When I formed the Music Education Consortium with Evelyn Glennie and James Galway our idea was to put pressure on the government to bring back music education in our schools. We were not expecting to receive begging letters from head teachers inviting us to personally bankroll projects that we believed were the responsibility of the government rather than individual taxpayers. The latest letter – sent directly to me – is from one of the top state schools in the country. It makes interesting reading in the week before a general election: “I am writing in the hope that you may be able to help us. —— is the top state school in most newspapers league tables – our exam performance in 2004 being bettered by only ten independent schools. This was achieved because of the quality of our teaching and the students’ hard work but in spite of our facilities. Many of our students have to work in 12 demountable classrooms originally intended for temporary accommodation but some of which have been in use for 45 years: they are cramped, leaky and vulnerable to vermin attack. Poorly ventilated and without insulation, these ‘huts’ are cold in winter and stifling in the summer. In addition the school, which has a very high reputation for its music, has no specialist music accommodation – in fact all music lessons have to take place in those ‘huts’. We are committed, therefore, to removing the demountables and replacing them with a purpose-built Music and Careers Centre but to do this we need to find £800,000. We have to raise this sum ourselves as most government funding is denied to us because of our academic success.” Probably you expect me to launch into a diatribe about the disgraceful state of our music education system and how shocking it is that state schools should be penalised for being too successful. Somehow I can’t manage it. Of course every school would love an £800,000 purpose-built music block but this is obviously an impossibility, especially when we are spending billions of pounds waging war. At least the present government has started to rectify 30 years of decline in music education – although things are far from the extraordinarily rosy (and extremely selective) picture painted by the composer Howard Goodall on a recent edition of the South Bank Show.
A whole network of largely unsung organisations are beavering away providing an enviable infrastructure for music making in this country. For example, how many people know about the Prince’s Trust’s ‘Sound Live’ scheme (www.princes-trust.org.uk/)? It’s a six-week residential course – only open to the unemployed – where participants try out different musical styles, play in a band with others and give a performance on the final night. Then there’s the Rehearsal Orchestra, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2007. This gives students and graduates from our music colleges the chance to broaden their repertoire before auditioning for professional orchestras. They also offer soloists an opportunity to play through concertos before important concerts or recordings. In Hereford ‘Music Pool’ (www.musicpool.org.uk/) provides an extraordinary range of musical activities for all age groups and, in Somerset, the redoubtable Jackdaws (www.jackdaws.org.uk/) performs a similar service for the community. Organisations like these are often the brainchild of one inspirational individual. They are usually desperately short of funds but our musical landscape would be far bleaker without them.
Did you see the survey asking politicians what music they would be listening to while electioneering? Party leaders were strangely absent from the poll, so here are my suggestions for them in the run-up to May 6th: Tony Blair (Labour): I Don’t Know How to Love Him – from ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’; Michael Howard (Conservative): Eine Kleine Nachtmusik – Mozart; Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrats): All I Have To Do Is Dream – Everly Brothers; Roger Knapman (UKIP): Theme from Little Britain; Caroline Lucas – (Green Party): I Can See The Grass Grow – Move; George Galloway (Respect): (All I’m Asking Is For A Little) RESPECT – Aretha Franklin; Robert Kilroy-Silk (Veritas): It’s My Party (And I’ll Cry If I Want To) – Lesley Gore; Nick Griffin (BNP): A Whiter Shade of Pale – Procol Harum.
