Set up of Spring 2020 Message Boards:
Wk7: React to R. Sessions Reading
Please:
1) read the Roger Sessions .pdf (found in "Files")
2) find a quote that resonates with you and react to it (by March 5 if you can)
3) react to someone else's thoughts (by midnight on March 11.)
Wk8: React to S. Neely TED Talk
Please:
1) read the Roger Sessions .pdf (found in "Files")
2) find a quote that resonates with you and react to it (by March 5 if you can)
3) react to someone else's thoughts (by midnight on March 11.)
https://youtu.be/44p5GHpef4I
Wk9: Three observations of yourself following Alcantara readings.
Please read both Alcantara readings and jot down three observations you have about yourself while reading.
Please make note of them here on the discussion board, and be ready to elaborate on one of them in our April 9 meeting.
Indirect Procedures pp 129-144
Wk10: The Four Gestures Project
Wk11: The Collage Project
What is the difference between representational and expressive collaboration and how does it inform narrative?
In your trios, each member of the group should create a visual collage of static, meaningful objects (found or made) and photograph it. The other two members of the group should work separately to create sound that accompanies the visual collage. We will display the resulting products on this discussion board and perhaps an online gallery?
Please post each photo only once, and attach your music as a "Reply".
Wk 12: The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat1)From the book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, read Chapter 3, attached below
2) Share an imagined or lived example that supports Polyani's notion that we know more than we can tell.
(To learn more about Polyani, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10137548.2018.1425527 )
Chapter 3 The Disembodied Lady
Wk11: Embodied Metaphors
Continue reading Metaphors We Live By, at least to page 32. (pages 47-49 are my favorite)
Share three different metaphors from your life that have a "bodied" origin. Ask your family and roommates for ideas.
Last week we learned "our cognition is influenced by our experiences in the physical world. This is why we say that something is “over our heads” to express the idea that we do not understand; we are drawing upon the physical inability to not see something over our heads and the mental feeling of uncertainty. Or why we understand warmth with affection; as infants and children the subjective judgment of affection almost always corresponded with the sensation of warmth, thus giving way to metaphors such as “I’m warming up to her.” -S. McNerney
Wk13: Plastique Animee
Plastique video
Dalcroze invented this form of movement study called Plastique Animee. Of the many concepts it helps explore, plastique is a platform for the practitioner to embody multiple levels of attention simultaneously.
In a group classroom setting, it is best to form a group of two or three people, so that for dense or complex music, you might demonstrate more layers of detail, and experience their interdependence. If you want to try forming a group as distance learners, you are very welcome!
Please choose a song from one of these playlists and re-present it as movement (and include the sound). Note that your movement is not an emotive response to the piece, but rather a bodied re-presentation of the music. The more detail you can represent, the more awakened we become to the depth and clarity of your attention(s). You do not need to use the entire track, but you may.
Plastique Video List 1 - music with fluid and nuanced changes of time, space, and energy. Take care to show not just accurate impulses of sound, but the flow between them. You should conduct at some point in the video, but do not need to do so throughout.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0JFsMYqdx9Gmr4WBwFIHwM?si=6_UfF9IiRLqncWWJc2PwkQ
Plastique Video List 2 - music with shifting metrical or harmonic framework to create groove. Take care to show the feeling of downbeats as bodied anchor points. You should conduct the meter at some point in the video, but do not need to do so throughout.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0xyd0LOS7y6SL1mvlSXVKU?si=7fWXEA-qRS6Cc-tMdTsB1w
Plastique Video List 3 - maybe you have your own idea? Please email me your idea for approval before you begin working.
Wk14: Hellerau, the City of Rhythm
Founded in 1909, the utopian city of Hellerau had an odd design aesthetic. The planners called it "the City of Rhythm." They put a music hall called the Festspielhaus Hellerau at the city center and hired Dalcroze to run it and teach his method. Imagine a town designed around a massive modernist community arts center!
1) Read the linked article,
(it's long, but you just read to the word "Mendelssohn")
2) Post what you would do if you were put in charge of such a place.
-What would you call it?
-What kinds of classes or events would happen there?
-How would the place reflect the ideals of the whole town and become a source of inspiration to every citizen?_
http://www.echo.ucla.edu/article-in-the-footsteps-of-eurydice-glucks-orpheus-und-eurydice-in-hellerau-1913-by-tamara-levitz/
Fall 2020 Seven Week Dalcroze Course Message Boards
Wk 1: Bach Sarabande
Pdf of clean dover edition
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:ba15417e-0357-4856-9052-141a2e7a9846
image of Anne Magdelena score
http://www.wimmercello.com/bachs2ms.html
Wk1: A Song that Changes your Gaze
For our first discussion board, you should share a link to a song (spotify? youtube?) that you've been digging lately, along with a sentence or two of what you find compelling about it.
