{"id":729,"date":"2021-12-08T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/?p=729"},"modified":"2022-01-12T15:24:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T21:24:26","slug":"scot-buzza-interview-arma-and-non-music-majors-a-non-chronological-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/?p=729","title":{"rendered":"Scot Buzza Interview &#8211; ARMA and Non-Music Majors: A Non-Chronological Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"729\" class=\"elementor elementor-729\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-910c267 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"910c267\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-8b82d27\" data-id=\"8b82d27\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-78fb869 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"78fb869\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-1019ebf\" data-id=\"1019ebf\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-443c71b elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"443c71b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Scot Buzza is an author for the A-R Music Anthology. He has written two commentaries on works by Giovanni Gabrieli, with further contributions on the way. Like many musicologists, Scot has had a diverse career. He started out as a performer, holding the position of principal violist in the Tokyo Philharmonic and later in the Chamber Orchestra of Barcelona, Spain. He returned to the US to pursue choral conducting, which then led him to the field of musicology. Scot currently teaches music history and music theory courses at Northern Kentucky University for majors and non-majors. He also runs and teaches at the KIIS Institute, a study abroad consortium located in Salzburg, Austria.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-5fe6166\" data-id=\"5fe6166\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-46fead5 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"46fead5\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Crop-maybe-Scot-300x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-image-865\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Crop-maybe-Scot-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Crop-maybe-Scot-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Crop-maybe-Scot-768x767.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Crop-maybe-Scot.jpg 809w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-bc908ff elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"bc908ff\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>We recently sat down with Scot to talk about how he is using the A-R Music Anthology in the classroom. It turns out that ARMA is an excellent companion for his non-chronological music history class for non-music majors. Keep reading to learn more!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e5b9fed elementor-widget-divider--view-line elementor-widget elementor-widget-divider\" data-id=\"e5b9fed\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"divider.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-divider\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-divider-separator\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-599529a elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"599529a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Questions &amp; Answers<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-86424ae elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"86424ae\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Do you use the Anthology or other digital teaching resources for any of your classes?<\/strong><\/p><p>Yeah. I\u2019ve used it with my non-music major history class, with actually two permutations of that. One is college students, and a second is high school seniors taking college classes for college credit as an exploratory kind of thing. The syllabus that you saw, where I\u2019ve organized things by topic rather than chronologically, that\u2019s for that non-major class.<\/p><p>The department wanted something that would satisfy elements of the core curriculum and not be something as watered down as a music appreciation class, which I don\u2019t know if anybody really takes that seriously in the real world. Something with a little more substance, but what we could not count on was having students that are musically literate. Some of them come in and they\u2019ve been playing in band since junior high school and they\u2019re fine when you put print music in front of them. Others are not. And so that\u2019s where the design came from. In fact, it says amongst the prerequisites that music literacy a requirement, even though it\u2019s certainly very helpful. The first class we just go over vocabulary to make sure everybody\u2019s on board. Lots of people who are fairly competent at self-taught musicians get lost in the Italian vocabulary. The only kind of preparatory thing for that is a quick crash-course in \u201cthis is what a crescendo is,\u201d \u201cthis is what timbre means,\u201d because that\u2019s the vocabulary that they need in order to make sense of the rest of the material.\u00a0<\/p><p><strong>\u00a0What made you decide to investigate using digital resources and the Anthology, in particular?<\/strong><\/p><p>COVID. I\u2019ve probably taught the first semester of Music History\u2014it\u2019s a three-semester sequence, so we\u2019re talking about basically Fred Flintstone up to the beginning of opera. That whole chunk there, which is the hardest to teach. It\u2019s the hardest to learn. It\u2019s the most foreign to the students, and they\u2019re the least familiar with it, because this isn\u2019t the repertoire that they\u2019re singing in choir or studying in their lessons.