“The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consists of nothing more than the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.”
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946)
Course Objectives
The primary goal of this course is to introduce students to a wide spectrum of arts offerings in New York City. Weekly classroom meetings are combined with group visits to museums, theaters and concert halls. Visual arts, literature, opera, musical theater, dance, and instrumental music (both solo and chamber music) are explored. The class is largely participatory. Students keep journals in which they document emotional responses and write critical analyses of various works of art and performances and read these short essays aloud in class. Discussion and debate are essential. There will also be a website for students to post journal writings and opinions on a blog between class meetings. The course is a collective journey in which we develop our ability to listen, to see, to feel and to create, largely through interaction with other members of the class. The class will culminate with a final group project: we will write and perform a short musical together. No prior musical training is required.
The progression of Western music history, from The Middle Ages to the present, forms the basis of the curriculum, and from there the course branches out to other art forms. By finding correlations between different genres, we maintain a clear historical perspective throughout the semester, which will ultimately shed light on the kinds of lives people from these periods led. The course also aims to develop the ability to assimilate, appreciate and be moved by the beauty and power inherent in great works of art. In doing so, the form and content of particular works will be examined very closely and thoroughly, with repeated listening and viewing.
Course Requirements
Attendance at all class meetings and outside events is required. More than one unexcused absence can affect the final grade. A willingness to participate in discussions, to read aloud from journals, and to contribute to group projects is mandatory. In addition to weekly writing and observations, there will be two formal papers, and the final group project. Readings will be assigned. Final grades will be determined by the effort and thoughtfulness put into weekly writing (2-3 pages per week, 20% of grade), attendance and class participation (20% of grade), formal paper #1 (6-7 pages, 20% of grade), formal paper #2 (6-7 pages, 20% of grade), and contribution to the final project (20% of grade).
Course Calendar
W, August 29, 2:55 PM:
Introduction and discussion of Macaulay Night at the Brooklyn Museum
Topic: The Middle Ages
Listening: Gregorian chant, organum, estampie, mass
Poetry reading: “Sir Patrick Spens” (Anonymous, 13th century)
Viewing: medieval European paintings
Assignment: go to the Metropolitan museum, pick one painting from the 13th or 14th century, and write a poem in a medieval style describing what you see and feel. Also: pick a favorite passage from a Shakespeare play, at least 25 words, memorize, and be prepared to recite in class in two weeks.
W, September 5, 4:00 PM:
Lincoln Center Tour – David Rubenstein Atrium (Broadway between 62nd and 63rd streets)
Note: we will meet in our classroom at 2:55 PM and then go to Lincoln Center together.
W, September 12, 2:55 PM:
Discussion of Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Read medieval style student poems and Shakespeare passages aloud
Topic: The Renaissance
Listening: motet, mass, madrigal
Shakespeare play: read memorized passages aloud
Viewing: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael
Assignment: read pp. 19-53 of Looking at Art by Alice Elizabeth Chase (Chapter 3: The Artist Looks at the View and Chapter 4: The Artist Looks at People and Space). Write a 2-3 page summary for next week comparing and contrasting her viewpoint to John Berger’s.
W, September 19, 2:55 PM:
Topic: The Baroque Period
Listening: concerto grosso, fugue, baroque opera
Poetry reading: “Sound and Sense” by Alexander Pope, 1711, “”Adam Posed” by Anne Finch, 1713.
Viewing: El Greco, Caravaggio, Rembrandt
Topic: The transition from Baroque to Classical
Assignment: Read pp. 227-268 (“The Great Operas”) from The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, selected and edited by Hans Mersmann. Write a 2-3 page description of Mozart’s character and ability to relate to others, as suggested by his letters.
