Proms 2 & 3 - 13-14.07.13: Doctor Who Proms

[Beef Oven]

Very strange Beefy I know,but very true,never seen the programme.

Seriously, without too much detail, HTF can you be alive in Britain in the 60s and 70s and not see an episode of Doctor Who (even if, like me, the 1960s episodes were watched from behind the sofa with heavily laden underpants (talking poo, not peckers))?

[EdgeleyRob]

Seriously, without too much detail, HTF can you be alive in Britain in the 60s and 70s and not see an episode of Doctor Who (even if, like me, the 1960s episodes were watched from behind the sofa with heavily laden underpants (talking poo, not peckers))?

Well of course we had it tough,my parents couldn't afford a TV or new underpants.
I don't honestly know,it just kinda passed me by,same with Star Trek.
As a kid I was always out playing football til the sun went down,and later listening to music was more important to me than watching TV.

[Beef Oven]

Well of course we had it tough,my parents couldn't afford a TV or new underpants.
I don't honestly know,it just kinda passed me by,same with Star Trek.
As a kid I was always out playing football til the sun went down,and later listening to music was more important to me than watching TV.

You didn't buy a tv in those days, you rented one during world cups and Xmas time. Good ol' Rediffusion!

And we all played football in the streets until it was too dark to see, but we still managed to watch Doctor Who.

[hmvman]

Good ol' Rediffusion!

It was Radio Rentals in our case. We still watched Dr Who though - from under the table in my case....

[hmvman]

I've watched Dr Whon Eastenders, Dallas and other of similar ilk, but I've never watched a single episode of Coronation Street. All I know about it is that there's a pub called The Rover's Return, and that there was once someone called Elsie Tanner. Am I missing anything?
The ITV Proms

No, you're not missing anything EA! My grandmother watched Coronation St and it was completely incomprehensible to me as a boy. I remember Elsie Tanner and I was particularly fascinated by the woman with the hairnet. That's it! I was working at Media City, Salford the other week and I was told that Granada are re-building Coronation St there. No, I didn't think it was that interesting either....

[hmvman]

Some friends of mine, who are not normally classical music listeners, took their children, aged 16 and 11, to Sunday's Dr Who Prom so I took the opportunity to ask them about it and, in particular, if they thought it would encourage them to go to another prom and/or listen to more classical music. Here's their reply:

"As we had never been to the Albert Hall before it was an amazing introduction to classical music. Yes the attraction was The Dr Who element, but it was a good way of getting children into classical music. I know our 2 were on the edge of their seats and were looking forward to hearing certain bits of music from the series & they did tell us the real names of each piece. As for another prom, I think we would give it a go because hearing classical music in that setting was amazing & they had set the prices at a reasonable rate for families."

On that basis I don't think it unreasonable to have on or two 'popular' Proms in the season.

[VodkaDilc]

Some friends of mine, who are not normally classical music listeners, took their children, aged 16 and 11, to Sunday's Dr Who Prom so I took the opportunity to ask them about it and, in particular, if they thought it would encourage them to go to another prom and/or listen to more classical music. Here's their reply:

"As we had never been to the Albert Hall before it was an amazing introduction to classical music. Yes the attraction was The Dr Who element, but it was a good way of getting children into classical music. I know our 2 were on the edge of their seats and were looking forward to hearing certain bits of music from the series & they did tell us the real names of each piece. As for another prom, I think we would give it a go because hearing classical music in that setting was amazing & they had set the prices at a reasonable rate for families."

On that basis I don't think it unreasonable to have on or two 'popular' Proms in the season.

In most Septembers during a long teaching career, I would take a party of children between those ages to one of the Proms. There would usually be one during the last week which had an attractive programme. On each occasion I would get the reactions mentioned above. These were standard Proms and average children (self-selected, so there would have been a spark of interest anyway, but always enough to fill a 50 seater coach). I can never remember any of them claiming to be bored and there were always plenty wanting to return the next year. They did not need child-oriented concerts to attract them.

Have children changed? Are they less able to cope with demanding material? Have their concentration limits declined and, if so, who is to blame?