<\/p><p>I had noticed a couple of things over the years. One is that if I required them to buy an Anthology, half of them didn\u2019t buy it. The half that did rarely brought it to class. When they did bring it to class, just by virtue of using it, if we\u2019re trying to do score study, the students have their faces in the score. They\u2019re semi-disengaged. I\u2019m talking at them, checking for signs of life, not sure whether people are following along or not. So I had already stopped using a print anthology and was kind of stumbling through using a mix of stuff that\u2019s public domain, stuff that I could reasonably use under fair-use, and projecting it on the wall. Even if their brains were checked out, at least their visual field was clued into what was going on. The big points of teaching that particular semester of music history aren\u2019t to run away with a catalog knowledge of everything that Josquin ever wrote. The idea is to come up with a general understanding of how polyphony happened, how music notation happened, how the human perception of dissonance and consonance changed and evolved over the years. It\u2019s those big milestones, and you have to do score study. In order to do that, you cannot possibly get a sufficient understanding of that just by talking it or reading about it in some dry text.<\/p><p>The other thing that I noticed was that there are various music history textbooks on the market\u2014some I like better; some I don\u2019t like quite as much. Most of them are more than students seem to be willing to ready on a regular basis. I almost had to teach every class as if nobody had done the reading, and that was tedious. So by substituting videos, including stuff like YouTube or stuff that I could create myself\u2014podcasts, recordings of concerts, filmed concerts, and things like that\u2014I could cut the reading part down to about 1\/5 of what it was, which meant that students were more likely to do it. And when it comes down to it, do I really need to assign a six-page reading about <em>Roman de Fauvel<\/em>? No, I would rather have them take 30 minutes and listen to some of the pieces from it and read a short commentary on it to understand how the music that they\u2019re looking at connects to everything else we\u2019re talking about. The score study component is just so crucial, especially for that particular semester of music history.<\/p><p><strong>One of the benefits, then, of using digital resources is you can pick and choose more carefully what you want your students to focus on?<\/strong><\/p><p>Exactly. And the big beauty, as far as I\u2019m concerned, with the A-R Anthology is precisely that. You can cherrypick. I\u2019m not stuck with a specific canon. For years, everybody that went through Music History 1 had learned the same 36 pieces of music. I understand why it is that way, but those aren\u2019t necessarily the best representative pieces. We can say that in the year 2021, having had 30 more years of scholarship behind us than we had in 1991, for example. A print anthology is going to be limited between two covers. That\u2019s the nature of a print book. A digital resource, especially one that is continually growing\u2014if there is something that needs to be in there that I really want to use, I can write it myself, and then there it is.<\/p><p>I just don\u2019t see a day anywhere in the near future where students are going to want to start having books in their hands suddenly again. I think we turned a corner with COVID, and we\u2019ve learned a lot more about teaching online and teaching with digital resources in the past year and a half than we ever thought we\u2019d have to. And I just don\u2019t see a day where people are going to say I really want to carry around this brick for a semester.<\/p><p><strong>When you are using the Anthology for your college non-music majors and that high school class, do you have the score on a large monitor? How does that part work?<\/strong><\/p><p>I tend to not do the listening parts in class, because that eats up a ton of class time and students will check out. I tend to give them a road map: check for this, check for this. If I do something in class, I might flash the score up for two or three minutes and say, by the way, check this out and notice this feature, and we talked about this and here\u2019s an example of it. If you start doing all of the listening in class, you get dangerously close to music appreciation again. It\u2019s just far too passive for students, and the teacher ends up doing all the work. If they have a specific set of focused questions they\u2019ve got to answer about a specific piece of music, they go home, they listen to it with intent, and the onus is on them. And they come out way ahead as opposed to this old paradigm where the teacher babbles on and fills these empty vessels with his infinite wisdom and sends them forth into the world. That paradigm is passed.