For today’s seminar class, we were asked to write a reactionary piece for the poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” by Walt Whitman. First off, I had to read this poem a few times before I understood what Whitman was trying to say. It is a very deep poem, filled with meaning in every word. I did like it very much after I understood it.

I imagine the speaker of the poem looking into the water beneath the Brooklyn Bridge when he was writing this poem. Interestingly, he addressed inanimate parts of the scenery like the sun and the clouds as “you,” yet he thought the commuters and everyone else on the bridge was “curious.” This led me to believe that he felt more of a connection to the scenery than the people. The people just passed by on the bridge, but the sun, clouds, and seagulls were always there. I thought that it was interesting that he felt a connection with “the others that are to follow [him].” He felt a connection with the people of the future, but could not with the people of the present. He felt a connection with the future through this bridge. The people who were to follow him will see the same things he saw when he wrote this poem. He says “I am with you” to the people who will cross the Brooklyn Bridge after him. He then paints a picture through words of the city he sees in front of him with “granite storehouses,” “fires from the chimney,” and “the stately and rapid river.” He says that these things are the same to him as they are to future generations.

I believe that then he was talking about the rough and hard life one has when living in the city. He says that he has “felt their arms on [his] neck” as if the people of the city were trying to strangle him. Later on, he told the scenery to keep doing what it had been doing because it was what kept the future and the past linked.

In today’s class, we opened by talking about zeitgeist. Mendelssohn was a composer at the same time as Beethoven, yet Beethoven is so much more famous than he is in this age. This is because Mendelssohn appealed to his time period. His music was influenced by the Victorian era, and his music influenced the Victorian era. I thought this was an interesting concept. Mendellsohn’s music was for that specific era, and so it didn’t become as famous at Beethoven’s because his music transcended time.

Felix Mendelssohn was a very educated individual. He was very wealthy. He was interested in composing orchestral music, and his father hired musicians to play his music so he could practice. He went on a grand tour of Europe; this was part of his education. He saw Scotland, and wrote the “Scottish Symphony.” He was a German man who took his idea of a Scottish dance and put it into a symphony. He imagined another culture by putting it into music.

We listened in class to Mendelssohn’s most famous music piece of all time. It is called the “Wedding March” from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” This was an incidental music for the play, which was written for a specific scene or between scenes. Dr. Kahan said that we don’t think about this piece as something that someone had to write down at one point in time; it is just a part of our culture. I will try now to look at popular music pieces differently, and look at each piece of music as something that someone created.

In Washington Square, James set back the novel 20 years before than at the time it was written. He chose to start the novel in 1850 because the Civil War was in 1861. There are no wars in 1850. It was a period of stability and economic prosperity. The Civil War altered society, and so it would had altered the arts. This goes back to the idea of zeitgeist. The novel is called Washington Square because the title is meant to evoke the calm nature of the setting, Washington Square Park.

We then compared the two movies Washington Square and The Heiress. In Washington Square, the director chose to cut the red dress that Catherine wore and switched it with a blue and yellow dress. I think that this is a terrible choice on the director’s part because the red dress was such an important part of the story. It shows how she looked older than she was, even though she was not trying to be flirtatious. In both versions, however, Catherine is portrayed as a very awkward and unusual young lady. Her father is also very mean and blunt in both versions. The two Morris’ were very different. In The Heiress, it seemed as if Morris had known of Catherine before. However in Washington Square, it seems like the two were meeting at the same time. He also seemed as if he was trying to “match her awkwardness,” as Naomi put it. I feel like both versions have their own strengths and weaknesses. I think that the newer version of the story imposes the modern age social constructs onto the characters of the novel.

I really cannot wait to see The Heiress on Wednesday. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and am looking forward on the onstage production of it. I am expecting the acting to be outstanding, considering the star-studded cast.

Today, in class we discussed the different voice types. I learned that opera singers are like athletes. In order to preserve their voices, they have to maintain their bodies and lead a very disciplined life. Opera is a combination of the improvisation and music as an art. Opera was born around 1600 when people combined dramatic poetry readings and music.  Dr. Kahan said that the four most important opera writers are Mozert, Verdi, Wagner, Rucci, and Bizet, who wrote Carmen. The lowest voice type for a man is the bass. Mozart was inspired by the cultural revolution that occurred in the lat 17th century; he wrote about overcoming the oppressors. A recitativo is musical narration, where the plot gets moved along. The tunes are not memorable. An aria is the main part where the singer expressed an emotion, thought, or plot idea. The main tune is sung twice, and improvisation occurs the second time.

The Catalog aria in Don Giovanni is a light-hearted comedy.

The baritone is the next voice up after the bass. The Barber of Seville by Rocini is a comic opera writer. Figaro is the servant that bests his master. This is a patter song, because you sing many words at once. His music helps define who his character is.

