![]() German composer Carl Orff pioneered an approach to music education that emphasized improvisation and exploration. ![]() The Schulwerk approach stressed participatory playing and creativity. there was a rise in popularity of the Orff Schulwerk approach to teaching music, an approach to music instruction. that led to the creation of the American Recorder Society in the early '60s. There was a revival of interest in music of the Baroque period in the U.S. Valerie DePriest: The recorder came into the public schools during a confluence of events in the 1950s. Monica Eng: Why do so many kids learn the recorder at school? Here are some interview highlights between Curious City's Monica Eng and DePriest. She argues that the recorder isn't just an ideal instrument for early music education, but a serious instrument that deserves more respect than it gets. She's also a board member of the Chicago chapter of the American Recorder Society and plays in a recorder ensemble, called a consort. To get to to the bottom of George's question, Curious City sat down with retired music teacher Valerie DePriest, who taught the recorder for 17 years in Oak Park's public schools. And that's largely because most states - like Illinois - have long required kids to take some sort of music instruction in elementary school.īut why do schools use this particular instrument to teach children how to play music? It's rarely featured in any contemporary bands or orchestras, it reached its artistic peak about 200 years ago with Baroque-era music, and as lots of parents have experienced, it can inflict some squeaky torture on families when grade schoolers first bring it home. A representative of Music Arts, one of the nation's largest retail chains for band and orchestra instruments, says their stores sell nearly 100,000 recorders each year. Well, first, not everyone in the United States had to learn to play the recorder in school - but many generations of school children did and still do. ![]() So George wrote to Curious City and asked: Why did we all have to learn to play the recorder in school? The whole thing was confusing on a number of levels. "No one told me that this wasn't something that all American kids just automatically knew, like a national pastime." "I got to my new school and they said, 'Hey, here's this thing called a recorder and you're going to have to learn it," he remembers. When Lebanon-born George Semaan came to the United States via Canada during his fifth grade year, he thought every kid knew how to play what he considers a distinctly American instrument, though some parents might call it something else. Music teacher Valerie DePriest explains why it became a staple in music education.Įditor's Note: This story was originally reported by Monica Eng in 2017. ![]() The recorder often inflicts squeaky torture on parents. ![]()
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