“Music Classes 50 Years Behind Art”

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30794, 5 July 1965, Page 14

“Music Classes 50 Years Behind Art”

Music education in schools is about 50 years behind art education, according to Mr Peter Maxwell Davies, a 30-year-old British composer who is visiting Christchurch.

In art classes every child had ‘he opportunity for creative expression in drawing and painting, while in music classes the emphasis was on interpretation, said Mr Maxwell Davies. In his classes at Cirencester Grammar School, where Mr Maxwell Davies was director of music for four years, children were given the opportunity to express themselves in music. This included writing and performing their own pieces as well as playing and sineing other music. “The classes were not snecially selected for this. They were just any kids who could perform.” he said. Mr Maxwell Davies is no longer associated with school work and his activities now include composing, lecturing on developments in British music and on his experiences as a teacher and of his former pupils’ experiences. Last month he lectured at a U.N.E.S.C.O. seminar in Sydney and this week he will lecture at the University of Canterbury School of Music. He said work similar to his at Cirencester was being done by other teachers in England. It would take a long time, but it could eventually become the accepted wav of teaching. “Some of the younger teachers are trying these methods, but they’ve had to unlearn some of their old ways.” he said. “The present training tends to drill the creativity out of children. There are too many teachers

chasing little bogies that have nothing to do with music. “It would be better if they arranged things for the children to play and if they let them improvise a bit. But one cannot say: ‘do this’ and ‘do that’ to teachers and one cannot under-rate the work done at present in schools.

“It’s up to the new teachers to learn the new methods.” Mr Maxwell Davies, who is regarded as one of the leading younger British composers, has written several works for performance by children, the most famous being the cycle of carols, “O Magnum Mysterium.” The latest work, “Shepherd’s Calendar,” a piece for children’s chorus and children's orchestra, was written for the U.N.E.S.C.O. seminar at the request of the Australian Government. He also writes music for professional players “whenever asked” and his customers include the 8.8. C., the London Philharmonic Society and the Koussevitsky Foundation.

Mr Maxwell Davies studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music, in Italy on an Italian Government scholarship, and at Princeton University on a Harkness Fellowship.