I've been thinking about my favorite Kindermusik teacher,Yvette Odell, and how she had to move from Holland to keep doing what she loves, so when I was walking through Barnes and Noble the other day I splurged. If she were still here, I'd give it to her to read next, but she's probably already heard of Mr. Levitin and his research. In the first chapter, he talks of attending the annual meeting of Kindermusik teachers. He has a very scientific approach to music and the brain. His first book was titled This is Your Brain on Music. This book classifies music into six categories: Friendship, Joy, Knowledge, Comfort, Religion and Love. I'm now thinking about this as I listen to the radio while picking up my kids. Is the song by Three Doors Down, It's Not My Time a comfort song? Sometimes the book got bogged down with science, but overall it was very enjoyable. My favorite quote from the book is:
"What distinguishes us most is one thing that no other animals do: art. And it's not just the existence of art, but the centrality of it. Humans have demonsrated a powerful drive toward making art of all different kinds--representational and abstract, static and dynamic, creations that employ space, time, sight, sound, and movement."
The book talks about some of the earliest cave paintings showing humans dancing. In the chapter on religion, he refers to a ballet that Joni Mitchell recently choreographed in Canada. You can watch a clip of it on You Tube here:
It reminds me again of how intertwined music and dance are and I'm thankful to all of the teachers in the world who know this and practice it in their classrooms. My children have been fortunate enough to do Kindermusik and have teachers that sing and bring in banjo players and teach square dancing. How lucky they are!
If you want to know more about this book go to www.sixsongs.net I learned from his web site that he is coming to Kalamazoo what a treat that would be.
