Creativity and Musical Values
Creativity and Musical Values Composers and performers make countless decisions each day while creating their work. These choices are rooted, consciously or subconsciously, in aesthetics and priorities they have encountered throughout their lives. Such values can often be expressed in dualities: beautiful or sublime, poetry or prose, “authentic” or experimental, individual or universal, popular or underground, facile or meticulously-wrought, free or predetermined, Classicism or Romanticism, economy or virtuosity, art or entertainment—to name a few. Through reading, writing, listening, viewing, discussing, analyzing, and reflecting, we will examine how musical values have played out in a wide range of eras and styles, both classical and popular, and how they persist in our time. We will also design our own creative musical projects exploring these ideas.
Creativity and Musical Values Composers and performers make countless decisions each day while creating their work. These choices are rooted, consciously or subconsciously, in aesthetics and priorities they have encountered throughout their lives. Such values can often be expressed in dualities: beautiful or sublime, poetry or prose, “authentic” or experimental, individual or universal, popular or underground, facile or meticulously-wrought, free or predetermined, Classicism or Romanticism, economy or virtuosity, art or entertainment—to name a few. Through reading, writing, listening, viewing, …Read more
I took this course based on recommendation from previous students. While the course was quite literally the easiest course I have taken at Middlebury, it did not teach me much about musical values itself. Overall it was an interesting course and the professor was very passionate about the subjects, we had to attend 3 concerts as a component of our grades and had exams every once in a while. Professor Quayle is very accommodating and helped students whenever they needed anything.
I took this course based on recommendation from previous students. While the course was quite literally the easiest course I have taken at Middlebury, it did not teach me much about musical values itself. Overall it was an interesting course and the professor was very passionate about the subjects, we had to attend 3 concerts as a co …Read more
Professor Quayle was amazing in teaching this course. Almost every class consisted of us listening to performances or him playing piano and emphasizing the things we were learning in class. His passion was for the subject matter was clear and evident in his teaching. The course consisted of some assignments outside of class, a couple of short writing assignments, two concert reports, and one creative final project. Overall, this course was very mind opening and shows you that there is complexity to music and composers do things intentionally (or not) to get certain points across.
Professor Quayle was amazing in teaching this course. Almost every class consisted of us listening to performances or him playing piano and emphasizing the things we were learning in class. His passion was for the subject matter was clear and evident in his teaching. The course consisted of some assignments outside of class, a couple …Read more