The librettist has to know how the voice works and how to use text to define a character. We listened to Verdi’s Othello, which was his adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. It was a part of Iago. the music announces an evil character. Verdi had to present Shakespeare’s drama while letting the singer show off his voice to a nice tune. This singer was a dramatic baritone. It goes with his character because he had to use a lot of pressure at the top of his  voice, and Iago’s character is evil.

We then heard Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma from three different years. Pavarotti is a tenor. The difference in the both performances is that he was more confident in the second, more recent one. His voice was more powerful in 1998. He improvised more in the second one. He seemed much more emotionally connected in the last performance, and he was struggling a little more. However, he did move his body more.

The lowest voice type for a woman is the alto. The next up is Mezzo-Soprano, and one is in  Carmen by Bizet. There are many different sopranos, like the dramatic soprano. There is the lyric soprano. There is also the spinto soprano, because it can cut through a thick orchestra. The next is the light lyric soprano; these women have the comic roles. The coloratura is soprano who sings very high, very fast notes. Bizet has chosen a chromatic scale because it shows that Carmen is slithery and she breaks social rules.

I thoroughly and completely enjoyed today’s class session. I am a musician; I play guitar and sing in my church’s band every Sunday and can also play guitar classically. Music theory is something that I’d love to get into. I think that this was a very toned-down type of theory class, which made me so happy.

The four fundamental components of music are rhythm, melody, harmony, and timbre/texture. I knew what the first three were very well, but timbre/texture were knew terms to me. I loved listening to the different pieces and seeing the different combinations of the “Big Four” components. It was so interesting how a little change in one of the components sets it apart from all other pieces.

“Praeludium I” was heavenly. I notices a very distinct rhythm set by the 1^st and 5^th notes. the bass notes add a depth in the middle of the song that contrasts the dominant high notes of the melody. The homogeneity created a soothing feeling, like a lullaby. There was no climax. Volume and dynamics create a climax, but this piece was very tranquil.

“Praeludium II” was not calming. It was rather suspenseful. Dr. Kahan said it was like a “malevolent machine,” a concept that I’ve never thought of before, but I realized how well it  fit the piece. Different configuration of basic elements of music create a different sound. Dissonant notes in this piece set it apart from the first piece in which the notes were consonant.

In the “Rite of Spring” by Stravinsky, I noticed a very strong bassline. There was a dominant, repetitive melody broken up by they elimination of the bass to transition from one melody to another. I thought it was interesting that the harmonies among the instruments created an eerie sound. There was a very futuristic sounding strings part paired with a basic 1-2 bass rhythm. I also noticed the contrast of the staccato baseline paired with very long sounds in the background.

In Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” I thought it was so interesting that Dr. Kahan said “more humanity, as represented by more instruments, is added to the tune.”  There were different musical events occurring under the dominant melody in the piece. The staccato bassline contrasts the fluid dominant melody provided by upper string instruments. The climax in the piece was a departure from the standard tune of “Ode to Joy” and is brought on by the fast beat of the upper strings.

We then looked at the use of music in productions, like in a movie and an opera performance. In “Camille” with Greta Garbo, there was quicker pace. In “Un di felice” from “La Traviata,” the music was like a waltz. It was an aria. It had a slower pace, which made the content or text of the song more dramatic and realistic. It illustrates the process of him falling in love with her, rather than just a love-at-first-sight type of infatuation in “Camille” where he remembers what she was wearing.

Today in class we looked at the Mona Lisa. We actually gazed at the Mona Lisa and the background. We said in class how it looks like a desert, and a scary forest. I thought it looked like a mix of different landscapes, which adds to the fact that the painting is so dynamic and deep. Most people in the class saw different things, and very seldom were too opinions exactly alike. I think that is the allure of the class, that we can all experience art in New York but we all experience it in different ways. I think it’s interesting that the the background is so complex, yet I haven’t noticed it since before looking at it in class.

I think it’s interesting and very telling of the time period that Mona Lisa is painted with perfect skin, hair, and clothing. I think that maybe this woman was a patron of Da Vinci’s, so he was forced to idealize her. This also shows that the Renaissance woman was ideal and perfect.

It’s interesting that this painting is part of the “Big Three” most famous paintings. I like that it’s so simple at first glance, but one I start gazing at it I see so much more. I notice the oval patterns in the painting, and I now see a connection with the “Last Supper” in which Da Vinci painted many triangles.

This same principle applies with Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. I learned how to see patterns in paintings like the rectangles on the building in the back, and the rectangular shape of the diner itself. I now see the language of painting, that there are patterns and different ways of expressing an idea.

A connection I thought of between the two paintings is the use of light. The background in the “Mona Lisa” is darker than her face and skin, which is done on purpose to draw attention to the face. The same thing is done in “Nighthawks” with the woman in red, because the painting is done so that it seems that the lighting fixture is directly on top of her. It really works to grab attention and make that portion of the painting stand out more.