They don’t have a regular music teacher at the school. Both in the sense that there is not a music teacher there on a regular basis, and in the sense that the music teacher they do have is not exactly what most would consider a ‘regular’ music teacher.
His name is Emanuel. He plays the guitar. And sings. Does some dancing and beatboxing too. Apparently he hitch-hikes up to our village - so he wasn’t always incredibly reliable for starting on time. He would smoke next to the school building - where the kids saw him. Smoking the hand-rolled cigarettes that he had just licked shut in the teachers lounge.
Not so much an older woman with a perm sitting at a piano - more like a French-Lenny-Kravitz.
Also very French in the sense that a philosiphical approach is required for even teaching kids
Then he went on to say that for this reason when want to show our approval and appreciation - instead of banging our hands together to make such a noise - we should wiggle our hands whilst lifting up our arms, because “there is the applause that you hear - and then - there is the applause that you see” OK.
The songs too were more about anti-war, world-wide love, the fact that we’re all dying - you know, small kid stuff.
Of course - a nation that has produced thinkers like Descartes, Voltaire, Rousseau, Foucault and others did not do so by treating things flippantly.
The thing is - the kids ALL seemed to LOVE him. We’ve never seen a group of kids so excited to sing in a concert. They all loved the songs. They were so deeply into what they were doing. They were so enthusiastic.
I guess that’s why they called it “voix et corps” and not ‘music’ - they were definitely using both their voices and their bodies.
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