Author Archives: patrick kettyle

10/24

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Today, we learned about how a time period affects the works of a writer, took a closer look at Whitman’s poem Crossing Brooklyn Ferry and compared it to “Hard Rains Are A-Falling,” by Bob Dylan. Whitman was an American poet that composed his poems during the post civil war era. This time period consisted of Reconstruction in the South and mourning across America for the loss of Abraham Lincoln. A lot of Whitman’s works have patriotism in them. One poem that I have read before that embodies this patriotism is O’Captain My Captain. This poem is a tribute to Abraham Lincoln after his assassination and it a prime example of the effects that the era had on his writing.

Whitman’s poem Crossing Brooklyn Ferry is a very descriptive poem. Whitman’s central image of the poem is the seagulls. He refers to them many times and focused on them because they are free-spirited. There are a lot of references between light and darkness, which creates a duality. Anaphora is also predominant in this poem and is used in a way to slow you down as you read it. It also contributes to the overall feel of the poem which is a rocking feeling. At the end of class, I was able to listen to Bob Dylan for the first time, which was nice and I enjoyed listening to more of his music when I got home. While listening to “Hard Rains Are A-Falling” in class, it was interesting to see the relationship between Whitman and Dylan’s repetition and the kinds of images that are used. Both the song and the poem have a rocking feeling to them due to the repetition. Also, Dylan’s song contains a lot of juxtaposition between uplifting and frightening images, which creates a duality like in Whitman’s poem.

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

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In Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, by Whitman, the speaker not only elegantly describes a ferry ride, but tries to bring the speaker closer to him in his time period. The speaker brings the reader closer to himself by describing himself and the scene, and by speaking directly to the reader. In this poem, the speaker refers to his dark times and is very honest with us. I feel that he is trying to relate with us and show us how similar we are despite the time difference. He also brings us closer to him through his many details of the ferry ride as well. He almost makes you feel like you are apart of the ferry ride with him because of the way that he describes how the light reflects off of his head in the river, the “oscillating” seagulls and the sailing ships. I enjoyed these details a lot and they bring soothing images to my mind.

The speaker tries to break through the fabric of time and put us next to him on that ferryboat by also referring to us many at times. He is constantly telling that we are important to him and always on his mind. He even puts himself next to the reader when he says  “Who knows, for all the distance I am as good as looking at you now, for all you cannot see me.”(7:8-9) Out of all of the lines in the poem, this line sticks out to me the most. I felt that the speaker was talking directly to me. These lines made me realize that the speaker was trying to connect with the readers, and bring us closer to him.

The Heiress

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On Wednesday night, we ventured out into the city again to see The Heiress. This wasn’t my first experience with seeing a play, but it was my first with my new Macaulay friends, and like the opera experience, it is one that I will never forget. I had a lot of fun being with my friends and I was able to see a great play.

I’m going to avoid comparing the play to the book, as I mentioned in my last post, I’ve come to accept that a play, or a movie, will be different from the book. All I would like to say in regards to that is that I liked the way that the creators of the show put the story of the play together. I felt that the story was a little rushed, but it was necessary in order to not drag out the play too much.

Overall, the play had a lot of humor in it and I enjoyed that. All of the characters had a humorous part to contribute to the play. I enjoyed a lot of Catherines awkward movements and responses. One in particular movement and response was when she would just curtsey slowly when she would see someone or when she would just answer someone who asked a long winded question with a peculiar “Yes.”

So, I want to start by saying that I enjoyed all of the actor’s performances. My favorite performance has to be by Judith Ivey, who played Mrs. Penniman. The way that she played Mrs. Penniman was pretty close to how to my image on what imagined her being like when I was reading the book. If I were to rewrite the part of my paper again when I had to choose actors to play the parts of the characters, I would have chosen her instead of my original selection of Kathy Bates. Many parts of the play that involved her had a lot of humor that I enjoyed.

10/15

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In Monday’s seminar class, we discussed Washington Square. First, we discussed Henry James as a narrator. Then, we compared both movies that are based on the novel.

When I was reading this novel, I did not detect Henry James opinion of Catherine. Throughout the novel I was able to detect some irony, but I did not realize that Henry James had an opinion towards his heroine. Initially he makes fun of her when he says, “Catherine’s back is a broad one which could have carried a great deal.” I wish I would have looked more closely at some of the things he had said when I was reading the novel because I feel I have missed his sardonic comments. It was interesting to learn that he did have an opinion of his protagonist at one point, because from my understanding of the novel I thought he was objective.

