Featured Post

BFRC

I am posting this as a benchmark, not because I think I'm playing very well yet.  The idea would be post a video every month for a ye...

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Discussion Questions (1st day of theory course)



1.What does it mean to "understand" music? Or a piece of music?

2. Pound wrote, "Beauty is so rare a thing / So few drink of my fountain." What does it imply to say that beauty is rare (as opposed to common or part of everyday life?)?

3. To search for one's identity implies that identity lies outside the self. How could this be if identity is conceived of as the core of the self?

4.???

5. What do any of these questions have to do with "theory"? What makes a question theoretical?

6 comments:

Clarissa said...

"To search for one's identity implies that identity lies outside the self. How could this be if identity is conceived of as the core of the self?"

- It is precisely for expressing this very idea that my thesis adviser trashed my first doctoral dissertation on identity. :-) :-)

Jonathan said...

You would do have done well in my theory course.

Leslie B. said...

Is identity a thing, or one thing, and if so is it actually the core of the self? If not, why is it considered valuable?

crazylitgal said...

How does 1 "understand" music? My understanding of it may/may nt appeAl 2 u... or u may hv a different "understanding" of d same piece.
I think r undrstandings r as unique as r individuality.

Jonathan said...

That's one approach. I would say, though, that if one phrase answers another in a fairly conventional way, that understanding this is something shared and not unique to an individual subjectivity. In other words, composers write music that is intelligible for listeners.

Your comment suggests, though, that the question is not that simple. After all, the question itself can be understood to be asking several different kind of questions.

crazylitgal said...

Yes, i agree.. bt smthng abstract like music depends upon an individual more dn smthng like say a text...vich guides d direction of r feelings bt music (like i feel) is more guided by emotions u feel at d time u hear.