Nadie entiende mejor que John Rutter la importancia de la música en nuestras escuelas y nadie tiene de primera mano más antecedentes sobre el tema que él. En este vídeo, Rutter comparte sus creencias acerca de porqué la música coral no es uno de los lujos de la vida y de porqué más personas deberían tomar nota.
John Rutter Milford, CBE (nacido 24 de septiembre de 1945 y comandante del Imperio Británico) es un compositor inglés, director de coro, director orquestal, arreglista y productor musical.
Nacido en Londres,
fue educado en la Highgate School. En 1981 fundó su propio coro, el Cambridge Singers, con quienes presenta muy variado repertorio sacro
que los ha de caracterizar (incluida su propia obra), y tiene varias
grabaciones, en particular bajo su propia etiqueta: Collegium Records.
Vive cerca de Cambridge, pero con frecuencia dirige otros coros y
orquestas de todo el mundo.
En 1980 se le hizo becario de honor de Westminster Choir College,
Princeton, y en 1988 miembro del Gremio de Músicos de Iglesia. En 1996
el Arzobispo de Canterbury le confirió un Doctorado de Música, en reconocimiento de su contribución a la música sacra.
Transcripción de las palabras de John Rutter en inglés:
Choral music is not one of life’s frills. It’s something that goes
to the very heart of our humanity, our sense of community, and our
souls. You express, when you sing, your soul in song. And when you get
together with a group of other singers, it becomes more than the sum of
the parts. All of those people are pouring out their hearts and souls in
perfect harmony. Which is kind of an emblem for what we need in this
world, when so much of the world is at odds with itself…that just to
express, in symbolic terms, what it’s like when human beings are in
harmony. That’s a lesson for our times and for all time. I profoundly
believe that.
And musical excellence is, of course, at the heart
of it. But, even if a choir is not the greatest in the world, the fact
that they are meeting together has a social value. It has a communal
value. And I always say that a church or a school without a choir is
like a body without a soul. We have to have a soul in our lives. And
everybody tells me, who has sung in a choir, that they feel better for
doing it. That whatever the cares of the day, if they maybe meet after a
long day’s school or work, that somehow you leave your troubles at the
door. And when you’re sitting there, making music for a couple hours at
the end of the day, that’s the only thing that matters at that moment.
And you walk away refreshed. You walk away renewed. And that’s a value
that goes just beyond the music itself.
Of course, as a
musician, I put the music at the heart of it, but all of these other
values just stand out as a beacon. I think our politicians need to take
note…my gosh do they ever! [laughs], and our educators, those who decide
education budgets, church budgets, just need to remember it’s not a
frill. It’s like a great oak that rises up from the center of the human
race and spreads its branches everywhere. That’s what music does for us.
And choral music must stand as one of the supreme examples of it.
Fuente: el propio vídeo y Wikipedia
