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    Really just a wonderful performance, and a bit about teaching

    Georgetown, like many Jesuit schools, requires philosophy of all undergrads – two courses.  Since most of these students are not going to go on in philosophy, some of us spend a fair bit of time reflecting on what best to aim for in such a class. I don't really think the first steps of professional training are the goal – and so try more to instill habits of philosophical reflection – the examined life – that might be useful to them in the future. As part of this, a few of us have tried to tailor courses to particular groups of students. For myself, this has meant a philosophy of music course – now in its second iteration. I'm not any kind of expert in the area, but I know a bit of philosophy, have a history in music -I was an orchestral trumpet player, was one course short of a music performance major, and have performed with everything from brass quintets to rock bands to professional orchestras – and I'm a thoughtful guy, so I figured I could fake it. 

    For the first assignment in this course, I ask them to select a performance of a piece of music to analyze in Aristotelian terms – a piece that generates an understanding conducive collective emotional reaction in the audience by way of the integration of all the elements, in such a way that nothing is superfluous.  

    Well, really I have nothing to say in this post.  I just wanted to offer you this performance, by one GU student, that was selected by another as the topic of his analysis for the assignment.  

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    6 responses to “Really just a wonderful performance, and a bit about teaching”

    1. Neal Hebert Avatar
      Neal Hebert

      This is from the musical “Ordinary Days,” which I like quite a bit. It’s a four person show written in the mid-2000s.
      Honestly, I probably should have taught it in my Contemporary Dramatic Literature course this past Spring, but I went with the better known “Next to Normal.” It’s definitely a show I’m keeping in my back pocket for when I’m expected/asked to direct a musical of my choosing. The age ranges of the four performers are 20s and 30s, which is really quite castable.
      This singer is a bit young for the piece, but she’s quite wonderful. I suspect she’s a voice student who likes musical theatre, rather than a musical theatre student who’s trained in voice, given the way she sings.

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    2. Mark Lance Avatar
      Mark Lance

      She is a freshman here, so yeah, very young. And given that this is GU, she is probably some sort of poli sci major who was trained in voice before she got here. We dont even have music performance majors.

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    3. tjfxh Avatar
      tjfxh

      GU College of Arts and Sciences 61, MA 72, PhD 75, all in phil. Two courses in phil were required of all undergrads then and they were standard Thomism taught b Jesuits in the Scholastic style. I majored in phil and was required to take Ancient Phil for two semesters as a junior and Modern Phil for two semesters as a senior. There were no other courses in philosophy offered, so the rest of one’s work was electives with no further requirements. Of course, the college was all male, then, too. How times have changed. Btw, I returned to GU for grad work since I was interested in a historical approach and GU was one of the few grad schools where this approach then. Plus, it had a good balance of Anglo-American and Continental profs. — but sadly, no Asian phil. I did some post-grad work in that.

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    4. Mark Lance Avatar
      Mark Lance

      Hi: Glad to meet you. The place has changed a lot. We now have one person who teaches Asian philosophy, and another philosopher who is in Theology who does as well. And the mix of “analytic” and “continental” is still a priority as is a strength in history. The department is much larger, and the undergrad program has expanded enormously. One can still take Thomism at any level, but it is not de facto required.

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    5. jackie taylor Avatar
      jackie taylor

      Hi Mark
      thanks for the video, and good for your student. We tend to do the same here at USF — I developed an ethics, gender issues course to fulfill the ethics requirement. A colleague developed an award winning Blues and Social Justice course. Cheers.

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    6. Mark Lance Avatar
      Mark Lance

      Very cool. One of my colleagues in history teaches a course on Jazz and social justice.

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