Gareth Malone explains how to love classical music in 'Music for the People'

I sit at my desk, pondering on revising a description of a scene in my next novel, sipping Chai tea and listening to the rain plop in big sloppy drops on my window. It is a Gothic-grey day, reminiscent of my times in London when I have dashed down cobblestone streets looking for an open door to escape the chill of a sudden shower.

The doorbell rings and I run downstairs to open the door to receive a package from United Parcel Service (UPS). Quickly, I open it and find Gareth Malone’s new book, Music for the People: The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Classical Music. I have been waiting for this book for a couple of months. Very excited, I run back upstairs and started reading the book.

I love Gareth Malone. I admit it. Sometimes, special people are born into this world who possess a brightness of spirit, who uplift all with simply their presence, who are a joy for all those who know them. They don’t know how far-reaching their effect is on others. That’s Gareth Malone. For all of you newbies, Gareth Malone is the British host of the Bafta-award-winning TV series, The Choir, which debuted on BBC America in the summer of 2010. This series began in 2007 in Britain on BBC Two. The Choir, which also won a Broadcast award, focused on teaching choral singing to people who have no experience of singing, with the first program set in a comprehensive school. Over the course of three series of the Bafta award-winning The Choir, Gareth identified a passion for classical music in schoolchildren, reluctant teenage boys, and even a whole town. Subsequent follow-ups continued the theme by taking choral music to challenging situations; Boys Don't Sing (2008) featured pupils at a boys' school who were reluctant to sing, and the third series, entitled Unsung Town, featured the formation of a community choir in South Oxhey, a suburban town where singing was not a main event. After the warm reception and loyal following The Choir programming received, Gareth’s next project took him to Glyndebourne in a hunt for fresh talent to perform in the new opera, Knight Crew, and on to explore how boys are educated in Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School For Boys and building children’s confidence in The Big Performance. He is currently filming the fourth series of The Choir and enjoying his second year working with Comic Relief, where he trained up an ensemble of celebrity chefs to form a tuneful choir by Red Nose Day.

The uplifting TV series, The Choir helped me through a heartbreak summer in 2010 when I experienced the worst of family tragedies. Gareth Malone’s charming, sweet, down-to-earth personality and classical music became the shining beacons that comforted me during that bleak, dark summer when I didn’t know if I would ever feel whole again. And so it is no wonder that I feel such joy at receiving Music for the People in the mail.

I was trained in classical guitar and piano and was the lead singer of an all-girl’s a cappella singing group, so I had a natural curiosity about this book. And, it does not disappoint. Written in an easy, reader-friendly style, Gareth’s bubbling personality shines through as he explains how to enjoy classical music. He does not talk down to the novice, but rather, engages the reader with his wit, musings and in-depth knowledge of all things musical. He makes it easy for anyone to understand and appreciate classical music, and music in general. He interweaves personal stories with information about music that makes one feel as if he’s talking with an old friend. He discusses all the well-known composers like Bach, (my favorite), Mozart and Schubert, and also discusses more modern composers like Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre. Gareth talks about music through the ages, harmony, attitude, choral music, tone, pop music, singing style, different musical instruments and so much more.

Don’t misunderstand who Gareth Malone is. He is not a musical snob in any way. He’s a very normal, red-blooded young man who is just like you or the guy next door. Gareth has said in interviews that at age 16, he was all about girls and music. In that order. Then it became music as a route to girls. He was obsessed with the guitar, and being a rock star and had a band called Silence is Purple. They used to busk Beatles songs in the streets of Bournemouth, then take the money to buy alcohol. And they played in a little music bar called Mr. Smiths in Bournemouth, a tiny little place where the amplification was loud enough for Wembley. He said it smelled of toilets and fag ends and they loved it. Gareth is someone who everyone can relate to, and this translates easily into his book.

We need people like Gareth Malone and this book about classical music, Music for the People. We need this book to remind us that music is capable of deep emotional expression that transcends the centuries and social boundaries.It is capable of healing and uplifting. The classical genre has not only served as the development and testing laboratories for all forms of music, but has produced masterworks of musical genius that survive today, hundreds of years after contemporary popular music has completely vanished without a trace. To deny classical music has relevance to music today is to deny history and perhaps proclaim one’s ignorance of the academic study of music.

So, make no mistake about it. We need Gareth Malone and we need classical music to open our hearts and lift our spirits as only classical music can. As only Gareth Malone can. If you don’t own a piece of classical music, then download some on your iPod today. And to understand the choices you have, buy Gareth Malone’s new book, Music for the People. As Gareth says in his book: “Classical music benefits from repeated listening and sometimes it’s only by drumming a piece into your brain that you’ll learn to love it.” Start listening!

Thank you, Gareth Malone, for all that you do. Thank you for the TV shows, the musical direction and the book. Thank you for inspiring us and helping many through the “dark night of soul.”

Order Music for the People here:

Gareth Malone’s, Music for the People
For the iBook (full media), Kindle, Audible
From HarperCollins UK, Amazon.com

For more National British Pop Culture stories on Examiner.com from Donna Peerce, please see: www.examiner.com/british-pop-culture-in-national/donna-peerce. Also, visit Donna’s website at www.DonnaPeerceWriter.com. And write Donna any time at: dpeerce@comcast.net.