U3A Benalla and District Inc.
  • Home
  • Benalla
    • Benalla
    • Benalla District
    • Who, What and Where? - Benalla Rural City
  • About
    • Our U3A
    • President's Page
    • Executive Committee
    • Convenors >
      • Convenors
      • Convenors A - Z 2022
    • Program Suggestions
    • Newsletter
    • Website
  • Groups
    • Groups A - Z
    • Recent Groups >
      • Armchair History
      • German - Beginners
      • Meditation
      • Russian Literature
      • Hot Topics/The News - Fact or Fiction?
    • Archived Groups >
      • A - M >
        • A Different View Of German History
        • Armchair Traveller
        • Booker Reading Group
        • Bushwalking - Mid-week Walks
        • Comparative Religion
        • Facebook for Mentors
        • Google Apps/TS Plus
        • History - An Introduction to Western Civilization
        • History - Moments in Australian History
        • Investment I (1996 -2015)
        • Legal Matters (Short Course)
        • Making the Most of the Internet
      • O - Z >
        • On Target - Learning to Shop Online
        • Opera
        • 'Over There'
        • Rail and Tourism
        • Tech Savvy Apple Devices - Intermediate
        • Tech Savvy Community Projects
        • Travel Group
        • Zoom Short Course
  • A-Col
    • A - COL
    • 'A Taste of Art'
    • Art Appreciation
    • Australian History
    • 'As Time Goes By' >
      • Home
      • 'Precious Objects'
      • 'Failure'
      • Our Stories - by topic
    • 'Be Connected'
    • Birdwatching
    • Brain Games
    • Bushwalking - Easy Walks
    • Cards '500'
    • Chat n' Chew
    • Coin Collectors
    • Collectors
  • Col-G
    • COM - G
    • Community Singing
    • Creative Writing
    • Demystifying Psychology
    • Enjoying the Internet
    • Exercises for Fun
    • Exploring the Universe
    • Family Research - Advanced >
      • Home
      • Family Stories
    • Family Research - Beginners
    • Film Discussion Group
    • Garden Appreciation
    • Garden Team
    • German >
      • German Home
      • Lessons
  • I - R
    • I - R
    • 'In the Lap of the Gods'
    • Investment
    • Jane Austen Book Club
    • Let's Talk Books
    • Lifeball
    • Meet and Mingle
    • Music Appreciation
    • Page Turners
    • Patchwork and Craft
    • Photography
    • Play Reading
    • Politics & Current Affairs
    • Recorder Group
  • S - Z
    • S -Z
    • Singing for Fun
    • Sky's the Limit
    • Stock and Land
    • Sustainability
    • Tech Advice
    • Tech Savvy Apple - 'Pages'
    • Tech Savvy Beginners - Android
    • Tech Talks
    • Ukes4Fun
    • Wine Appreciation
    • Wise Guys Book Group
  • Join
    • Join Us
    • Membership Application/Renewal Form
    • Program Guide 2023
    • Timetable - Month Overview
    • Full Timetable with Dates
    • New Courses 2023
    • Venues and Maps
  • News
    • News - General
    • March Newsletter
    • Calendar 2022
    • Monthly Calendar
    • Website & Facebook
  • FB
  • Gallery
    • Gallery 2022
    • Gallery 2021
    • Gallery 2020
    • Gallery 2019
    • Gallery 2018
    • Gallery 2017
    • Gallery 2016 >
      • + Christmas Lunch 2016
    • Gallery 2015 >
      • Christmas Lunch 2015
    • Gallery 2014
    • Lifeball Video
  • Links
    • Resources and References
    • U3A Network Victoria
    • Seniors Online Victoria
    • U3A Albury Wodonga
    • U3A Beechworth (Indigo U3A)
    • U3A Bright
    • U3A Wangaratta
    • U3A Goulburn Valley
  • Contact

'Peter and the Wolf' - Bev Lee

28/6/2021

0 Comments

 
Adding the Music Appreciation notes to the U3A website recently I noticed the class had listened to Prokofiev’s  'Prokofiev - Peter and the Wolf'.  I promised myself I would listen to the link inserted into Bill's report.

Reading the title ‘Peter and the Wolf’ triggered warm memories of a school excursion, of going to the Melbourne Town Hall to listen to a concert to introduce school children to classical music.  It’s rather blurry, but I suspect it was in 1960, I was in the first year of high school (not quite yet a teen), and that we had caught the train from Caulfield Station to Flinders Street Station, walking up Swanston Street to the stately Melbourne Town Hall. 

I had never been to a classical music concert before.  I had developed a love of dancing to classical music at ballet classes, and treasure memories of mother sitting me alongside her  on the piano seat at my grandmother’s and playing for Fur Elise for me when I was little.  We loved selecting pianola rolls from the little rosewood cabinet at our grandparents’ house where we enthusiastically pumped the piano pedals, though the piano rolls were largely popular music of the 1930's.  We had an old, hand wound gramophone at home. I don’t remember classical records featuring, though some jazz records did.  We didn’t listen to the classical radio music on the ABC – right at the end of the dial, I would shudder hearing operatic music on the staticky radios of the time.  My parents could not afford music lessons for us, and at the time state schools didn’t have instrumental music classes.  I grew up in the post war years, which were financially difficult years for many ex-service families such as ours. 

I still vividly remember the conductor introducing the characters, the bird represented by the flute, the  the duck by the oboe, the cat by the clarinet, the grandfather by the bassoon, the wolf by three  French horns, Peter by the strings of the orchestra, the rifle shots by the timpani and the big base drum.  As the story developed, I began to be transported into another world.  I'm still transported there when I listen to this recording found on YouTube...
I felt ‘different’ when I left the wide and wonderful doors of the Town Hall and worked back out on to Swanston Street.  Something had changed. 

Thank you, Prokofiev,for composing Peter and the Wolf; the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for developing a program to introduce school children to classical music, and my dedicated music teacher at Malvern Girls High School for being inspired to arrange an excursion for my class to go the Melbourne Town Hall to experience our first concert!  A memorable childhood experience which inspired, captured and built on my imagination and provided fertile ground for a later love of classical music. 


Beverley Lee
June 2021
0 Comments

    Childhood Memories

    Some childhood memories stay with us despite the passage of time.  Share a story taking us back to one of your earliest memories." 

    Stories by 

    All
    Barry O'Connor
    Beverley Lee
    Bev Morton
    David Lowing
    Elizabeth Kearns
    Heather Hartland
    Helen Duggin
    Margaret Nelson
    Marg McCrohan
    Michelle Aitken
    Neville Gibb
    Ray O'Shannessy

    Archives

    March 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021

    RSS Feed

We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay our respects to their elders - past, present and emerging.
Picture
News
​Newsletter
Facebook Page
​
Program Suggestions
​CO-VID Safety

U3A Benalla & District Flier 2023
​Membership Application/Renewal Form 
​
Program Guide 2023
Semester 1 Timetable with Dates 2023
Semester 1 Timetable Month Overview 2023
Developed and maintained by members, this website showcases U3A Benalla & District. 
​Photographs - U3A members; Benalla Art Gallery website; ​Weebly 'Free' images;Travel Victoria and State Library of Victoria