Wk2: Neely TED Talk
Wk3: Three Gestures
a little classmate collaboration required here:
1) make a simple, unedited video of yourself making three distinct gestures, one after another, pausing briefly on each. The video should be no longer than :30 seconds.
2) send the video to one of your trio members, and follow up with the other trio member about receiving one from them.
3)take the video you receive and create sound that that you think could "go with" the movements of your collaborator. Once you add your audio, post it below.
4) if time allows, watch the other contributions, first muted and then with sound, and see how your expectations are met or surprised.
Wk4: Sessions Reading (did not go well! they did not understand at all)
Wk5: Design as Symbiosis
Respond to this discussion board as personally and inventively as you want.
1) Notice something, anything, in your life that was designed by someone else, but gives you the sense of being in relationship/communication/interdependence with the designer, someone you'll probably never meet.*
2) Consider something else in your life where design is either absent or it is merely careless or exclusionary. (I don't mean that it is designed paternalistically or with malice) What I'm interested in here is finding a domain in your life that would be different if you had the opportunity to change/re-design it.*
You might find a way to answer both questions or you might choose just one to focus on. You get the 10 points as long as you participate honestly! Honesty over quantity!
Dreams-Pain
Creative-Correct
Subjective-Objective
Yin-Yang
as in dialogue
Parentheticals:
Possible ideas of how to respond:
You could make a drawing or sculpture or comic strip and post that, write or improvise a short scene alone or with a colleague, compose a poem or song and post that, film yourself performing or interacting with any of those things, and so on... you could even just be yourself, and try to show how the design of something allows or enables that selfhood.
Possible examples of design in your life:
The intuitiveness of an app, the placement of a lightswitch, the orientation of a stairwell that enables you to connect with your environment/each other.
The sensuality of an orange as you peel it (arguably design?), the flash of solitude as you pull on/out your favorite hoodie/headphones/notebook/mug, the way the lawn mower person cut the trail (just for you!)
Wk5: Freedom as A Practice (choice of Freire or Hooks)
The music educator Emile Jaques-Dalcroze said over and over, "Experience before analysis." In other words, do something, notice what you notice, and repeat.
Attached you'll find a section of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's most famous work, first published in 1968. I'm excited to see what you notice about your own reactions as you read.
(Disclaimer: you'll encounter over and over references to "men". This should be read of course, as "humans" or "people". While Sessions (the author from last week) has no excuse for saying men exlusionarily, I believe it was not Freire but the translator who indefensibly chose "men" so as to differentiate " all people" generally from "the people" in the specific proletarian sense.)
Wk6: the whole person (they said they liked the EJD reading, but I couldn't find a way to get them to respond to it beyond that)
First, please read the opening of Rhythmic Movement by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950), and then compare that to the attached excerpt of Body Learning, which explores the work of F. Matthias Alexander (1869-1955).
Then, for the discussion, respond to one of the "Checkpoints" at the end of the second reading, with these two readings as context.
Wk 6: Hellerau, the City of Rhythm
Founded in 1909, the utopian city of Hellerau had an odd design aesthetic. The planners called it "the City of Rhythm." They put a music hall called the Festspielhaus Hellerau at the city center and hired Dalcroze to run it and teach his method. Imagine a town designed around a massive modernist community arts center!
Wk7: Plastique Animee
Dalcroze thought of plastique animee less as dance than as a bodily re-presenting of sound. Today it is taught and practiced in schools around the world, and some of it does resemble choreography. But consider that Dalcroze saw it as a tool, a joyful bodily analysis about the embodied truth of music.
In this final week, I'd like if you, alone or with a partner from our class, choose a song from one of these two playlists, and then film yourself moving to it. (if you'd like to use something of your choosing, just email me.) Of course, take time to react supportively to what your friends have made.
Plastique Video List 1
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0JFsMYqdx9Gmr4WBwFIHwM?si=vwB0UklzTv25RkO6Q6ep1w
Plastique Video List 2
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0xyd0LOS7y6SL1mvlSXVKU?si=B2lQAMeUQHmekGH3I4s7Mg
Some possible goals:
To present as many layers of the music as possible (such as drums vs. a soaring vocal line)
To demonstrate with the body the context of musical elements (such as showing how the horn hits are in conversation with the overall groove)
To show how the framework of meter gives form or shape to a development or narrative (such as a conducted pulse against a rapidly changing rhythms)
Plastique examples are in course files; only watch if you're stuck!
