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(04/13/20 12:57am)
The coronavirus caused my senior year to end rather suddenly, but more importantly, I have two elderly grandparents who are considered at-risk. One lives in Florida part-time and is scheduled to come back to our house soon, and the other lives across the street from us. They are 90 and 77, so if they get the virus, it is likely that they will face serious health consequences. As a result, my family has decided to strictly shelter in place.
No one leaves the house except to do groceries or take walks. On the other hand, I have stayed in touch with friends and I have even spoken to people I would not have been in touch with otherwise. I have been able to devote more time to reading and writing, and I have started to become more confident in my Greek translation skills. Fortunately, my thesis was not impacted too much.
What has been your greatest worry or day-to-day concern as coronavirus has spread?
I am worried about my family. Sometimes I also worry that I will be expected to shelter in place for longer than what is currently projected.
What has made you happy over the past few weeks?
I have started to drink a lot of tea because it feels good to be able to make something relatively quickly, simply, and efficiently which tastes good and is also good for my health. I have something like three to four cups per day, mostly caffeinated green tea. I found out that the Stone Leaf Tea House is still accepting online orders and I have ordered from them twice already. If you want to support a local business, order tea from them! It's really good.
Submitted April 9, 2020.
Update, April 14, 2020:
When this post first appeared, my 90-year-old grandmother was scheduled to come back to Boston around the end of April. As it turns out, she cannot fly, she cannot stay in Florida, and no other family could drive her, so, starting Friday, I will travel, with my father and brother, from Boston to Florida and back, picking her up along the way. We hope finish the trip as soon as Monday or Tuesday, as we will be taking driving shifts, stopping for a slightly longer break only once we reach my grandmother. We have bought all of the food we will need for the trip and we have borrowed an RV in order not to break quarantine. My life has suddenly and unexpectedly become rather more exciting; last week, it was that I discovered I could drink tea, but now I am going to find out whether I can drive without sleeping (much).
(01/23/20 10:55am)
A committee appointed by Community Council will soon conduct a review of specialty housing at the college, including all social houses and special interest houses. Unlike reviews in past years, this review seeks to revise some of the rules under which special interest and social housing are governed, through gathering feedback from residents at the same time as determining whether houses are following the current rules. As a student involved with the residential life report that recommended this review, I would like to offer my opinion on the manner in which it should be conducted. I take some of these suggestions from my experience with the report, whose methodology, like that of any report, can always be improved. First, the committee should seek to engage with all residents by interviewing both students in leadership positions, as well as those who simply live in a house. Second, the review should take into account the original purpose for which the houses under review were built. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the committee members should incorporate feedback from staff as well as students, especially custodial staff.
The first point concerns only larger houses like Tavern, Brooker, PALANA, Chromatic, etc. which have many non-officer residents. When I was co-chair of Community Council, I found it difficult to communicate effectively with house leadership on long-term issues that might affect the formation of new rules. This lack of communication may have occurred because the Community Council was trying to enforce housing rules at the same time as it was trying to find out information that would be helpful in drafting new rules. People who are simply residents in a house are more likely to share useful information because they are not explicitly tasked with representing the house to the administration. They also offer a different perspective that is not necessarily influenced as heavily by the work of organizing social events and community gatherings.
I make the second suggestion because many specialty housing buildings have unique features such as decks, courtyards, large and small lounges, and kitchens of varying sizes with varying equipment. Considering the state of all of these physical features will help to determine whether a certain group of residents is using all of their resources to the best of their ability. For example, it is a much more specific and useful question to ask, “How often would you say you use your deck?” than to ask, “Do you think you use the fixtures of your house to the best of your ability?” or, “Are you satisfied with the fixtures in your house?” Depending on the mission or social climate of certain houses, it may be the case that one group of students needs more lounge space and another group needs a smaller kitchen. Obviously, housing stock is limited, and it seems unlikely that any organization would move as a result of this review, but these kinds of questions might be helpful in determining the course of upkeep and renovations. Figuring out exactly what are over- and under-utilized spaces inside these houses could be a method that might help to achieve the goals of the review.
