Music Project Bratislava

PhDr. Katarina Grunwald

 

Culture is like a living organism: it breathes, it learns and it grows, always tends to unitise itself, to incorporate the stimulations that influence it as part of its spiritual richness. The spiritual world of an individual is not only formed by his own thoughts and his own cognition, but also by thoughts and influences of people whom he meets and by the facts that he experiences or reads about.    

Music has been a means of communication from time immemorial. With music you can express grief and joy, it is a loud companion in all situations of our daily life. That’s why we decided to choose music as the theme of our VECU project. We worked out  a questionnaire that we gave to 60 pupils of an art school of the age of  7 to 16 years.  The questions related to music and dance.

On the question how their relation to music was formed and how they were influenced by the musical environment at home, most pupils answered that at home it was the grandmother who sang folk songs for them or taught them to play the piano. At least one of the family members played an instrument and the children sang and danced to it. This made them choose for music already at a young age. Some pupils grew out of their children’s dreams but the parents still stimulated them to keep playing the chosen instrument. Today they are thankful to their parents that they did. Some, on the other hand, say that it was their own wish to study music. They exercise out of themselves most of the time without needing explicit stimulation from their parents. Only one of them said that he was forced by his parents..

A pupil remembers that, as a small child, he went camping with his parents and that they played guitar and were singing. These wonderful experiences during childhood did help him with his choice of a school  - he attends the secondary art school, subjects piano and guitar. Another pupil grew up in a totally non-musical environment, but after her arrival in <st1:City><st1:place>Bratislava</st1:place></st1:City>, noticing the multitude of possibilities for art education, she decided to go for music. Till then she knew music only through radio, CDs and TV.   

Since there were also children of  7 years amongst our respondents, we also asked them: what had it been like in the kindergarten? In pe-school? We received some nice answers like: „Tante Miska played and sang for us in pre-school. That’s why i asked my parents to register me for this school“ (the school being the art school).  Other children sang in the kindergarten choir or took part in a dance group.  They played the flute or other music instruments that are easy to handle. The answers to the questionnaire show that the children were busy with music from the age of four.

All pupils are able to read music. Nearly all of them have given concerts.

Besides the music, some pupils like to dance. I questioned two dance students at the conservatory about their conception of  dance as their profession. Regrettably their answers were not optimistic. The chances to get an engagement with a dance society are minimal. It’s only the love for the dance that motivates them to continue their study and the hope to get an engagement nonetheless after graduating.   

The pupils of the higher grades see music and their study of it more as a hobby. Only three respondents intend to become professional musicians. For all respondents music plays an important role in their daily life. After school they always and everywhere listen to music, be it from the radio, the CD player (Minidisk, Ipod...). They listen to it when they are sad, it makes them feel free and comfortable and they can think better. Since at school they mainly deal with classical music they compensate it in their free time with their favourite music like HIP-HOP, RnB, Soundtracks and various songs. National music was mentioned only once.

Concerts of various performers, performances of theatre companies etc. forming the usual music entertainment, have a big influence on the artistic development of the young generation. Despite all the recording media they use like CDs, disks or on the computer they are still willing to pay 30 – 70 Euro for a live concert. For special concerts even 100 Euro. They also don’t mind long trips.

The young art adepts are keen on new artistic experiences. They imitate or they are themselves creative. This way learning to be persevering and persistent. The path to become a good and renowned artist is a rocky one and has to be passed even by a born virtuoso. Maybe, one day, one of our respondents will be a great and famous artist. Who knows?