Wk 1: Bach Sarabande
Pdf of clean dover edition
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:ba15417e-0357-4856-9052-141a2e7a9846
image of Anne Magdelena score
http://www.wimmercello.com/bachs2ms.html
Wk1: A Song that Changes your Gaze
For our first discussion board, you should share a link to a song (spotify? youtube?) that you've been digging lately, along with a sentence or two of what you find compelling about it.
Wk2: Neely TED Talk
Wk3: Three Gestures
a little classmate collaboration required here:
1) make a simple, unedited video of yourself making three distinct gestures, one after another, pausing briefly on each. The video should be no longer than :30 seconds.
2) send the video to one of your trio members, and follow up with the other trio member about receiving one from them.
3)take the video you receive and create sound that that you think could "go with" the movements of your collaborator. Once you add your audio, post it below.
4) if time allows, watch the other contributions, first muted and then with sound, and see how your expectations are met or surprised.
Wk4: Sessions Reading (did not go well! they did not understand at all)
Wk5: Design as Symbiosis
Respond to this discussion board as personally and inventively as you want.
1) Notice something, anything, in your life that was designed by someone else, but gives you the sense of being in relationship/communication/interdependence with the designer, someone you'll probably never meet.*
2) Consider something else in your life where design is either absent or it is merely careless or exclusionary. (I don't mean that it is designed paternalistically or with malice) What I'm interested in here is finding a domain in your life that would be different if you had the opportunity to change/re-design it.*
You might find a way to answer both questions or you might choose just one to focus on. You get the 10 points as long as you participate honestly! Honesty over quantity!
Dreams-Pain
Creative-Correct
Subjective-Objective
Yin-Yang
as in dialogue
Parentheticals:
Possible ideas of how to respond:
You could make a drawing or sculpture or comic strip and post that, write or improvise a short scene alone or with a colleague, compose a poem or song and post that, film yourself performing or interacting with any of those things, and so on... you could even just be yourself, and try to show how the design of something allows or enables that selfhood.
Possible examples of design in your life:
The intuitiveness of an app, the placement of a lightswitch, the orientation of a stairwell that enables you to connect with your environment/each other.
The sensuality of an orange as you peel it (arguably design?), the flash of solitude as you pull on/out your favorite hoodie/headphones/notebook/mug, the way the lawn mower person cut the trail (just for you!)
Wk5: Freedom as A Practice (choice of Freire or Hooks)
The music educator Emile Jaques-Dalcroze said over and over, "Experience before analysis." In other words, do something, notice what you notice, and repeat.
Attached you'll find a section of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's most famous work, first published in 1968. I'm excited to see what you notice about your own reactions as you read.
(Disclaimer: you'll encounter over and over references to "men". This should be read of course, as "humans" or "people". While Sessions (the author from last week) has no excuse for saying men exlusionarily, I believe it was not Freire but the translator who indefensibly chose "men" so as to differentiate " all people" generally from "the people" in the specific proletarian sense.)
Wk6: the whole person (they said they liked the EJD reading, but I couldn't find a way to get them to respond to it beyond that)
First, please read the opening of Rhythmic Movement by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950), and then compare that to the attached excerpt of Body Learning, which explores the work of F. Matthias Alexander (1869-1955).
Then, for the discussion, respond to one of the "Checkpoints" at the end of the second reading, with these two readings as context.
Wk 6: Hellerau, the City of Rhythm
Founded in 1909, the utopian city of Hellerau had an odd design aesthetic. The planners called it "the City of Rhythm." They put a music hall called the Festspielhaus Hellerau at the city center and hired Dalcroze to run it and teach his method. Imagine a town designed around a massive modernist community arts center!
Wk7: Plastique Animee
Dalcroze thought of plastique animee less as dance than as a bodily re-presenting of sound. Today it is taught and practiced in schools around the world, and some of it does resemble choreography. But consider that Dalcroze saw it as a tool, a joyful bodily analysis about the embodied truth of music.
In this final week, I'd like if you, alone or with a partner from our class, choose a song from one of these two playlists, and then film yourself moving to it. (if you'd like to use something of your choosing, just email me.) Of course, take time to react supportively to what your friends have made.
Plastique Video List 1
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0JFsMYqdx9Gmr4WBwFIHwM?si=vwB0UklzTv25RkO6Q6ep1w
Plastique Video List 2
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0xyd0LOS7y6SL1mvlSXVKU?si=B2lQAMeUQHmekGH3I4s7Mg
Some possible goals:
To present as many layers of the music as possible (such as drums vs. a soaring vocal line)
To demonstrate with the body the context of musical elements (such as showing how the horn hits are in conversation with the overall groove)
To show how the framework of meter gives form or shape to a development or narrative (such as a conducted pulse against a rapidly changing rhythms)
Plastique examples are in course files; only watch if you're stuck!