While it should be self-evident that the review committee should engage with staff – especially custodial staff – over the course of this review, the manner in which that engagement occurs often yields only partially useful information. In this review, I would suggest that the committee hold a meeting where they brainstorm the exact questions they would like to ask staff members before they send out a survey or bring people into meetings. The most useful information is, again, the most specific: figure out how houses take care of their specific equipment, how many barrels of trash people generate, how much electricity they use, etc. Staff members will have different kinds of specific information than students, and the questions should take that into account. Currently, these rules function well to ensure that the houses are full of students, but they do a bad job of predicting future student needs, even when those needs are obvious. Having more specific information about these needs would increase the predictive power of the rules, and more effective rules would increase overall student satisfaction. I look forward to reading the committee’s report, hope these suggestions might be of some small help and would encourage readers of this newspaper to engage enthusiastically with this review process.
John Gosselin is a member of the class of 2020 and a member of Tavern.
(12/05/19 10:57am)
Middlebury College has a deep commitment to history. We have a History department, we have Special Collections and we share a museum filled with historical objects from throughout the world. The college also demonstrates commitment to its own, local history: commemorative plaques are found on many of our buildings, our library often shows exhibitions on Middlebury’s history (including an excellent one this semester on the history of the gay rights movement at the college) and at least two books have been written on the topic, one by David Stameshkin and one by David H. Bain.
This outward evidence of our belief in the importance of history implies the assumption that what has occurred before will influence our choices today. The history of the college, then, bears some importance to the present moment and where we, as a community, will go in the future. Still, students typically do not think about this history on a daily, weekly, or even quadrennial basis; that is to say, many never think about it and know virtually nothing about it. This lack of knowledge of the college history damages our community and lessens the sense of belonging that we would like to feel. If more students understood this history, or were even vaguely aware of its general outlines, then it is more likely that more students would feel as though they belong in this community. In order to increase awareness of the college history and hopefully to affect other salutary changes, I propose a simple solution: put one copy of the history by Mr. Bain into every dorm room on campus (and ensure their safety by charging students for missing or irreparably damaged copies, just as we would charge students for missing or irreparably damaged chairs or desks). I have introduced a bill to the SGA Senate which would support a program by which this plan could come to fruition.
Now, before anyone accuses me of being unfairly favoring Mr. Bain (even to the detriment of Mr. Stameshkin), I should say that the reason Mr. Bain’s book is more suitable for this task than Mr. Stameshkin’s is that Mr. Bain’s book contains a larger number of illustrations, uses more accessible language and positions itself as an introduction to the college history. Hopefully, this may even lead students to the book by Mr. Stameshkin if they wanted further clarification on certain points.
Even before a student reads Bain’s book, however, they would likely already have felt a greater sense of belonging merely by knowing that it is in their room and by being able to point to it. The essence, or definition, of Bain’s book is tied to the physical, geographical location of Middlebury, Vermont, and does not extend much past the campus itself. What every student, past, present and future, shares with every other student of the college is the fact that we all live in the same town for at least some amount of time in order to achieve our degrees. This commonality is so simple that its idea can be transferred to the book: whenever one points at the book, or sees it, they will understand the importance of this common location. The book works to achieve this effect by definition, as it is a collection of the most notable people who have lived here and the most notable events which have occurred here.