[Flosshilde]

I tuned in for half-an-hour - by the sound of it everybody was thoroughly enjoying themselves

(tut-tut)

[MrGongGong]

Have children changed? Are they less able to cope with demanding material? Have their concentration limits declined and, if so, who is to blame?

NO
They can easily cope with so called "demanding" material
but people seem to get a little confused about what "demanding" means

Xenakis isn't necessarily "demanding"
Mozart can be

Children are easily able to concentrate on complex and unfamiliar musics if the context is right
(see BCMG etc etc )

nuff said really
all depends on what you think music is FOR
(but the kind of mindful activity that encourages people to think about these things is out of the window in many places)


(I was also wondering whether the "hiding behind the sofa" childhood "memory" is a folk memory and not rooted in reality ? a bit like what the CE folk do
"do you remember Dr Who and all his works ?"
to which we all reply
"we used to hide behind the so-o-faaaaa" )

[Beef Oven]

NO
They can easily cope with so called "demanding" material
but people seem to get a little confused about what "demanding" means

Xenakis isn't necessarily "demanding"
Mozart can be

Children are easily able to concentrate on complex and unfamiliar musics if the context is right
(see BCMG etc etc )

nuff said really
all depends on what you think music is FOR
(but the kind of mindful activity that encourages people to think about these things is out of the window in many places)


(I was also wondering whether the "hiding behind the sofa" childhood "memory" is a folk memory and not rooted in reality ? a bit like what the CE folk do
"do you remember Dr Who and all his works ?"
to which we all reply
"we used to hide behind the so-o-faaaaa" )

Music & children - Interesting points MrGG and I'm sure your right.

Daleks, Cybermen & sofas - no way a myth! There was a cupboard near the front door that I would hide in (more safety than a sofa).

I think if you are now anywhere between - 50 & 58 years old, Daleks would have scared the hell out of you back in the day. I certainly ran for cover!

[MrGongGong]

I certainly ran for cover!

Stairs......... (YES I KNOW about the flying ones )

[Flosshilde]

I don't see the point of repeating this Prom on a weekday afternoon when (most - except in Scotland) of its target audience will be at school. It's unlikely, in these Govian (which sounds like Dr Who baddies) times, that headteachers will gather all the pupils in the school hall to listen to it.

[Nick Armstrong]

http://www.classicfm.com/music-news/latest-news/tardis-serenaded-london-philharmonic-orchestra-and/

There is definitely more than a whiff of convergence in the air....

[Padraig]

NO
They can easily cope with so called "demanding" material
but people seem to get a little confused about what "demanding" means

Xenakis isn't necessarily "demanding"
Mozart can be

Does that mean, MrGongGong, that Xenakis can be, while Mozart isn't necessarily "demanding"?
Or, is demanding different from "demanding"?
Oh! It's all so confusing.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I heard part of this afternoon's repeat in the car on the way home, and hmvman is quite right - the audience did seem to be loving it. But it also struck me that great opportunities had been missed: bearing in mind that 50 years ago, the series was intended as much as an educational programme as a Sci-Fi adventure series (Hartnell's programmes contain nearly as many "Historical" stories as the did "Bug-Eyed Monsters") and also bearing in mind Christopher Eccleston met Charles Dickens and David Tennant met Shkespeare, wasn't there the potential to have Matt Smith in character introducing Handel, Beethoven, Wagner, John Coltrane* or whoever to introduce one of their pieces in a user-friendly "Discovering Music" sort-of way (I'm remembering the way Salieri helps Mozart write the Confutatis Maledictis from the Requiem in the film of Amadeus) - in other words, a brief unfurling of the different orchestral strands, so that the audience can hear that great Music is bigger on the inside than the surface suggests.

That way, Murray Gold's stuff can take its place beside the stuff that it rips off - err; read: "that inspires it", the monsters and party atmosphere can be kept, and insights into the better stuff can be shared. They could even include some of the Radiophonic Music from the '60s and couple this with works such as Varese's Poeme Electronique (scenes from the series projected onto screens for the benefit of the grown-ups who can't listen to New Music without pictures).

There is fantastic, BBC-worthy potential in these Doctor Who events that I feel is just being missed.

* = Dr Who is, of course, a Jazz enthusiast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLoiUOxTGnQ