(no subject)
What I imagine I’ll take away from college is an inability to enjoy anything unless it accounts for culture, gender, class, race, sexuality, etc. It’s not a conscious thing, and I can’t turn it off, and it continues to sneak into every aspect of my life and it’s damned annoying!
Music class continues to piss me off. I hate being the smarty-pants in a class full of freshmen who only want their gen ed hum credit, who has everybody glare at her when she asks a question a bit more in depth than “will this be on the midterm?” I dislike that the professor has to stare jaw agape for several seconds digesting the fact that someone has actually asked an intelligent question.
Rant Alert! (you have been warned!) :
How can you condense 1000 years of music into one day? Even if you stick to one continent? 5000 years into two days!!!? And spend all of three on Mozart!
How can you emphasize that ancient music was all about religion without mentioning that there really was no division between “the sacred” and “the secular”? (I’m not entirely convinced that that’s true myself, but it tends to come up a lot.)
How can you not know about hurdy gurdys?! How can you not know what they sound like? (they’re so cool!) How can you not talk about how certain chords were banned because they belonged to the devil? How can you not talk about how the church banned and burned hardangers when they noticed the players were put into a trance-like state by the music! Why are we not talking about the fact that bowed instruments the result of the Crusades; that the instruments on which Western music was founded were brought back from the horse people of the East? (I’m incredibly biased on that one, but I think it’s so interesting!)
How can you just jump from madrigals and Gregorian chants to concertos? La la, one day Bach woke up and was a genius? Really?
And why are we focusing on the elite? Old white men on the payroll of the church or the state? It’s not that I have a problem with old white male European composers - I really like what they did! Much of it is simply gorgeous! But there are social reasons as well as musical reasons why Bach was basically forgotten after he died (until Mendelssohn or whoever it was revived his music 150 or so years later), why nobody paid attention to Mozart’s sister, why we don’t remember the songs the common people sang or why we only have them in some forms rather than others. Music, like any art, does not and did not exist and a cultural or historical vacuum! This is not political correctness speaking. I’m not trying to undermine Western music; I just think there’s so much more to it that could potentially be so interesting!
And why are we talking about music in Music 101 as if “music” is only what was happening in a few tiny slices of Europe. What about India and ragas and movable frets and all that? Chinese civilization had been far more civilized and for far longer; it stands to reason that they would have some cool stuff going on at the same time. Why isn’t that important enough to even mention?
Aaaagggghhhhh!
*sigh*
Why can’t I go to Happy Magical Unicornland School forever and ever, where there’s only learning and rainbows and they teach the things I want to know?
In other news:
Frederick stockings are really nice, Manda... you were right. And I have you to thank for an afternoon of... mutual enjoyment. And the boy was incredibly cuddly the rest of the weekend. 'twas very nice.
My new Mechantes corset showed up in the mail today. Not custom this time. Doesn't fit quite like a glove as the other one does, but I'm generally very pleased with it, and it's timely arrival 2 days before a photoshoot... but disappointed at the lack of busk. Makes it impossible to take off during a BurleyQ number. I guess that just makes some choreography decisions easier.
My new laptop should arrive Thursday.
This weekend is the Dance Flurry!
And Jenny's friend will be doing a lecture on Burlesque and Feminism next thursday! Yay!!
In addition to all this wonderful news, and satisfying consumer whoredom, the sun was up when I walked to work at 7:15 this morning. Even is the mountain is all drab and brown, it still made me happy.
Music class continues to piss me off. I hate being the smarty-pants in a class full of freshmen who only want their gen ed hum credit, who has everybody glare at her when she asks a question a bit more in depth than “will this be on the midterm?” I dislike that the professor has to stare jaw agape for several seconds digesting the fact that someone has actually asked an intelligent question.
Rant Alert! (you have been warned!) :
How can you condense 1000 years of music into one day? Even if you stick to one continent? 5000 years into two days!!!? And spend all of three on Mozart!
How can you emphasize that ancient music was all about religion without mentioning that there really was no division between “the sacred” and “the secular”? (I’m not entirely convinced that that’s true myself, but it tends to come up a lot.)
How can you not know about hurdy gurdys?! How can you not know what they sound like? (they’re so cool!) How can you not talk about how certain chords were banned because they belonged to the devil? How can you not talk about how the church banned and burned hardangers when they noticed the players were put into a trance-like state by the music! Why are we not talking about the fact that bowed instruments the result of the Crusades; that the instruments on which Western music was founded were brought back from the horse people of the East? (I’m incredibly biased on that one, but I think it’s so interesting!)
How can you just jump from madrigals and Gregorian chants to concertos? La la, one day Bach woke up and was a genius? Really?
And why are we focusing on the elite? Old white men on the payroll of the church or the state? It’s not that I have a problem with old white male European composers - I really like what they did! Much of it is simply gorgeous! But there are social reasons as well as musical reasons why Bach was basically forgotten after he died (until Mendelssohn or whoever it was revived his music 150 or so years later), why nobody paid attention to Mozart’s sister, why we don’t remember the songs the common people sang or why we only have them in some forms rather than others. Music, like any art, does not and did not exist and a cultural or historical vacuum! This is not political correctness speaking. I’m not trying to undermine Western music; I just think there’s so much more to it that could potentially be so interesting!
And why are we talking about music in Music 101 as if “music” is only what was happening in a few tiny slices of Europe. What about India and ragas and movable frets and all that? Chinese civilization had been far more civilized and for far longer; it stands to reason that they would have some cool stuff going on at the same time. Why isn’t that important enough to even mention?
Aaaagggghhhhh!
*sigh*
Why can’t I go to Happy Magical Unicornland School forever and ever, where there’s only learning and rainbows and they teach the things I want to know?
In other news:
Frederick stockings are really nice, Manda... you were right. And I have you to thank for an afternoon of... mutual enjoyment. And the boy was incredibly cuddly the rest of the weekend. 'twas very nice.
My new Mechantes corset showed up in the mail today. Not custom this time. Doesn't fit quite like a glove as the other one does, but I'm generally very pleased with it, and it's timely arrival 2 days before a photoshoot... but disappointed at the lack of busk. Makes it impossible to take off during a BurleyQ number. I guess that just makes some choreography decisions easier.
My new laptop should arrive Thursday.
This weekend is the Dance Flurry!
And Jenny's friend will be doing a lecture on Burlesque and Feminism next thursday! Yay!!
In addition to all this wonderful news, and satisfying consumer whoredom, the sun was up when I walked to work at 7:15 this morning. Even is the mountain is all drab and brown, it still made me happy.