Mercatornet: Surprised by Beauty
  • JonLaird
    Posts: 245
    I employed a very simple teaching method with my children. I regularly showed them beautiful things and great movies and played for them some of the finest music. I didn’t preach about these things; I simply let them experience them. They gained an intuitive appreciation for beauty and were automatically repelled by ugliness. I then let them explain to me what was wrong with it. When my oldest son was still in grade school, he came back from seeing a movie with one of his classmates. The father driving the car played only acid rock on the car radio. My son returned very agitated about the music. I asked him what was wrong with it. He replied, “It is irritating to the mind.” I then knew that what I was doing worked.

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    Thanked by 4CharlesW rich_enough StimsonInRehab M. Jackson Osborn
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,933
    I was blessed to grow up listening to good music. Almost by accident. My dad, just your typical Midwestern farmer, had a set of CDs he would play over and over again at home. (As well as listen to NPR, always being sure to switch it off before The Voice of Perdition All Things Considered came on.) A lot of these songs and composers I couldn't name until years afterward. But it did help me cultivate an idea of what kind of music is - or isn't - "irritating to the mind". I listen to a lot more music post-1950 nowadays, but it's good to have classical music as a reference point for listening to new music - almost like an oasis. I can't speak for people who learned the other way around (growing up with modern music and then 'going backwards') but it's really helped me understand the fundamentals of how music works. Especially with Gregorian chant. I didn't really become proficient at reading music until I delved into chant.
    Thanked by 1JonLaird
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