Roald Dahl Music Foundation: Bringing Music To Today's Children
13 September 2007
As children round the country participate in events taking place today to celebrate Roald Dahl Day 2007, CMUK takes a look at one of the ways in which Roald Dahl’s writing is being used to attract younger audiences into concert halls around the country.
Ask a child under the age of ten to name their favourite author, and you could reasonably expect the response to be J.K.Rowling or Roald Dahl. Ask a child to name their favourite composer, and your question is more likely to be met with a blank silence. Unless you happen to have asked the UK’s only under ten John Cage fan, the reason for such a silence is probably simple. Bookshelves are full of books written for children; concert halls aren’t full of music composed for kids.
But do children need music written especially for them? In Roald Dahl’s Matilda the four-and-a-quarter-year-old heroine is reassured by her local librarian not to worry about the bits of ‘Mr Hemingway’ that she can’t understand. Matilda should, as Mrs Phelps explains, ‘sit back and allow the words to wash around … like music’. Whilst some might argue the case for children listening to the same classical music as adults – sitting back in the concert hall with the music washing round them – Roald Dahl Music Commissions is pursuing a different route. As children round the country celebrate Roald Dahl Day 2007, CMUK talks to the Commissions’ Artistic Administrator, Barney Samson, about commissioning orchestral music designed to appeal directly to children.
Can you tell us about the history of the Roald Dahl Music Foundation?
Well, Dahl is said to have talked about the area of classical music for children. He thought that there wasn’t enough music that was attractive for kids. One example of music for children that he did mention was Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and he thought that there should be more music available. He didn’t do anything about it in his lifetime, but after his death, his widow Felicity Dahl set up a charitable foundation offering financial support to projects run by charities, hospitals and individuals in the areas of neurology, haematology and literacy. One of the ways in which money is raised for the Roald Dahl Foundation is through performing commissioned works based on Roald Dahl’s stories and rhymes.
So what are the aims of Roald Dahl Music Commissions? Is Peter and Wolf the ideal piece of classical music for children?
Well, we aren’t trying to recreate Peter and the Wolf each time! No, we’re trying to increase the body of orchestral music available for children. Roald Dahl’s texts are what attract them into the concert hall. This is an ideal way to make an initial contact between children and classical music. Our goal is to use this attraction to produce fun, interesting and artistically strong pieces of music and to bring the kids' enthusiasm for Dahl’s stories to classical music. What might work well musically and artistically for one text might not work for another; each time the composer and text work together to create something new. So far there have been nine commissions, including two full-length operas.
And what makes Roald Dahl’s work particularly suitable for these aims?
His writing is always funny, and the stories are always on the kids’ side. As lots of children get to know his stories really well at school, they may then be attracted to the music.
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And so do you find that there are a lot of children in audiences?
Yes. In fact this summer the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed Paul Patterson’s Three Little Pigs as part of the FUNharmonics concert series. The concerts attract children both with their families and with schools, and get children involved in several ways. For example, educational tools for teachers to use in schools exist for several of the pieces, and there are sometimes activities in the foyer at concerts in order to get the children really involved.
Have there been any particular successes (or failures!)?
All the pieces have been popular and have sold well! A particular highlight was the premiere of Jack and the Beanstalk in the Royal Albert Hall in 1996. 6,000 people were in the audience, and Danny DeVito, Joanna Lumley and Simon Callow were all in the cast. Another production in Cardiff Bay included a huge beanstalk that grew on stage! Some performances are really creative. For example, Dandi Productions in Canada used puppets in their productions.
And how can children get involved with the productions?
Another way our pieces exist is in the form of Schools Musicals. Different composers produce versions of the commissioned works that can be performed by school-age kids. Also, they can be produced by teachers who aren’t music specialists. So far this scheme has raised about £20,000 for the Roald Dahl Foundation, and versions of Goldilocks & the Three Bears, Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pigs have been produced. Cinderella is coming out in December.
So how is Dahl Day being celebrated musically?
On the day itself there are two productions taking place of the Schools Musicals version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. One is in Solihull, Birmingham; the other a bit further away, in Malta!
Thanks for talking to CMUK, and good luck with all your future plans!
The 'Big Friendly Giant' was one of Roald Dahl's many extraordinary conceptions.