Some objections I have heard when I have discussed this idea with my friends have included the environmental cost of printing, the feeling of an invasion of privacy and a lack of confidence that anyone would pay any attention to the book at all. To answer the first objection: the college already has many copies being stored for their eventual sale. More significantly, the number of books to be printed would be relatively small and the paper costs could be recouped by printing fewer publications and marketing materials for a certain amount of time. We might also find it economical to produce a new and less expensive edition which would use less paper. To the second objection: if your room is on campus, then it is not actually your room. The college has always owned it and will always own it. Recent vandalism also suggests that when the college entrusts its rooms completely to students, they damage them and decrease staff morale. To the third objection I say that, though some people would surely throw the book into the abyss of their closet for the semester, other people would surely put it high upon their shelf. If even a few people feel as though the book has helped them belong here, then I believe this proposal is worthwhile and the bill should be passed.
John Gosselin is a member of the class of 2020.
(09/26/19 9:57am)
In J-Term and the spring semester of 2019, 194 lectures occurred at Middlebury College.
Of these lectures, nearly share two characteristics: First, the speaker giving the lecture was highly skilled in discussing their topic; Second, the lecture overlapped with other events such that students would not attend the lecture unless they were fulfilling a course requirement, or had the same focus or interest as the lecture and prioritized the lecture over everything else.
I would guess that students going to lectures on topics outside of their majors do so very infrequently, perhaps once or twice per semester. This state of affairs is unfortunate because it is unreasonable to invite experts to the college for a few students take up the large numbers of seats we have available, in consideration of the effort that goes into planning an event of any magnitude on this campus. In order to remedy this unfortunate state of affairs, I suggest a modest proposal: Invite fewer speakers.
Having attended several of these lectures over the past three years, two observations seem appropriate, especially so it does not seem that I do not appreciate the availability of lectures in general. First, hosts would generally like more students to attend lectures. Hosts employ creative means to increase attendance, like adding extra credit to their syllabi, announcing lectures in class or emailing their students directly instead of by all-campus emails. These strategies are only partially effective because they are almost always limited to people in the hosts’ academic department. Guest lectures should be a wonderful opportunity for humanities students to interact with the natural sciences and vice versa.
Second, the obscurity of the talks’ topics is not the problem because they are often genuinely interesting, even when their titles or descriptions might suggest otherwise. For example, last week, the campus hosted over a dozen lectures (an average week), some of which included “Historically Hot: Reimagining Beauty from Japan’s Past,” “Katrin Bahr: East Germany in Mozambique 1979–1990” and “Whale-watching from the Masthead off of New Zealand.” It is possible that beauty in Japan, East Germans in Mozambique, and whales in New Zealand could make for interesting lectures, but most people will never know, since most people simply do not have the time to attend the lecture, the lecture description, or even knew that such lectures were occurring.
At nearly 200 per semester, it seems to me that we simply invite too many speakers relative to the goals that hosts have for bringing them. To come to this number, I counted the events which could be categorized as “lectures” on the featured events calendar from the beginning of the January term to the end of April 2019, covering about a semester. (It is possible that many lectures never made it onto this calendar, so maybe even more occurred.) I believe this count is a roughly representative sample of how many lectures the college is likely to host this semester, if not more. This number works out to an average of about 50 speakers per month and about 12 speakers per week.
I would prefer to have six or fewer speakers per week, or around 25 per month and 100 per semester. This number would allow us all a reasonable chance to look at the title of the lectures, read their descriptions and make informed decisions about whether or not to attend.
Right now, it seems as though hosts are forced into untenable situations in which they feel the need to advertise against all of the other lectures being hosted that week in order to have any students attend at all. Hosts plaster the campus with ecologically wasteful paper posters and fill our email inboxes with all-school emails. All this is not to mention the scheduling conflicts, space restrictions and event management resources that go to waste when not enough people attend lectures. If it is still the time of the year in which people encourage first-years to do things, then I would suggest that all first-years resolve to attend at least one lecture on a topic that seems uninteresting to them. You might end up interested.
I would bring this idea to this newspaper, perhaps unasked for and certainly crudely stated, in the hope that it provokes some better writer to publish a direct reply against it, for it is apparent that there is some problem with the way the college currently handles lectures, and I think it is that we have too many of them, but there could be another cause that I have not considered, or it could be that all lectures are as good as we want them to be and I needn’t have written in the first place.
