Sequence Spotlights
Dr. Ellenberger and Dr. Evans
How would you describe the main approach you take in the sequence? What kinds of readings and assignments are there? Are there any out-of-class activities?
There are writing assignments and creative assignments where students take a shot at actually writing some music, without, of course, requiring any disciplinary knowledge. We use primary sources—autobiographies when possible, letters from artists and scientists, etc. There is no pre-fab “text” for a course like this, so we build our own using the most relevant and personal statements that we can find. From past experience, these types of resources make it so much more “real” because we can see these great artists not as detached “celebrities,” but rather as real people, who experiment, fail, and keep on going to eventually find success. We have several excursions in Grand Rapids planned, as well.
What do you expect students, regardless of major, to take away from the sequence?
Our goal is for students to leave the class with several things (in order of “big picture goals” on down):
- Understanding the necessity of taking risks (improvising), to accept failure, and to embrace that cycle in the pursuit of success in any endeavor, both personal and professional. In short, I want to provide archetypes of artistic and scientific success over the course of the last 1500 years that prevailed in their pursuit of excellence—my hope is that students will see these, warts and all, as aspirational and inspirational—in short, I hope they get a picture of “grit” that will quietly manifest itself in their lives and their careers. That is a rather long-winded way of citing the “creative process”—students will understand how creativity, openness, and even vulnerability are essential for progress.
- Develop an awareness of how these disciplines (and others) are, at a very basic level, fueled by the same motivations and processes, albeit with very different foci.
- Be able to articulate how both in art and science, the challenge is to observe matter in the natural world, to study its characteristics, and then to manipulate it to serve humanity in both the spiritual and material realm.
- Understand and appreciate the artistic and scientific developments that have made the modern world possible. In particular, in the music part of the class, I want students to leave knowing where the music they listen to today comes from—they will understand how the music of the slaves is the foundation of both jazz and popular music, and how that tradition, carrying core remnants of African folk music, was blended with the harmonic and melodic achievements of European classical tradition that stretches back into antiquity. In the science part of the class, I want students to come away with a greater understanding of the ways in which “chance favors the prepared mind” and the intertwined roles of initiative, improvisation, and intuition. In addition, the manner in which scientific discoveries build upon one another and are susceptible to societal norms and expectations has implications for approaching the challenges of current world.
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