According to sugar of Drifting Island:
I will say it plainly. If that listening time still exists,
school education is diligently manufacturing people who hate classical music.
Oh, those hateful music classes that separated me from wonderful music!
— Experiencing Music
I, too, was the kind of person who became thoroughly fed up with music appreciation in elementary school. And not only music appreciation: in literature as well, I find myself wondering why they always choose works that seem so poorly suited as an introduction.
Take Mokichi Saitō, for example:
Two red-throated swallows perch upon the rafters; my beloved mother is dying
It is a fine poem, but difficult for children, isn’t it?
I came to like Mokichi after my father (Isao Akimura) introduced me to the following poem:
War has broken out in Shanghai; balsam flowers have fallen red
(There may be mistakes in the wording… I remember it only by sound.)
It was after he taught me this poem. It struck me deeply, and I came to like tanka itself. Even a junior high school student can understand this one, right?
Something like this might be good as well. Come to think of it, it was featured in yesterday’s Oriori no Uta.
I strike a match; for that brief moment, the sea is deep in fog—is there a homeland worth casting away one’s life for? (Shūji Terayama, included in Sora ni wa Hon, There Are Books in the Sky (Shōwa 33))
This is one of my favorite poems.
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