<\/p><p><strong>Speaking of teaching for non-music majors, can you just talk a little about why you came up with your non-chronological music history course? <\/strong><\/p><p>I think the beginning of it had to do with how my brain happens to work. True confession, as an undergrad, I never had a music history course. I was a quick study and I always tested out even though I knew next to nothing about it. What I found later on was that I wasn\u2019t content just studying a Bach viola da gamba sonata. I wanted to know how he wrote it, how it compared to the other pieces that he wrote, where he was when he wrote it, why did he write it in this octave and not this other octave, what instruments were performing along with it. I felt that I needed to know the full picture. I felt that I needed to know all of the extra-musical stuff as well. Not biographical anecdotes, because those tend to be\u2014the cuter and quainter they are, the less true they\u2019re likely to be, right? But the economics\u2014what was Bach\u2019s job like at this time, what was expected of him? What was going in the town he was working in economically that they couldn\u2019t pay him better? What was the concept of education that they were hoisting 14-year-old Latin students on him? So all of this kind of stuff.<\/p><p>I came to the conclusion myself\u2014I didn\u2019t realize that plenty of other people have said this far better and far sooner\u2014but I came to the conclusion on my own that there was no point in studying music history without also studying what\u2019s going on socially, what\u2019s going on economically, what\u2019s going on politically. Religion\u2014you cannot teach the first semester of music history without talking a ton about religion, because the two things are just so intertwined. All of that, as far I as was concerned, was important.<\/p><p>If I\u2019m going to teach a music history course to non-majors, I have an overt goal and a secret goal. The overt goal is for them to understand better how music reflects everything else that is going on at the same time. The secret goal is for them to fall in love with these pieces. The best compliment that I ever get is when somebody out of the blue says, &#8220;Oh, I still have this on my playlist, and I was listening to Machaut last week.&#8221; That actually happens once in a blue moon. Okay, maybe I\u2019ve done my job.<\/p><p>My understanding is that the peripheral stuff shouldn\u2019t be peripheral, it should also be part of the picture. In a one-semester course, you don\u2019t always get to get to that with music majors, especially if you need to focus on harmonic development, or look at what\u2019s going on here in terms of instrumentation. But if you have permission to leave that aside, because they can\u2019t read music, for example, well, how did the industrial revolution influence it? What would have happened if child labor hadn\u2019t been a thing? Etcetera, etcetera. And all that stuff becomes part of the discussion. For students, it becomes intertwined with their understanding of music history. Since it\u2019s something that they are already familiar with, they grasp onto it.<\/p><p>The goal isn\u2019t to make professional-level musicians out of them. The goal is to make them better lawyers and doctors and trash collectors and teachers and whatever else they do.<\/p><p><strong>Can you share some specific examples from your course? <\/strong><\/p><p>The syllabus, as you saw, I tied it into themes. I organized a general theme, tied it into a specific genre of music, tied that into one or two tangential ideas about what\u2019s going on in the world, just for the visual people in the room, tied into usually at least one work of art that was from the period that somehow ties in. At no point did I ever say that I really want you to fall in love with Mozart <em>Requiem. <\/em>I just sort of hoped that I would happen.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-f5269e7 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"f5269e7\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-c3c9d96\" data-id=\"c3c9d96\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1942155 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"1942155\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"892\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Bosch-Garden-of-Earthly-Delights.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-734\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Bosch-Garden-of-Earthly-Delights.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Bosch-Garden-of-Earthly-Delights-258x300.jpg 258w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-b3aab70\" data-id=\"b3aab70\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e2f15f2 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"e2f15f2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Here are just four examples:<\/p><p>The one chapter that they did, I titled it \u201cLust, Greed, Earthly Pleasure, and Earthly Pain\u2014just because I love the way that sounded\u2014where they are talking about Italian madrigal as a genre. Looking at 16<sup>th<\/sup>-century representations of basically the secular world and the sacred world, worldly pleasure versus Christian austerity. The goal is to try to figure out what those things tells us about domestic life and socio-economic class in the 16<sup>th<\/sup> century, and to find out what those things tell us about music making in the 16<sup>th<\/sup> century. Madrigals are short, so I was able to tie it into five different kind of representative madrigals\u2014and you probably know all of these\u2014 The music was the way into the discussion for talking about the other things. <em>The Garden of Earthly Delights<\/em>, that nightmarish Bosch painting, was the painting we tied into. So that was one chapter.