As usual, I'm spending another night grading a seemingly endless stack of Music 101 papers. The assignment this time was to attend the symphony orchestra concert and write a 2-3 page concert report. I've found reading these papers to be very uplifting so far; some of the kids really had a wonderful time at the concert and seem to have finally gotten what this is all about. There are a few, of course, who just resist every single thing in this class, but for the most part the response has been overwhelmingly positive. As usual, I have to share some particularly funny, terrible, and touching moments from my students' assignments:
-- The week of the concert, we had the conductor of the orchestra come in to talk about the pieces they'd be playing and give the kids a bit more information about how an orchestra works and what a conductor does. She explained the sort of feedback loop of energy that exists between the orchestra, conductor, and audience during a live performance that makes it feel different from a recording. She knew she was sounding new age-ish and mystical, she said, but that they would understand at the performance. One student admitted in his paper that he had been very skeptical about the whole energy idea, but after experiencing the live performance he couldn't possibly deny the connection and that he was completely carried away by their performance of Strauss's Death and Transfiguration. I'm always wary when I read papers like this because I feel like the kids are telling me what I want to hear, but this really rang with a sincerity that I found moving.
-- During the intermission, one student began talking to the elderly woman next to him. She asked why he was taking notes and said that she didn't know anything about the upcoming pieces. He told her he was there for music class and proceeded to tell her what he had learned about the next pieces! She was very impressed. He said, "It seemed for me astonishing at the time, but I made a new friend, fifty years older than me, in a music concert!"
-- "There was a specific part in the concert I liked where the people in the concert sped up the paste of the violins to make the tempo of the music speed up drastically." ((yes...he actually put "paste"))
-- My favorite excerpt from these papers actually came from a student in the other TA's class. This kid, knowing that he should dress better than usual to go to the concert, put on his nicest button-up shirt and his best pair of cowboy boots. Almost his entire paper was about how self-conscious he was when he showed up to the concert and saw all the nice old people in suits and dresses. It was apparently very poorly written, but so sincere it made the other TA want to cry! The final line of the paper: "Now I know that I should not wear cowboy boots to the symphony." ((It's so funny, but so sweet at the same time! *sniffle*))
More entries featuring the wisdom of my students will be posted as I finish grading these papers over the next few days!