Topic: The transition from Baroque to Classical
Listening: sonata, symphony, classical opera
Poetry reading: “The Sick Rose” by William Blake, 1794, “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns, 1796
Viewing: Watteau, Fragonard, Boucher
Assignment: read pp.69-74 (“A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful” by Edmund Burke, 1757) and pp. 150-156 (“An Essay on Poetry and Music as they affect the Mind” by James Beattie, 1776), both articles from Music and Aesthetics in the Eighteenth and Early-Nineteenth Centuries, edited by Peter le Huray and James Day. Start to write formal paper #1, 6-7 pages, on the progression of the arts from the Middle Ages through the end of the 18th century, and how the aesthetic perceptions of artists evolved during those years.
Sunday, September 30, 7:00 PM:
Fall For Dance at City Center, 131 W 55th St (between 6th & 7th Avenues)
Tuesday, October 2, 8:00 PM:
Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center
W, October 3, 2:55 PM:
Topic: The transition from Classical to Romantic
Listening: Beethoven: sonatas, symphonies, extension of forms
Poetry reading: “She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways” by William Wordsworth, 1800,
“On the Grasshopper and the Cricket” by John Keats, 1816
Viewing: Jacques Louis David, Francisco Goya, Theodore Gericault
Assignment: finish formal paper #1 for next week
W, October 17, 2:55 PM:
Formal paper #1 due today (please do not submit electronically)
Topic: Romanticism
Listening: art song, program music, piano miniature
Poetry Reading: “To George Sand” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1844 and “The Wind begun to knead the Grass-“ by Emily Dickinson
Viewing: Delacroix, Friedrich, Turner
Assignment: Go to the Metropolitan Museum, pick an early 19th-century painting (once in the Great Hall, you must walk through the narrow corridor of Drawings, Prints and Photographs to get to 19th-century paintings), pick one painting and write a 2-3 page short story based on you being pulled inside the painting and the world you discover there.
W, October 17, 7:00 PM:
Don’t Go Gentle by Stephen Belber at the MCC Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher Street
W, October 24, 2:55 PM:
Students read their romantic painting short stories aloud in class
Topic: Impressionism (whole tone scales, nonfunctional chords) and symbolist poetry
Listening: Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and assorted piano pieces
Poetry Reading: “Afternoon of a Faun” by Stephane Mallarme, 1876
Viewing: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cassatt
Assignment: Read pp. 198-208 (letters of Claude Debussy) from Composers on Music, edited by Josiah Fisk. Then “channel” one of the artists we have studied so far and write 2-3 pages in the form of a letter as though you were that artist writing to a friend.
W, October 31, 2:55 PM:
Read student “letters” aloud
Topic: Twentieth Century trends (dissonance, polytonality, changing meter, primitivism, expressionism, twelve-tone)
Listening: Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw
Poetry Reading: “Cassandra” by Louise Bogan, 1929, “Buffalo Bill’s” by E. E. Cummings, 1923,
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, 1923
Viewing: van Gogh, Munch, Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Kandinsky
Assignment: Go to the Museum of Modern Art, select two works painted 1910 or after, and write a 2-3 page comparison of each artist’s use of color, light and form.
W, November 7, 2:55 PM:
Topic: Twentieth century trends
Listening: minimalism, chance music, electronic music, jazz
Poetry reading: “A Supermarket in California” by Allen Ginsberg, 1955, “Other” by Dorothy Livesay, 1955
Viewing: Chagall, Dali, Miro
Begin writing formal paper #2. Select three individual works of art representing three different art forms. Compare and contrast the way the artists use dissonance and consonance, tension and relaxation, conflict and resolution to generate movement and excitement in their work.
Tues, November 13, 8:00 PM
The Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, 57th St. and 7th Avenue
W, November 14, 2:55 PM:
Topic: American contribution
Listening: Broadway, rock and roll, folk
Poetry reading: “The Leap” by James Dickey, 1967, “Marks” by Linda Pastan, 1978
Viewing: Pollock, Lichtenstein, Warhol
W, November 21, 2:55 PM:
Poetry reading: “Parsley” by Rita Dove, 1983
Work on musical
W, November 28, 2:55 PM:
Formal paper #2 due
Musical – dress rehearsal
W, December 5, 2:55 PM:
Videotaping/performance of musical
W, December 12, 2:55 PM
Last class – watch videotape – reflections
