Regretting the Disappearance of Music in Our Schools
The American education system continues to decay, and the horrific results are all around us. Trumpism. Job openings going unfilled due to lack of skilled labor. Gun nuts. White nationalism.
Those older than perhaps 50 remember a time before music was removed from public school curricula. The tragedy here is that music is so much more than signing or playing an instrument. Music is art, it’s math, it’s science, it’s social studies, and it’s history.
Readers who happen to be musicians will get some good chuckles out of the list of new musical terms here. A few of my own:
LAGATO: Slowing the tempo for a difficult part of a piece
SMARZANDO: Brightly
ALLEGROTTO: Played with the sustaining pedal held down, reproducing the sound the piano would make if played in a wet cave
CON FEARZA: With the terror that accompanies approaching a run that calls for fitting 21 notes in the right hand against 6 in the left