(04/30/19 6:41pm)
The same people threatening to dissolve the Student Government Association voted in favor of raising your Student Activities Fee by $20 next year after just a few minutes of debate. They considered important changes to SGA bylaws in even less time, changes which would restructure the Finance Committee as a special standing committee, changing how your student organizations will be funded in the future. It was impossible to tell whether or not these ideas were good given the time we had to discuss them. In pursuing long debates over the minutia of the 13 proposals, your senators have failed to think about their responsibility for managing the $1.2 million annual budget of the SGA, and more importantly, they have failed you.
To be clear, I support the 13 proposals. However, there is a significant difference between supporting the proposals and supporting the asinine strategy under which they were brought to our community. The lame-duck senators threatening the dissolution of the SGA changed their tune as soon as they realized that they stood to defund MCAB and every other organization with a budget larger than $10,000 for next year by not attending our last meeting. They quickly requested the scheduling of a ceremonial additional last meeting so that they could dissolve the SGA with a symbolic flourish. What does this action symbolize, exactly? These people have already made it clear that they are dissatisfied with their work with the administration this year; otherwise they would not have sent the proposals. To dissolve the SGA only after approving the $10,000 and over budgets would symbolize an annual tradition and nothing more, since SGA dissolves at the end of that meeting anyways to make room for next year’s SGA, just like any other student organization.
I would be in favor of this strategy if it had consensus in the SGA or if the people in support of it would be serving on SGA next year. However, the main proponents of this strategy have been our two senior class senators, who are graduating, and our two first-year senators, neither of whom are continuing on SGA next year. A strategy this audacious requires steady leadership, especially when it begins its most crucial phase at the end of the year, or at least a plan for continuing the fight in the new year; the supporters of these proposals have provided no such plan, leaving those who remain stranded at sea.
I would reiterate that I support the 13 proposals, but that changes this important need discussion, refinement, and time. The SGA set an impossible task for the administration when we asked them to respond to these wide-ranging proposals so quickly. I can only hope that the people staying on for next year’s SGA will remember the terrible mistake of threatening dissolution and modify their behavior accordingly. Newly elected senators, I hope, will want to try to do their jobs before they want to try to quit them.
John Gosselin '20 is the co-chair of Community Council.
Editor's Note: Members of the SGA have signed on in support of this letter and may continue to do so throughout the day. Thus far, they include:
Sophomore Senator Uno Lee
Feb Senator Bobbi Finkelstein
(01/17/19 10:57am)
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Matthew Evan Taylor is curating a series of concerts from now until May that will celebrate women and people of color, who are typically underrepresented in the classical music tradition. Their first two concerts occurred on Jan. 6 and 11 in Waterbury, Vt. and Middlebury College, respectively. The other concerts will take place at venues around Vermont, including the FlynnSpace in Burlington and Axel’s Gallery in Waterbury, but all will have at least one performance at the college in the Mahaney Performing Arts Center.
This series of concerts presents a unique opportunity to new and old listeners because it includes the work of composers who have not yet been heard in Vermont. I must admit that I had not seen the names of any of the composers or performers Professor Taylor is bringing to our campus. I hope to provide some background information on some of the artists included in this series both for the sake of general interest and to engage potential audiences. I highly recommend attending as many of these concerts as you can because they will provide a refreshing change of pace from the Performing Arts Series Society (PASS) events I usually cover and because it may be an interesting proposition to compare these concerts to the PASS concerts.
The next concert in the series will include a number of piano sonatas by the composer George Walker on Friday, Jan. 25 at 5 p.m. This composer is best known for an orchestral piece called “Lilacs,” which won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1996. The snippets of the piano sonatas I listened to are distinctly modern and sometimes sound harsh or dissonant, but the merit in them seems to lie in their adept handling of very different kinds of thematic material simultaneously. The pianist who will play the sonatas is Redi Llupa, an experienced pianist who graduated from the Boston Conservatory and has played at Carnegie Hall. After seeing a few videos of his playing that he has graciously posted on YouTube under his name, I have confidence that this concert will be well worth attending.
