One of our seminars last week was on Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, an opera that we study at the end of sophomore music. We have two seminars on musical works: Mozart’s Don Giovanni for junior year, and Tristan for senior year. I have been very lucky with my experiences with the music program and thus have had a ball with both seminars, but I thought this would be a nice opportunity to ramble a bit about why we study music. Many people are confused why we spend sophomore year abruptly studying music theory and the bare bones of composition. One of the more unfortunate aspects of the program is that we have so much ground to cover that some things inevitably get left behind—for example, the now defunct visual arts tutorial. However, the wide compass of the program is one of my favorite things about being a student here. If I had gone to a traditional college for a B.A. in English, I would not have had the opportunity to spend a year studying music theory and would have missed out on the majesty of Beethoven and the overwhelming emotion of Wagner. I was in choir and concert band before entering the music tutorial and was familiar with music, but I had no idea about chord analysis or transposition. Now I am able to enjoy music from aesthetic and technical perspectives. It was very satisfying to discuss both the lyrics and the excruciating suspensions in Tristan, and I am happy with a good seminar.
Check it out: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
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