Scenes from Childhood

Notes on the Program

by Michael Barrett

Composers generally have their first strong musical experiences as children, as do non-composers. It is not surprising that most of them return to the scene of their musical childhood to compose songs that attempt to recapture the excitement, fun and sense of wonder childhood offers. As children, we learn to sing as soon as we can make syllabic sounds. (A toddler friend of mine has a marked preference of EE-Eye-EE-Eye-Oh! Over Yab-a-dab-a-doo! Probably because the “Old MacDonald” exclamation is musicalized while the “Flinstone” one is not.) Some clever children sing their own vocalizes long before they can speak intelligible words. We hear lullabies in the cradle, sung prayers, music in church, and music at school.

Our first visit to a Broadway Musical, the Symphony or Ballet tends to be a memorable one (I was mesmerized by “Nutcracker” at 4 years old), and as we grow, music gives voice to our ever expending emotional experience and knowledge of the world; on the innocent side: riddle songs, love songs, counting songs, animal songs, cowboy songs, etc. On the darker said: tragic songs, sea chanteys, (think of all those four letter words. What did they mean?) and black humor songs of “The Old Woman who Swallowed a Fly” variety. And what beauty would the discovery of inner pain or melancholy have without the accompanying discovery of the minor mode?

Today we pay tribute to this time in life when everything is new, where pure imagination reigns supreme, and to the composers and writers who have returned to that state of wonderment for their inspiration.

For the complete text of these program notes, please e-mail us at:  info@nyfos.org.