The next concert has not posted its exact program yet, but it will be curated by composer Carlos Simon, a native of Atlanta who has worked with the Sundance Institute. It will occur in the Mahaney Center for the Arts on Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. I look forward to this concert because this composer has extensive experience with film music composition; such a background lends itself well to finding many different kinds of music and putting them together into a compelling whole; or, in other words, curation.
The fourth concert of the series will include a performance by Gary Levinson and Asiya Korepanova on Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. This concert will include the premiere of Ms. Korepanova’s piece “Poem” for saxophone and piano, as well as Professor Taylor’s piece “Meet at the Horizon” for violin and double bass. Rounding out the program are Prokofiev’s first piano sonata and Strauss’ sonata for violin and piano in E-flat. The following day, Mr. Levinson will offer a masterclass at 3 p.m. in collaboration with the Middlebury Community Music Center and Vermont Youth Orchestra.
The next concert, Music Without Borders, curated by composer Marcos Balter, will take place on April 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Middlebury. According to Balter’s website, his works have received such praise as, “Balter has a wicked sense of humor and a fiercely imaginative palette of instrumental and vocal sounds that is rare in today’s dour post-classical new music.” This concert promises interesting works because many of his previous works have used unusual ensembles, such as alto flute and cello for “delete/control/option” or clarinet and violin for “A vis”.
The last concert of the series, American Mestiza, will play the music of Gabriela Lena Frank, a composer whose works reflect her deep knowledge and engagement with Latin American folklore and music. This concert will take place in Middlebury on May 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the arts center.
As you can see from the long list of concerts, this series represents the results of many artists in areas that badly need more representation, especially in classical music. I was happy to hear that this concert series was occurring, and I am even more happy to cover it. This series will hopefully set new expectations for classical music concerts in our region and promote the exploration of new music.
(11/15/18 10:55am)
This past Friday evening, I had the great pleasure of hearing Music and History major Gareth Cordery ’20 perform piano pieces by Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Leos Janacek and Aaron Copland in Robison Hall. Beginning with Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-Flat Major” (commonly referred to as “The Hunt”), moving on to Chopin’s “Ballade No. 1 in G Minor,” continuing with Janacek’s suite “In the Mists,” and finishing with Copland’s “Piano Variations,” this concert provided a diverse array of pieces running the gamut from classical to romantic to modern. From the beginning, Cordery showed himself to be in complete control of these pieces, performing with a rare zeal, the apparent ease of which belied his intimate familiarity with the music.
Perhaps one of the most wonderful aspects of a student concert is that the performers are far more likely to comment on their work for The Campus! I first asked Cordery about how he went about designing the program.
This concert was notable for the differences between each piece, whereas most concert programs, including one he is preparing for a future recital, try to note the thematic similarities between pieces. For example, the last article I wrote featured an all-Bach program, and the upcoming concert by the Jupiter Quartet on November 30 will feature string quartets by French modernists Ravel, Debussy and Dutilleux.
The Beethoven piece, though it has some formal features which put it on the edge of the classical piano sonata tradition, including four fast movements and some thematic instability in the first movement, sounds far different from the Chopin piece, and both of these 19th-century works felt tame in comparison to the rhythmic anomalies in “In the Mists” and the grating dissonances in Copland’s variations.
I also asked about the program notes, which I found detailed and intelligent, for they balanced historical details with formal characteristics. Especially for the Janacek and Copland, pieces with which I was unfamiliar, I found the written notes helpful for understanding the musical notes. Cordery wrote the program notes himself, abridged from his longer research papers on the pieces.
