Incredible...

Kwesi · #1 10-24-2010, 12:12 AM

I'm taking a Music Appreciation class for some easy Arts & Humanities credits. By all accounts these kinds of classes have a huge bias towards Baroque, Classical, and Romantic period music and mine seems to be no different That wouldn't have really bothered me but the other day my professor had the movie The Incredibles on the projector. Now as pretty much all of you don't know, I consider The Incredibles the single greatest animated movie made yet and with arguably the best soundtrack of any movie I've ever seen. Anyway, I'm thinking that she is showcasing the movie to talk about how much of a genius Michael Giacchino is but no she scrolls down to the DVD extra "Jack Jack Attacks" and talks about how much she loves the short because all of the songs in it were Mozart's creations.

I was slacked jawed for the rest of class.

/rant

Codymb · #2 10-24-2010, 12:24 AM

I would say that you are perfectly justified in your slack jawedness. Michael Giacchino is amazing and there is no reason for not mentioning his work in this context.

The only fair thing to do is to bring this fact up the first chance you get.

+1 to your rant.

Musiclogic · #3 10-24-2010, 12:32 AM

The idea of MA is to open the mind to musical styles and approaches not as prevolent in these days of wham, bam, and on to the new trend wave of music. The Prof is not there to pander to your wants, but to expound upon their preference and bring you to develope an association between what you enjoy, and what the classics bring to that same table. Remember you are the student, and learning is the objective, and have fun with it.

Chowowbus · #4 10-25-2010, 09:37 AM

That is my go to movie when I want to laugh...good soundtrack too! I missed a huge chunk of the movie the first time I watched it I laughed so hard..

uethanian · #5 10-25-2010, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kwesi

I'm taking a Music Appreciation class for some easy Arts & Humanities credits. By all accounts these kinds of classes have a huge bias towards Baroque, Classical, and Romantic period music and mine seems to be no different That wouldn't have really bothered me but the other day my professor had the movie The Incredibles on the projector. Now as pretty much all of you don't know, I consider The Incredibles the single greatest animated movie made yet and with arguably the best soundtrack of any movie I've ever seen. Anyway, I'm thinking that she is showcasing the movie to talk about how much of a genius Michael Giacchino is but no she scrolls down to the DVD extra "Jack Jack Attacks" and talks about how much she loves the short because all of the songs in it were Mozart's creations.

I was slacked jawed for the rest of class.

/rant

this is why i decided against being a music major...i'm not interested in being told 'whats good' by clueless academia.

MonetBass · #6 10-25-2010, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uethanian

this is why i decided against being a music major...i'm not interested in being told 'whats good' by clueless academia.

FYI Music Appreciation is for non-music majors.

I took that class before becoming a music major, and found it interesting. A good general overview, if you will.

It is clear you have a jaded view, for whatever reason, but I got my music degree from a university with a fairly small music dept. and was exposed to a considerable amount of music, late Romantic and 20th Century pieces in particular, that I had never heard. My 20th Century Music class was one of my favorites, and we played some interesting and fun 20th Century music in both the Symphony and Wind Ensemble. It was never presented as "here's what's good", but more as "here is the music created during these periods". Your 'clueless academia' comment may apply to the professors in your area, but doesn't match up with my experience.

M0ses · #7 10-25-2010, 12:36 PM

Where I come from there's a lot of those "clueless academia" 'round too. The kind that would rather look at a piece of sheet music than listen to it, because the theory is easier to analyze.

Luckily, though, my trumpet professor (I'm a trumpet major) is awesome. His source of income through his own college days was playing bass in cover bands!

okcrum · #8 10-25-2010, 02:22 PM

We had a small music dept. in my school too, and I had the same teacher for both MA and composition. He was pretty open-minded about the stuff I wrote, even though the MA course was the standard classics and he was a symphony viola player. Kwesi, I'd get a private dialogue going with the MA teacher. She'd probably be thrilled to know there's someone in the class who's actually thinking.

uethanian · #9 10-25-2010, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonetBass

FYI Music Appreciation is for non-music majors.

I took that class before becoming a music major, and found it interesting. A good general overview, if you will.

It is clear you have a jaded view, for whatever reason, but I got my music degree from a university with a fairly small music dept. and was exposed to a considerable amount of music, late Romantic and 20th Century pieces in particular, that I had never heard. My 20th Century Music class was one of my favorites, and we played some interesting and fun 20th Century music in both the Symphony and Wind Ensemble. It was never presented as "here's what's good", but more as "here is the music created during these periods". Your 'clueless academia' comment may apply to the professors in your area, but doesn't match up with my experience.

there's nothing wrong with teaching or studying or performing western classical music. my problem is with people who put it on a pedestal and view everything else as less worthy of their attention.

i think it's a problem that musical academics automatically implies "music from a singular culture of a singular tradition limited to within the last 300 years." kwesi's experience happened because 'the incredibles' fails to fit within this box.

oldrookie · #10 10-25-2010, 04:35 PM

I'd take offense, but I am apparently clueless and therefore unaware of the import of the statement.

Well, I'm off to the Ivory Tower. Please try to keep reality from intruding.

Kwesi · #11 10-25-2010, 08:41 PM

Haha, thanks for the support guys. It probably didn't show in the first post but I actually enjoy the class. It's easy, I'm learning more about music I wouldn't listen otherwise, and I actually have 2 assignments that require me to go to concerts. It just kind of blew me away that a professor of music can look at a movie like the Incredibles and not comment at all about the original music but rather music that's been played for about three centuries now, lol. Of course, that music is by no means bad but it's not like it hasn't been played, recorded, or heard before.

My professor is actually pretty cool. I think that, deep down, she wants everyone in the class to be as excited about the music as she is but that isn't happening, lol. She's definitely a Classical/Romantic music buff and I'm cool with that. She's also an opera singer... which would explain why she gets a little upset when I've fallen asleep listening to the in class operas (on video). Currently, I'm 1:1 on going to dreamland , lol!

I still don't get why these courses are called music appreciation when really they're only trying, or only seem to be trying to get the students to appreciate "pre-popular" music. We're coming up on our third of five exams and we haven't even gotten past the 18th century

. I get the feeling that even when we get to the jazz and early fusion sections she won't be nearly as animated as she is about what we're doing currently.