Monday, February 05, 2007

About that Test

Hopefully, I am not boring the ever-living socks of you talking about all of this school crap. It’s just that it is about the only thing going on in my life right now as everything else is on hold, which is hard for me. VERY hard. I have 3 EXCITING things coming up that I CAN'T WAIT to get to and it is just about to kill me. Until then, I'm creativity non grata. (Didn’t really work but you know what I mean)

There were 7 major questions on this test spanning a period of about 2000 years of History. Meaning, they (the evil-test maker) could reach their hand into Pandora's Box and draw any question they want from all that time and you have to know the answer, citing composers, works, sociology, political climate, philosophy, science, math... (Music was affected and by all of these and in turn played a part in the development of them all.)

Of the 7 questions, the first one is the only one I am worried about. The question was: "Describe the 15th and 16th century Chanson, citing works, composers, and developments."

Now that sounds like the typical nerdola questions I've been spouting off here but it is one of the smallest and most insignificant genres of that period. I probably got a 50% on that question. I knew about it, read about it, but comparatively, it is small potatoes to the Madrigal, Motet, Mass, Opera, Gregorian Chant... all of which I could write BOOKS about right now. Conjuring up what I knew for that question felt like trying to see the furthest and dimmest galaxy in the night sky through a pair of cracker-jack binoculars... through a thin veil of clouds. Oh well. It’s a miracle that I remembered what I did.

The rest of the test I would grade myself as an A-. We will see what the prof.'s say.

I can't believe they picked the chanson. It would be like studying Genesis and asking you to talk about the color, grooming and bathing habits of Noah's pet poodle, the girl poodle. Kind of a low blow.

Suckers.

7 comments:

Seth Ward said...

The Chanson is more important than Noah's poodle comparatively, it's the first time the 'bass' line ever showed up in choral music.

I'm mostly just ticked it was the one FROM THAT WHOLE STINKING PERIOD that I picked to NOT study.

Bad luck. But it's more fun to belittle their judgment than my lack of preparation.

Douglas said...

Chanson. Didn't know such a thing existed. I learned a new word today. Yippee. Does the above definition match the music student's?

Main Entry: chan·son
Pronunciation: shän-'sOn
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural chan·sons /-'sOn(z)/
Etymology: French, from Latin cantion-, cantio, from canere
: SONG; specifically : a music-hall or cabaret song

Douglas said...

in the above, it's the below definition, not above, below.

I'm confusing myself, so I'll stop.

Seth Ward said...

No, well kinda. It was a song sung by traveling singers during the time but was soon composed for several voices. All the music sounds the same back then up to Josquin and so its hard, in my book to see the friggin difference. The lines are very blurry in that era.

Pendrax said...

Hope things go well for you tomorrow Seth. You're in my prayers.

operamom said...

i hope you mentioned debussy. i know you are thinking..."shut the heck up loser" right now!

Seth Ward said...

NO I'M NOT!!!!!!

Hey. Call me up sis. What the heck? I'm missin' ya.