The performance itself was impressive for the creative choices Cordery made in preparation for the concert: he performed without notes. When I asked what led to this decision, he replied that not only is it expected that a musician would have the music memorized before the concert, but that performances with sheet music inhibit his musicality because the act of turning them over distracts the audience from the sound.
The Copland variations exhibited the most powerful playing of the night, and, especially in the final chords, showed why it is valuable to play pieces people may not have heard before. These variations are a loud, angry set which take a certain degree of careful control to manage properly. The dissonances create a foreboding sense of dread, a feeling compounded by the contrast of the overlapping overtones of low notes and the sharpness of the high notes.
Cordery’s notes include some information on the mix of influences Copland used in the piece: Schoenberg’s 12-tone methods, Stravinsky’s neoclassicism and the American contribution of jazz. One of the most interesting parts of hearing a piece like this, and reading about its sources, is the idea that someone like Copland knew these sources and knew to combine them into something unique. The influences affecting Beethoven and Chopin were limited to what they heard and saw in their lives, just like those that inspired Copland, but the latter’s experiences translated into a piece that sounds completely different than his predecessors’, showing how he received the great diversity of inspiration which makes his music great.
Cordery was concerned about putting this piece on the program. “I will admit to worrying about the Copland; it’s relentless in its modernity, but the “Piano Variations” are an important and consequential piece,” he said. “I think it’s important that everyone gets a chance to hear it at least once.”
I wholeheartedly agree with him; it was a bold choice to program this rarely heard piece and I count myself lucky to be able to hear it in a place like Robison Hall.
The final part of the variations, a coda consisting of the repetitive drone of dissonant chords, gives way to one special moment at the end. Cordery played the final chord more loudly than he had all night, and his use of the pedal combined with the spectacular acoustics of the hall allowed the overtones of the deepest keys to play uninterrupted for more than 30 seconds. Usually, like in the Beethoven for example, the final cadence lasts for 2-3 seconds, if that. Having just heard a Beethoven piece, the radical change between the two provoked a meditative state for the duration of that final chord, one where I felt I could focus on hearing the notes and just the notes, just like one hears the final ringing of the carillon bells in the late evening.
(11/08/18 10:58am)
FRANÇOIS SECHET/ THE MIDDLEBURY CAMPUS
This event would be better described as a feat of endurance than a concert. Jean-Guihen Queyras, the incredible cellist who performed last Friday evening, played all six Johann Sebastian Cello Suites over the course of three hours. This program is especially difficult, due not only to its length, but also to the increasing level of virtuosity required for each suite.
The first suite is the easiest, and the sixth was written for an instrument with five strings, though Queyras played it on a four-stringed instrument. If that was not enough: he played them all from memory. The extent to which one man and one cello can entertain and enchant an audience for this amount of time will never cease to amaze me.
As I sat down in the second row, I realized how this concert would use the intimate setting and perfect acoustics of Robison Hall to its fullest potential. As soon as Queyras started playing, I was able to see everything: his bowing technique, his fingers and even the vibrations of the strings. Of course, one usually goes to a concert to hear, not to see, but watching the instrument being played makes all the difference between a recording and the most riveting concert.
The skill and lightness with which Queyras handled the bow allowed him to play the quickest sections with what appeared to be ease, although it is the sort of ease which one knows can only be attained with incredible amounts of practice. Especially in the sixth suite, which includes several high and low notes played in quick succession, Queyras played with this kind of sureness and professionalism.
One of the more interesting parts of the concert was when Queyras spoke with us about the music he was playing. He used the interlude between a few of the suites to speak to us because the fifth suite requires retuning the instrument lower, and the sixth requires retuning it higher. His instrument, a 1696 cello by Giofreddo Cappa, cannot be played for about ten minutes after it has been retuned on account of its age.
During these talks he spoke about the act of retuning in performance, quoting Rostropovich. He said that Rostropovich said retuning an old instrument during a concert is like taking a person to a Michelin star restaurant through the kitchen. But nowadays, he added, people like to see the kitchen.