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-a330e7e elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"a330e7e\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-052b288\" data-id=\"052b288\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-24c1f7c elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"24c1f7c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Another chapter that we did on the topic of Unrequited Love and Betrayal, which was an excuse to look at Lieder. So we look at the Lied, the art song, the song cycle, trying to see what that would tell us about the concept of love in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century and how does that compare to modern times. What does it tell us about marriage as a social contract or as an economic institution? Since Lieder are fairly short, I chose a couple of representative things and an entire song cycle, the entire <em>Dichterliebe<\/em>. I tied that into Hogarth\u2019s series of paintings, cynical paintings about marriage in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century, <em>Marriage \u00e0 la mode<\/em>. And then had a tangential discussion about women as property, and dowries, and all of that kind of stuff.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-c1bef6c\" data-id=\"c1bef6c\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6fb1ff4 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"6fb1ff4\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"995\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Hogarth-Marriage-a-la-mode.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-735\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Hogarth-Marriage-a-la-mode.jpg 995w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Hogarth-Marriage-a-la-mode-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Hogarth-Marriage-a-la-mode-768x593.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 995px) 100vw, 995px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-c199824 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"c199824\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-ed47081\" data-id=\"ed47081\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-33107c7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"33107c7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"828\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Degas-Three-Dancers-828x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-736\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Degas-Three-Dancers-828x1024.jpg 828w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Degas-Three-Dancers-243x300.jpg 243w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Degas-Three-Dancers-768x949.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Degas-Three-Dancers-1243x1536.jpg 1243w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Degas-Three-Dancers-1657x2048.jpg 1657w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Degas-Three-Dancers.jpg 2024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-6c60008\" data-id=\"6c60008\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7efd9df elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7efd9df\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The third one that I did that I ended up loving was \u201cIndependent Women and 19<sup>th<\/sup>-Century Opera Verismo.\u201d It was a good change to introduce opera as a genre to most people who think <em>Phantom of the Opera <\/em>is an opera. And talk about what opera is and how it changed to become opera verismo. Look at 19<sup>th<\/sup>-century attitudes about independent women as represented in music. Originally, I called this \u201cWild Women,\u201d but I realized that actually sounded pejorative in and of itself. And what can studying each of these things tell us about the other. We looked at <em>Carmen<\/em>, which is fascinating unto itself. It was originally a cautionary tale: don\u2019t be like Carmen. Nowadays it\u2019s more like, &#8220;Nope, she did her own thing even though she paid a price.&#8221; And Puccini\u2019s female characters in <em>La boh\u00e8me<\/em>. We tied that into Degas\u2019 <em>The Dancers<\/em> as a visual art piece.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-9869a51 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"9869a51\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-d6b83a6\" data-id=\"d6b83a6\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1f06d48 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1f06d48\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The very last one that we did toward the end of the semester, \u201cFate, Debauchery, and the Unholy.\u201d This was an excuse to look at big choral\/orchestral works from the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century, not sacred works, but secular pieces. Looking to see how it is different from sacred music, and what does this tell us about 20<sup>th<\/sup>-century concepts of sacred versus profane, for example. And the two pieces that tied into that, <em>Carmina Burana<\/em> and Bernstein\u2019s <em>Mass<\/em>, which gave us a terrific opportunity to talk about the politics behind music, behind reception history, and things like that. And we tied that into a Frida Kahlo painting.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-8ad1b58\" data-id=\"8ad1b58\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7261dac elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"7261dac\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"277\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Frida_Kahlo_self_portrait.