Quote:
Originally Posted by toretorden
I guess we only ever had one tape of what might qualify as "family music" and we would listen to it in the car. It's a norwegian children's classic, but of course you strange foreigners won't know who Knudsen and Ludvigsen were.
I imagine when I'm a parent, I won't be getting much "family music" for my kids. Instead, they can get a proper upbringing and listen to bands like Yes and Caravan! Frank Zappa as well until they learn english.
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Hi Tore,
Thanks for sharing that cute Norwegian children's song! What are those two characters singing about?
Your comment about your plans for your future child's musical upbringing raises an interesting issue: many children's songs are simpler than adult songs and strive to be didactic, teaching numbers or words, and thus have a learning component that "adult" songs may lack to some degree. While adult songs have much to offer people of all ages, they have a disadvantage of sometimes being hard for children to understand conceptually, even if the complexity of the music itself appeals to them.
I tested some of my favorite songs on my 6-year-old, and he loves to dance around to DePeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" as much as I do...or listen to some Cars' songs...but I would say there *is* a benefit to songs intended to appeal to children (I'm talking age 2 - 5 here), who have not had a chance to learn as many words or figure out sentence structure as well as adults, and who also have different concerns and interests to some degree. For example, many adult songs are about romantic love, yet most little kids aren't in this realm.
Here is an example of a song that has become a children's song (and even a family song, since a variety of famous singers have sung it) because it is simple, yet beautiful, and has, I feel, a profound message beneath its simplicity:
The Inchworm Song
YouTube - Hans Christian Andersen
"Inchworm" was written by the American songwriter Frank Loesser, who also wrote the score to the Broadway hit, Guys and Dolls. "Inchworm" was first performed in 1952 in the film Hans Christian Anderson (the youtube video is a clip of it). The clip makes me want to see the whole movie because I feel they did a wonderful job showing the meaning of the "Inchworm song"--the conflict between human desires to be analytical and emotional, the tendency of people to overlook the beauty right in front of them. (Of course, mathematicians and others would say numbers and math concepts *are* beautiful, and so may be appalled by the "inchworm" song's assumption that math is cold and unappreciative of reality).
The "Inchworm" song was one I remember singing to myself pensively when I was 6 or 7...and I knew then that it was a reminder to appreciate the beauty of existence. A lovely song. One of my all-time favorites, actually. It stirred the poet in me. Also, since "Inchworm" teaches math and involves people speaking slowly and clearly, young children can learn both language and math skills from this song, an added advantage of it. This song was one I sang for my baby. I used to amuse him during diaper changes by singing the song and holding up fingers to show 1 + 1 becoming 2, etc., or having my finger crawl around like an inchworm. I've always loved inchworms...finding one dangling from a long silk tether from an oak tree and then letting it crawl on your hand and watching closely its lovely, little green body is one of life's greatest joys, I think!
I feel children's songs are like keys that allow kids to gradually open up the doors to adulthood. If we skip the stage of offering children their own special songs, we may not be reaching their emotional, musical cores as directly as we do if we rely on adult songs written for adult sensitivities. I wonder, though, are children's songs often too giddily silly and happy? When I was a child, I gravitated more toward the sad, melancholy songs that were intended for adults but had a simplicity that allowed me to understand them as a chlid.
--Erica