Music and Meaning

Connecting with Music in our Lives and Our Culture

Music touches our lives in many ways, and on many levels – physically, emotionally, technologically and culturally. How can we better understand music’s place in our world, and in the process learn a bit about the important role that music has played in our own lives? This series will examine music in many forms, from the perspectives of scholarly research, cultural anthropology and documentary filmmaking.

Week 1: The Three Big Questions
Want to understand music and its role in our world? To do so, we only really need to ask three basic questions, which all of us can answer. Then, we’ll examine these questions more deeply in a presentation on the music of West Africa.

Week 2: Musical Universals…and a Near-Universal Musical Experience
Is music really a “universal language”, and why or why not? What about that song in your head that won’t go away? (It’s called an “ear worm”, and Dan will share his UA-funded research and documentary film on the subject.)

Weeks 3-4: Rock ‘n’ Roll, from Infancy to Adolescence
These two weeks will chronicle rock ‘n’ roll’s early years, from its birth to a pivotal moment when the genre truly matured on the global stage. And, we’ll learn about Zoom Records, a tiny 1950s Tucson record label, through Dan’s award-winning documentary film.

Week 5: The Shape of the Song
What’s the “architecture” of a piece of music, and how does it reveal and support the composer’s musical and lyrical intent? We’ll look at musical forms, from blues to pop to classical, as well as some challenging musical forms from indigenous cultures.

Week 6: Jazz Conventions
Great jazz musicians utilize a palette of “conventions” that make their performances sparkle. How can we recognize and understand them, to become more knowledgeable and more appreciative jazz listeners? Finally, we’ll wrap up the six-week series by tying together the “musical threads” we’ve explored and sharing our deeper musical understandings.


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Time Travelers – Tucson Session

Enduring Literature through the Ages

The great books have survived the centuries because they speak to the human experience in a way that continues to resonate with readers. Even if you have read these classics, you’ll want to join literature professor Bill Fry for a fresh look at these enduring works. This course will focus on eight of the world’s greatest authors from Euripides to Virginia Woolf, with emphasis on how their finest work was influenced by the time and place in which they lived.

Week 1: Euripides (480-406 B.C.) in Greece  MEDEA (431 B.C.)

Week 2: Chaucer (1340-1400) in England “The Miller’s Tale” from THE CANTERBURY TALES (1386-1400)

Week 3: Dante: (1265-1321) in Italy THE INFERNO from THE DIVINE COMEDY (1308-1321)

Week 4: Cervantes (1547-1616) in Spain DON QUIXOTE (1605 & 1615)

Week 5: Shakespeare (1564-1616) in England MACBETH (1605)

Week 6: Goethe (1749-1832) in Germany FAUST (1808)

Week 7: Tolstoy (1828-1910) in Russia ANNA KARENINA (1877)

Week 8: Woolf (1882-1941) in England A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN (1929)


Instructor: William A. Fry

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Women Composers in Western Music

Throughout the course of European music history, men dominated the world of great composers. Many of these male composers had a spouse or a female sibling who was also actively involved in the music world. How were these women able to successfully combine the traditional roles of mother or sister with their creative endeavors, especially when a patriarchal society discouraged them from pursuing professional musical careers? Most people know very little about the lives of Mozart’s and Mendelssohn’s sisters, for example, but they—like their brothers—were extremely gifted composers and performers. Learn about the lives and music of these women and other female composers, including Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Amy Beach, French composer Cecile Chaminade and 20th composers Lera Auerbach and Galina Ustvolskaya, and hear some of their recently published piano compositions performed by the instructor.


Instructor: Alexander Tentser

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