Joan Kennedy - The Joy of Classical Music: A Guide for You and Your Family

PUBLISHED BY NAN A. TALESE
an imprint of Doubleday, a division of
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10103

D OUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor
with a dolphin are trademarks of
Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell
Publishing Group, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kennedy, Joan Bennett.
The joy of classical music: a guide for you and your family
Joan Kennedy.
p. cm.
I. Music appreciation. I. Title.
MT6.K355J7 1992
781.68dc20 92-12028

eISBN: 978-0-307-78610-4
Copyright 1992 by Joan Kennedy
All Rights Reserved

v3.1

For
Kara and Michael
Teddy Jr.
and
Patrick

FOR HER INVALUABLE ASSISTANCE in helping me prepare this manuscript for publication, I give my heartfelt thanks to Heidi Waleson, a fellow music lover and writer. Ive enjoyed a wonderful working relationship with John Williams, who has conducted me with his orchestra, the Boston Pops, at Symphony Hall and at the annual free outdoor July 4th concerts in Boston, and I thank him for contributing his Foreword. I also owe thanks to the late Leonard Bernstein, who, ten years ago, was the first to encourage me to write this book. Yo-Yo Ma, the world-renowned cellist and my longtime Boston pal, offered freely of his advice and wisdom, for which I am grateful. Thanks also to: Sandi Nicolucci, who coached me through the year of teaching music to kindergarten through eighth grade that was required for my masters degree in education, providing me with experiences that were useful in writing this book; Leontyne Price, the great soprano, who shared with me her view of the world of opera; and Bruce Marks, Artistic Director of the Boston Ballet and a dear friend, who helped enormously with the material on ballet. Finally, I want to thank my editor and fellow Manhattanville College alumna, Nan A. Talese, for her guidance and enthusiasm; our days together in college no doubt contributed to the atmosphere of trust that allowed me to write this book.

FOREWORD
by John Williams

IVE KNOWN JOAN KENNEDY for more than a decade now, and I cant think of a better person to communicate the pleasures of music to people who want to learn more about it. In her wonderful new booka charming mix of personal history, musical lore, practical suggestions, and behind-the-scenes peeks at musicians and their livesher love of music leaps from the page, inviting novices and experienced listeners alike to join in.

The Joy of Classical Music deals with some fascinating questions. Why do we listen to music, and what do we hear in it? How much do we understand about this phenomenon which is so truly a human need, and so basic a form of expression?

All through the ages and in every culture, dances of joy, drums of war, and songs of love, celebration, and sorrow have formed an indispensable part of our social and religious life. The music we hear speaks of those thoughts and feelings that cannot be expressed in language, but which can be felt, recognized, and understood by all of our fellow human beings.

Leonard Bernstein wrote that all music is one. Ethnic, folk, pop, jazz, rock, symphonic, vocal, instrumental, religious, secularmusic shares our common humanity as its basis. The variety of music is infinite, and it would take several lifetimes to study, learn, and appreciate all of its rich forms. At the higher artistic levels, music is considered a civilizing force, and as such, it is necessary for young people as part of their general education. Yet as Joan shows us, it is easy to begin to love and understand music, and with an overview such as this, we gain the tools to begin to understand it all.

This sense of the oneness of music has fueled my years with the Boston Pops. We offer our audience a chance to sample classical music on programs that include more familiar idioms, such as popular, jazz, and folk forms. Like other pops orchestras, we try to make connections among all these different kinds of music, tracing the broad sources of folk music that have been forged into what we call art music, and we have fun doing it. Pops concerts provide quality symphonic music to listeners who think they might be uncomfortable with a classical concert, and as such, these concerts are a wonderful entree into that world.

Leonard Bernstein, one of the most eloquent voices on this subject in both music and speech, used to speak of the joy of music. Joan Kennedy celebrates this spirit as she writes movingly and lovingly about the art she knows so well, and she gives us the means to discover this joy for ourselves.

J OHN W ILLIAMS
Boston, Massachusetts
February 1992

I must study politics and war that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy in order to give their children the right to study painting, poetry and music.

President J OHN A DAMS

EARLY in 1990, my only daughter Kara, then age thirty, told me that she and her boyfriend Michael were engaged to be married. We settled on a September date and started planning the Hyannis Port wedding. Among all of the issues and details to be discussed, researched, and resolved, the one closest to my heart was the music.

I had some ideas, and so did Kara. She was absolutely adamant about one of them: she wanted a gospel choir performing at the church. I was dubious. My background is classical music, and thats the music I expected at the wedding. I knew nothing about gospel, and I couldnt imagine how it would fit into a Roman Catholic service. But it was Karas wedding, and she wanted it, so I went off to find out something about this music, to do some sleuthing, as Kara put it. All that spring, I went to churches in Boston to see what I could find, and the more I heard, the more I liked. On September 8, when the five hundred guests got to Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts, the first sounds they heard were thirteen singers and a jazz pianist from the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury.

Those singers gave the Eucharistic Celebration and Rite of Marriage of Kara Kennedy to Michael Allen a swinging beat and a transcendent spirit that I could never have imagined. They sang a half-hour concert before the ceremony, a stirring Alleluia after the Gospel, a jazzed-up version of the Catholic hymn They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love, and a serene Let There Be Peace on Earth as part of the Sign of Peace. When Kara and Michael had placed wedding rings on each others hands, the singers burst into a swinging rendition of O Happy Day that had the whole twenty-eight-member bridal partyand the congregationswaying along. And for the recessional, the chorus teamed up with the Concordia Brass Quintet for one of the most amazing renditions of Beethovens Ode to Joy that I have ever heard. As Kara and Michael posed for the press photographers on the church steps, this ebullient music wafted out of the church, giving them a high-stepping sendoff.