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-737\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Frida_Kahlo_self_portrait.jpg 277w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Frida_Kahlo_self_portrait-231x300.jpg 231w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-34cce81 elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"34cce81\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-11b9310 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"11b9310\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Those are four representative examples of how this can work, how you can bring in these tangential things and organize it around a theme. If I had gone chronologically for students who are only going to have one semester of a music history class, that <em>is<\/em> music appreciation, basically, because you can only scratch the surface and you never get to talk about what any of it means.<\/p><p><strong>Does this non-chronological relieve you of the obligation to cover every genre, every period, all the big names?<\/strong><\/p><p>Yes. And it\u2019s hard to be okay with that until you remember that you whet the appetite, and they can dig in deeper on their own. For those students, it\u2019s interesting, because an anthology commentary for a piece, for some of those students it will be a little too deep, for some of the students it\u2019s not deep enough and they want to dig in further on their own, which is kind of neat. But rather than putting a watered-down two-paragraph superficial thing about <em>Carmina Burana<\/em>\u2014this is sixty minutes of music with an enormous history behind it before Orff takes those materials and works with those texts in the 20th century. Two paragraphs aren\u2019t going to cut it. For them to be able to dig in deeper and have access to that is great. I would rather have them, in fact, get in over their head and walk away enriched from it than have something that is too superficial. Most music appreciation textbooks, for example, it\u2019s a page, page-and-a-half, of which 50% are graphics and things like that.<\/p><p><strong>Do your students ever approach you after they\u2019ve gone and looked at the commentaries or the articles and had more specific questions for you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><p>It does happen quite a lot, which I love. Not everybody is going to do that, but the student who is like, &#8220;What is this, because my interest is kind of piqued here?&#8221;\u2014yeah, it does indeed happen. Sometimes it\u2019s as simple as, &#8220;Am I understanding this correctly?&#8221;<\/p><p>Think about it from a folklorist perspective as taking ownership of something. If somebody spends six or seven days studying Schumann\u2019s <em>Dichterliebe<\/em>, looking at the poetry behind it, and studying all the tangential stuff, they walk away feeling as though they\u2019ve taken ownership of the piece. In a weird sense, it has kind of become a part of them. And when they hear it, they feel as if they understand it and they know it in a way they didn\u2019t before. The ones who will say, &#8220;Oh yeah, I still have this on my playlist&#8221;\u2014okay, she\u2019s taken ownership of this.<\/p><p><strong>Do you ever assign any of the articles in the Anthology or sections of them?<\/strong><\/p><p>I do to music majors, especially. That\u2019s super important. To the non-music majors, if I do assign an article, I will always come back and touch on it in class, because it\u2019s like playing the lottery. You don\u2019t know who is going to understand what. So the commentaries and articles serve very different purposes, but you kind of need both.<\/p><p>Some of the articles may be too technical for non-music majors, but you have to be okay with not understanding everything the first time if you want to learn more about something, right? There\u2019s nobody who sits behind the wheel of a car for the first time knowing already how to drive. Occasionally I\u2019ve had to say, &#8220;Don\u2019t let this overwhelm you. This article is going to give you much more information than you need; be okay with that. Read it through the first time before class. Get out of it what you can get out.&#8221; My job will be to fill in the blanks.<\/p><p><strong>Do you have any other specific examples or anecdotes of a time where something just really clicked with the students, with the class, about your syllabus? <\/strong><\/p><p>A couple, and they were unexpected and way out in left field. One of the units, we looked at attitudes toward mental health. And we started out with Britten\u2019s <em>Rejoice in the Lamb<\/em>, which I don\u2019t know if you are familiar with the piece, it\u2019s based on a text that was written by a guy who was incarcerated in an insane asylum in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century in London while he wrote it. And Britten took this and made this really beautiful piece out of it. The student that came up to me\u2014I think it was just stream-of-consciousness, but they were just horrified that that recently, ideas about mental health should have been so horrific. They had something of a history with mental health issues\u2014nothing cataclysmic, but more than zero\u2014and thought, if I had been born in that period, I\u2019d be locked up right now. I wasn\u2019t expecting it, and I kind of felt like, was this beyond my pay grade here?