correlation between music education and real, powerful social change.