This morning I was reading an essay by Alison Gopnik in the August 16 New York Times on the subject of how young children characteristically explore, as opposed to adults who exploit. Taking tone as the object of exploration young children should be encouraged to move freely within a range of sounds that correspond to the ringing of bells or the piano played with the pedal down. This is quite the opposite of the fashionable regimen of Mozart CDs.

Young children, once aroused by this vast mysterious richness, don't lose interest in sound. On the contrary, they hear and respond confidently to aspects of tone that the force-fed, young and old alike, miss.