If I had to decide to see one of the two movies, just from my knowledge of the book and from seeing the clips in class, I would see The Heiress. I felt that The Heiress was more like the book. I know that’s not what I am supposed to expect as a moviegoer when I see a movie based on a book, but I like to go into a movie and see it be very close the book. In this movie, Catherine was more contained and simple, which I feel resembles her character in the book more closely. Like Professor Kahan pointed out, the other movie, Washington Square, seemed to have more of a 20th century feel based on the movements of the characters, which I didn’t like. I also feel that the emotions conveyed in Washington Square were over exaggerated. For example, Dr. Sloper’s sarcasm jumps right off the screen. In the book I detected his sarcasm in some of his comments, but I do not feel he was as sarcastic as he is portrayed in this movie, which bothered me. Catherine’s flaws are also much more prominent. I liked how she aced in The Heiress more because her shyness and simpleminded are not as exaggerated as they are in Washington Square.

10/10

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On Wednesday’s class, we began by discussing our recent adventure to go see Turandot. One particular aspect of this discussion that interested me was the purpose of Liu. At first, I was unsure of why she was a part of the play, but then it made sense when we talked about it. Liu’s purpose was to be an example of what true love really was, and she melted the heart of Turandot so that Turandot and Calaf could live happily ever after. We also discussed the stereotypes in music. Certain types of music can be labeled as “Chinese” which is racist. I admit that when I listen to certain types of music, I relate them to different nationalities, which is wrong and ignorant of me to do.

Professor Sirotta came in to talk to us about music. Professor Sirotta is a well-known composer who just created his first symphonic orchestra piece that will very shortly be given its world premiere. The symphony is called Fantasia Pripetshok. In class he discussed with us his inspiration for his work, which I found very interesting. His inspiration was the first piece of music that he ever heard called OYFN PriPetshok, a Jewish folk song. He described to us how one day he played this piece and it reminded him of his first childhood memory of hearing music. I think that is an amazing feat to remember ones first memory of music and after putting some thought into it, I am disappointed to know that I can not think of a very first time that I heard music.

Just before class ended, Professor Sirotta played a small piece from his symphony. This was a fantastic piece. When I listened to it, I felt like I was going on a journey as the music underwent many transitions. I was very impressed by his piece and it made me more interested in going to see the Philharmonic on Sunday.

Opera Night

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Wednesday’s class was a trip to the Metropolitan Opera. This was a great experience for me and it is one that I will never forget. Not only did I have a great time with all of my classmates on this trip, but also I got to enjoy the opera performance of Turandot.

When I got off the train for Lincoln center, I didn’t know what to expect. I have to admit that the first thing on my mind wasn’t the opera because I was very hungry and in the mood for a classic New York City gyro. After satisfying my appetite, I walked up to the opera and the first thing that caught my attention was the fountain. It lit up the entire plaza and was a great introduction to the next thing I encountered, beautiful chandeliers and a lot of red velvet. As soon as you walk in you see beautiful chandeliers and red velvet, everywhere. The floor, staircases, and walls were all covered in it, which still sticks out in my mind. After seeing a sea of red velvet, I saw a beautiful opera hall with more chandeliers, that move too, and last but not least, (excuse my cliche) i saw the opera.

Overall, I really enjoyed the opera. Everything about it was great and there were several parts of it that stood out for me. One was the orchestra. The music was fantastic and there were many occasions when I would just look down and watch them play. I even enjoyed watching the maestro conduct the musicians. It was interesting to watch his movements and see how he conducted the orchestra with some emphatic arm movements. Next I want to say that my favorite scenes of the opera were the scenes with Ping, Pang, and Pong. I enjoyed the humor in the scenes and their acting was very good. I also really liked hearing Liu sing. Her voice was by far my favorite and I was sad when she died, and i was even more disappointed later on to know it was all in vain because Turandot does fall in love with Calaf and they live happily ever after.

10/1

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Today was a good introduction to what the opera is going to be like Wednesday night. In this class we learned a lot about different types of opera singers by watching different clips of well-known operas. To be honest, I wasn’t very excited about going to see the opera prior to this class because I had never seen them before, and I imagined them to be very boring because there would only be singing. Now that I have more of an idea on what opera is all about from seeing different opera clips, I am excited to see Turandot this Wednesday.

First, we watched Don Giovanni. It was a light-hearted comedy about a noble man named Don Giovanni being very promiscuous and he was not afraid to show it. It says a lot about how society viewed men of higher class who are promiscuous during the time period of the opera. I enjoyed this clip of the opera a lot because of the light-hearted feeling of the music, and the comedy of the scene. The music blended very well with the singer’s voice, and the singer’s acting was good which made it entertaining.

