Don't teach classical music this way!

Subject: RE: Don't teach classical music this way!
From: Acorn4
Date: 02 Dec 10 - 10:20 AM

I think I've heard this referred to before:-

"This was the symphony that Schu - Schu -Schubert never finished"


Seems to have been quite common around that time.

Subject: Don't teach classical music this way!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Dec 10 - 09:48 AM

Something I saw in another thread reminded me of this:

When I was in about 6th grade, there was a teacher who came to our school to teach us "music appreciation." These lessons only happened 1 or 2 hours a week, I guess. One of the pieces she taught us to "appreciate" was Schubert's Unfinished Symphony.

She taught us words to go with the symphony, and made us sing them:

"Schubert, we sing to you. We love to do the tunes of Schubert…."

I remember more, but I won't inflict them on you. I am NOT asking for more lyrics. I wish I had never learned them. I can't forget them. Whenever I hear that symphony (which is rarely; I'm not much of a fan of classical music), those damned words pop into my head.

And the words are so inane, stupid, puerile, uninspired, uninspiring, unpoetic—I can't think of enough synonyms—that they have destroyed any real appreciation I might have had for that symphony.

As a pedagogical technique, this is the pits.

I can understand how a naïve young teacher might have the misconception that putting words to symphonies is a good thing. The words do work as a mnemonic. They help you learn the tune. But they don't help you like the tune. No, if anything, they have the exact opposite effect.

Although I have since learned to enjoy many pieces of classical music—especially Bach, Vivaldi, Haydn, Handel—I detest the Unfinished Symphony. I don't think it's Schubert's fault. I think it's that damned teacher's.