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A LOOK AT THE CHILDRENS CONCERTS IN THE 50S AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT UNTIL TODAYPART ONE: EXTERNAL CRITICISM

Alejandro LarumbeMUS 78009/26/2014During the 60s Leonard Bernstein captivated audiences of all ages on live television, hosting the worldwide popular Young Peoples Concerts of the New York Philharmonic. Although Bernstein gave notoriety to the format, the NYPO had been offering them since 1922, making them one of the longest running series of concerts devoted to the youth. Many other orchestras were doing it at that time. Still, concerts for children are relatively new. Although children prodigies performed during the 18th century, not many children attended concerts during that time.[footnoteRef:1] Today these concerts are an essential part of Symphony Orchestras outreach programs, and are performed by practically every major ensemble in America. [1: William Weber. "Concert (ii)." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 26, 2014, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/06240.]

The artifact I found at the Hill Memorial Library has to do with childrens concerts, only far away from the glamour of the New York philharmonic and the TV, giving us a perspective from a new orchestra in a small town. The box, call number LLMVC--U:2, contains thirteen items that belonged to the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. They are organized in four folders, each one contains respectively letters, a score for Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev, forty six cards with Peter and the Wolfs text presumably for the narrators use-, and two photographs of Emil Cooper, former conductor of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, both in company of an unidentified lady. The main theme all the materials have in common (but the 2 pictures) is the planning and realization of didactic concerts from season 1954-55 to season 1958-59 of the BRSO.Regarding the gentleman in the pictures, after retiring from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Maestro Cooper was appointed principal conductor for the 1951-52 season. He remained as conductor of the BRSO until 1960, when he died. Maestro Cooper was a world class conductor. He studied at the Odessa Conservatory, then in Vienna and Moscow. He conducted the Kiev Opera at age 22, and in 909 conducted the Russian Ballet and Opera with Diaghilev in Paris. Before New York, he conducted the Chicago Civic Opera.[footnoteRef:2] Maestros Cooper arrival as first long term conductor of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra was a great success, His talent and international fame brought a new level of professionalism to Baton Rouge.[footnoteRef:3] One of the duties of maestro Cooper was to continue the series of childrens concerts, which started on 1947, and continue until today under the name on Young Peoples Discovery Concerts. These concerts are discussed in the set of letters that we are about to describe. [2: Nicolas Slonimsky. Emile Cooper in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. 7th Ed. (New York: Schirmer Books. 1984), 345. ] [3: Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, History of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. BRSO.orghttp://www.brso.org/history.asp (accessed September 26, 2014).]

In the folder that contains letters, there are four groups of documents separated by paperclips. In the first group we find documents that are dated from1954 to 1958.The first three documents will be the main focus of this paper. They are: a Memorandum to Principals (letter A), Program Notes for the 1954-1955 Symphony concert Series for Children, (letter B), and a Youth Concert Code letter (letter C). Letter A has written in blue pen on the upper right corner 1954-55, the second has 1954-1955 in the title, and even though the last one has no date, we can determine that it is from the same year than the rest and that they all belong together. There is several evidence for this. First of all, as indicated by a water mark, they were all typed on the same paper, Mimeo Bold Nekozza. This is an America A4 twenty pound paper, slightly yellow, and it is in good shape. All leafs in the group (letter B consists on three leafs) where stapled on three different occasions in different places, and letter A in rusty on the recto, by the one of the marks of the stapler, letter C is rusty on the verso, telling us that they are the first and last leafs on the package stapled together, respectively. Letters A and C were made using the typewriter, letter B is different. The places were they were all folded in three are visible, making them perfect for mailing in a #10 envelope once folded.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Regarding the content of these letters. Letter A (fig. 1) is a Memorandum sent to the principals of the schools that the BRSO took their Youth Concert Season in 1954. It contains information on location, times, cost, and transportation, among others. It states that these concerts are intended for young people from the fourth through twelve grades. What is interesting about this letter is its fifth and sixth paragraphs:

White students may attend either or both concerts at:Istrouma High ShoolOctober 9Baton Rouge High SchoolNovember 6

Colored students may attend the concert at:McKinley HighDecember 4

Instructions like this would be impossible in out days. However, we must remember that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 will not happen in another ten years. Before this, discrimination it was not only accepted, it was not prohibited by the law, and having concerts exclusively for white or black people was common practice.

Letter B (figure 2) are program notes for the concert series. It is unclear if whether they were meant for the teachers to teach in the classroom previously to the concert, or if they were meant to be a printed material distributed at the concert. There are a couple of things particular about this. They are all written by women, the language, although nice, is very complicated for children, and the most important is the repertoire. The pieces are: The barber of Sevilles Overture by Rossini, Two movements of Mendelssohns Italian Symphony (Minuetto and Finale, Saltarello), Two Slavonic Dances by Dvorak, Jeux dEnfants by Bizet, and the Scherzo and March from Love for Three Oranges by Prokofieff.The last document in the group, letter C (figure 3), is the Youth Concert Code. It has nine points that kids were meant to follow at those concerts. The way it is written gives us an idea of the high level of discipline that was expected from children those days. These are important documents because they give us a great insight to the practices that orchestras followed in childrens concerts in the fifties. When the specific issues

Figure 3that each one of this letters bring to our attention (repertoire, minorities integration, programing, expected behavior) contrasted with what orchestras are doing today, several questions arise. Is the repertoire for these concerts evolving, or is it the same? Does the programming of these concerts affect the way Americans appreciate music, therefore affecting the programming of the major symphonies nowadays? Are this concerts nowadays an important factor in the social integration of minorities, or things havent really changed much since the fifties?

Bibliography

Bernstein, Leonard, and Isadore Seltzer.Young People's Concerts. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970.

Kenney, Susan Hobson, (Author). "Family music concerts: Bringing families, music students, and music together." General Music Today 27, no. 2 (Jan 2014): 6-11. RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, EBSCOhost (accessed September 26, 2014).

Snowden, James Wyn.The Role of the Symphony Orchestra Youth Concert in Music Education. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Colorado, 1975, 1975.