Pupils recreate 'perfect town' musical 100 years on

Schoolchildren have been exploring what it means to build a town by recreating a musical theatre experiment from almost 100 years ago.

About 50 pupils from St Francis primary school in Oxford will take part in a performance of Let's Build a Town at St Edward's School at 18:00 GMT.

The project imagines a city where there are no adults and children are in charge.

The original piece by German composer Paul Hindemith premiered in Berlin in 1930 and was performed in 1931 by pupils in the Holywell Music Room in Oxford.

Today's youngsters said they would like to have "clean air" and "see the sunrise" in their perfect city.

The performance is produced by independent concert series Music at Oxford, in collaboration with the University of Oxford's Cultural Programme.

Dr Giles Masters, a music historian at Magdalen College and co-curator of the show, said: "We felt that young people's perspectives and voices had been really overlooked – even though they are the ones who will have to live with the consequences of the decisions we make today.

"So one aim of this project was to give them the chance to develop and express their views on these kinds of issues around urban planning, local community and citizenship, in a creative way."

The musical's first performance was part of that year's annual festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music, founded in 1922.

Dr Masters said one interesting aspect of the project was the parallels between the 1930s and the 2020s as periods of "transformation" in Oxford.

"The city was actually changing considerably in the early 20th Century – lots of new people were coming to work in the rapidly expanding car industry," he said.

"There are lots of parallels between the challenges and debates in the 1930s and those facing Oxford today.

"Where should we build new housing and what should it be like? What kinds of transport infrastructure do we need?"

The young people will perform scenes from the original work along with new music and theatre they have created themselves.

Three students from Oxford Spires Academy will play in the instrumental ensemble, alongside professional musicians and University of Oxford music students.

There will also be "performance games" inspired by Hindemith's attempts to encourage young people's creativity and confidence through play.

But Felicity Newby-Smith, Music at Oxford learning and participation manager, said she thought the original performance had lost the "fun and play" element in the process.

"Their initial idea of using that as an impetus was quite ground-breaking for their time and very unusual," she said.

"But then they took it back to a more formalized setting for classical music."

She said they wanted to "release it from those confines" in the hope of giving "a little bit of that freedom back".

Ms Newby-Smith said society was now more open to seeing children having fun on stage compared to the 1930s.

"We would almost rather see something that wasn't 100% perfect, but that is full of life and fun," she said.

Sharing their thoughts on the upcoming show, children said they were "proud" of their singing, "having fun learning new games" and "feeling confident".

"My least favourite thing about the workshops is the burglar song because it's stuck in my head," one pupil said.

When asked about what they would like in their perfect town, answers varied from "clean air" and "to see the sunrise" to a suggestion they could "get rid of politicians".

Dr Masters added that the project was "helping to build new connections between the University and the local community".

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