Later on we watched a clip from La Traviata that was sung by Beverly Sills. I didn’t like this scene because although she had a very good voice and the music was nice, it had very bad acting in it. It would have been very difficult to follow this scene without subtitles. The singer is saying how she has very conflicting feeling about falling in love. However, you get the feeling that she is happy instead of conflicted about her love because of her facial expressions and how she has very up beat movements.

Finally, we watched three clips of one of the most famous opera arias of all time, Nessun Dorma, from Turandot, sung by Pavarotti. Unlike the previous two clips, there was no acting involved, and the singer was stationary the entire time. However, I enjoyed the clips. I had no idea that Opera singers were not in their prime until their forties, and I was very impressed by Pavarotti because of his age and the longevity of his career. His last performance was during the 2006 winter Olympics, which is an extraordinary accomplishment.

9/24/12

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Today was a very interesting class and has made me look forward to the upcoming opera because I enjoyed listening to classical music and learning more about it. Just by listening to the different pieces carefully, and seeing the different patterns, I learned a little bit about sheet music today and how the different elements of music come into play in the composition of a piece.

When professor Kahan first handed out the sheet music for the different pieces of music, I was completely lost. All of the notes on the pages were a mystery to me, it was like someone gave me a novel written in Greek and told me to take a glance at it. Then when professor Kahan told us to look at the sheet while she played “Praeludium I” I came to understand the sheet a little better, which was very interesting. I saw that there was three different notes being played repeatedly, with one note being the dominant one. Then, when she played “Praeludium II,” I saw the same notes on the page and the same pattern, however the notes were put much closer together and there were more notes on the page. When professor Kahan began to play this piece, it became very clear that having these changes in the piece created an entirely different feeling to the music. Although both pieces had the same harmony and melody, they had different rhythms and textures, which completely affected the emotions given off by the pieces. The first piece had a very calming tune, while the second was described very well as a “Malevolent machine.”

On a very personal note, today’s seminar class was nice change for me. Instead of focusing on analyzing paintings like we have been, we analyzed music. I have always found classical music to be more interesting than art. I think this is because I have always had a strong interest in learning how to play an instrument.

Expanding Frames of Reference 9/19

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Before class on Wednesday, I knew that this seminar class would be about going to see an art exhibit, which is not one of my favorite things to do. However, after Professor Liu came to class to talk about the art exhibit, my opinion changed. I am like him in the sense that I am very interested in science. So when he gave us an introduction to the thought process behind Johann Jakob Scheuchzer when he made his paintings, I became interested in the art exhibit because of my interest in science. It seemed very unique for an artist to unify scientific thought with art and religion. These three concepts are typically unrelated. Science and religion have often clashed because of different theories behind how the universe began. It was interesting to see that there wasn’t a schism in this artists mind, to see how he united art, science and religion in this exhibit.

 

One particular painting stood out to me in this exhibit, and I think its safe to assume why it made it onto the cover of the information booklet. Scheuchzer’s Plate CCCLXXXI of Judges 14, verse 8, shows his unique intertwining of religion and scientific knowledge. Samson is bent over examining the skeleton of a lion. It shows Scheuchzer’s love of anatomy and fossils because of how Samson is examining the skeleton, and the picture of the completed skeleton above the frame. I also like how Scheuchzer has many details in all of his frames. He unites all of his paintings with his frames. For this painting he put bones on the sides of the frame. In his Plate CCCLXXX of Judges 14, verses 5 and 6, he has the front half of a lion on both sides of the frame, and Greek coins depicting Hercules fighting the Nemean lion. This painting is also very interesting because it combines the story of Samson and Hercules. Normally, Greek mythology and biblical stories are not intertwined in today’s society.

9.12.12

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On Wednesday, we focused on gaze and style in seminar class. In art, gaze is how the viewer sees the subject of a painting and it helps the viewer develop a relationship with the subject. A person’s style is their identity during the time period. In class we analyzed different paintings by Edward Hopper and in doing this, we tied together two important concepts in art, gaze and style, because Edward Hopper’s predominant style in his artwork is the different kinds of perspectives that he gives his viewers.
In New York Interior, the subject of the painting is a woman who is sewing. From the viewer’s perspective, her back is the only thing we can see and no relationship is developed between the viewer and the woman. In Night Shadows, the viewer has an aerial perspective of a man in a hurry, although, we can develop a relationship with this subject and relate with him because we have all been in a hurry before. In Hopper’s self-portrait, we get a rare view of a subject’s face, and there is less mystery behind what the subject is feeling because his eyes are directed towards us and convey several different meanings.
After looking at Hopper’s painting, it seems clear that he focuses on giving his viewer a different perspective in every painting. I also feel that in all the paintings I have looked at, there is a sense of loneliness. Either there is a person alone, or there are a group of people and then there is a person off to the wayside like in “Nighthawks.”