<\/p><p>But honestly, every time a student comes up and says, &#8220;Oh my god, that was my favorite class,&#8221; somebody that I bump into on the street, or literally somebody who is taking my order at lunch a couple of months ago, things like that. I think, okay, that\u2019s awesome, because at least this person has had her curiosity cultivated and hopefully will dig in more. And to repeat myself, society doesn\u2019t need everybody to go out and become a professional-level musician, but society is certainly better off when everybody understands and appreciates the arts more, because it enriches everybody.<\/p><p>And a couple weeks ago, I got a random email from a student from several semesters back who had found on YouTube, heavy metal versions of early polyphony. This kid is a heavy metal guitar player. He came through as a classical guitar player. For some reason, classical guitar players all love heavy metal\u2014I don\u2019t know what that\u2019s about. He was looking on YouTube for some of these pieces from class and he wanted to go back and listen to them again, and I was like, oh, okay. Good! I wasn\u2019t expecting that.<\/p><p><strong>Have you ever had your students read some of the material you\u2019ve written for the Anthology? <\/strong><\/p><p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>I have. I\u2019ve only actually written two commentaries. I\u2019m in the middle of two other commentaries and a bio. I don\u2019t know that anybody\u2019s ever raised an eyebrow. I think they either think that I know everything or that I don\u2019t know anything at all. There\u2019s no clear in-between zone there. Nobody\u2019s ever said, &#8220;Oh, you wrote this,&#8221; and I\u2019ve never made a big point out of it.<\/p><p>I do stand by what I\u2019ve written. The commentaries that I\u2019ve written I felt need to be written in light of what we now understand about those particular works that we didn\u2019t understand twenty years ago. If it meant that I needed to write them myself in order to make sure that they get into my students\u2019 hands, then so be it.<\/p><p><strong>Do you have any final advice for instructors that might be interested in utilizing the Anthology or other digital resources?<\/strong><\/p><p>I think I would just say, if you check it out and find that it doesn&#8217;t necessarily have what you need, check back in six months, because it\u2019s growing, it\u2019s continuing. The beauty of an online digital resource is that there is no limit to how large it can be. I guess my advice would be if you don\u2019t find what you need, check back.<\/p><p>I don\u2019t have any colleagues at this point that don\u2019t cherry-pick and take from multiple sources. So a source like the Anthology that\u2019s designed to be cherry-picked from just makes sense to me.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0e19de0 elementor-widget-divider--view-line elementor-widget elementor-widget-divider\" data-id=\"0e19de0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"divider.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-divider\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-divider-separator\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c10e4bb elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"c10e4bb\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">In closing...<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-083df26 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"083df26\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-329d7fc\" data-id=\"329d7fc\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-41e190c elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"41e190c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Listening to Scot talk about his thematic non-music history course was inspiring! The flexibility of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armusicanthology.com\/\">A-R Music Anthology<\/a> is the perfect fit for bringing together different composers, periods, and genres in interesting ways. He will be teaching the course again in Spring 2022 and will be further refining it. We certainly look forward to checking back in with him about it in the future.<\/p><p>What new possibilities in your own teaching has this interview revealed to you? Have you tried something similar in your own classroom? Send us a <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/?page_id=36\">message<\/a> and share your experiences with ARMA. We love hearing from you!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-12bba25\" data-id=\"12bba25\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e5ff8d6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"e5ff8d6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.armusicanthology.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ARMA-Circle-300x300.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-image-97\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ARMA-Circle-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ARMA-Circle-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/ARMA-Circle.png 720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scot Buzza is an author for the A-R Music Anthology. He has written two commentaries on works by Giovanni Gabrieli, with further contributions on the way. Like many musicologists, Scot has had a diverse career. He started out as a performer, holding the position of principal violist in the Tokyo Philharmonic and later in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","category-teaching","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":62,"href":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868,"href":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.armusicanthology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}