This comment felt particularly apt as a way to describe the overall mood of the concert, as he often smiled during the more playful pieces and broke out a wide grin when he made a mistake, but this only happened once.
During the second break, between the fifth and sixth suites, Queyras gave us a detailed explanation for why he played this piece with the four-stringed cello. Besides the cost and risk of touring with two cellos, he cited the way the five-stringed instrument produces sound. Since the fifth string is the highest, it is also the loudest, and it tends to drown out the lowest string. To compensate for this effect, the entire instrument becomes quieter.
Queyras said that he would be comfortable playing such a quieter instrument in the perfect acoustics of Robison Hall but that in any normal performing venue, the sound would be inadequate for the expectations of a modern audience. He also said that the four-stringed version is more virtuosic, and that it plays better with audiences.
It is difficult to write about the music itself because of the scale and ambition of the project. Queyras said at one point that this project was “crazy” for Bach because no one had ever composed this much music for the solo cello before; this project was so far ahead of its time that other solo cello pieces only started appearing in the 20th century. To listen to all six suites at one time becomes a captivating experience because the monotony of the instrument’s timbre contrasts so sharply with the endless imaginative invention of the music.
For such a vast group of pieces, it can be difficult to pick out the best, but my favorites were the always-popular prelude from the first suite, every fast piece from the third suite and the concluding gigue from the sixth suite.
In all, this concert was an unmitigated success, and if anything it has only increased my already sky-high expectations for what is already an excellent season of engaging music.
(04/11/18 9:40pm)
Junior senator Kailash Pandey is planning to introduce a bill in the SGA Senate this Sunday that would create opportunities to receive academic credit for internships for all students. This step would make internships more accessible, especially to international students (comprising roughly 10 percent of the Middlebury student population) whose practical training time of 12 months per degree level decreases for every non-credit internship they participate in using Optional Practical Training (OPT). Practical training time affects visa eligibility for international students.
This bill comes as the result of multiple conversations senator Pandey has had with administrators concerning this issue. Out of respect for the extraordinary individual effort Kailash has put into drafting this bill, I am not co-sponsoring it, but I want to support it in the strongest possible terms.
This bill would set up a program under which a student could choose a professor to advise them on internships which meet certain requirements so that the internship hews as closely as possible to the academic work the student does on campus. The internships meeting these requirements must relate directly to their declared major or professional interest and they must have three explicit learning outcomes related to the internship experience.
In addition, they must have an on-site internship supervisor, students requesting this opportunity must be in good academic standing, and they would need to receive approval from a faculty advisor. They would also submit a deliverable to said supervisor after the internship, and they may only include two of these internships for credit. These robust conditions would ensure academic engagement with the internship while also creating an opportunity for more Middlebury students to fully and equally participate in these kinds of experiences, the majority of which compliment a student’s academic work at a liberal arts institution.
The best parts of this program are the requirements for the faculty supervisor and the requirement for the deliverable. Faculty advisors already form a fundamental part of the educational administrative structure at Middlebury, and having them fill this role for an internship is a natural fit. The academic and personal relationships formed between students and faculty in working on these projects together will become an invaluable learning source if a sufficient number of students participate.
The deliverable is the core of this shared experience between the advisor and the student. In addition to the academically relevant internship, the student will complete a separate project which will solidify the academic parts of the internship experience. This project will prevent the internship from being just work experience or just an internship. It will make it academically relevant.
I want to conclude by speaking briefly on the ramifications of this proposal for international students. Currently, international students face a disadvantage because of our institution’s curricular inflexibility — students cannot receive academic credit for summer internships.
In general, international students with an F-1 student visa are only eligible to participate in off-campus practical training experiences that are directly related to their major field of study after they have been enrolled in their program of study for at least one full academic year. Even then, they only have two options for participating in such experiences: Curricular Practical Training (the opportunity must be an integral part of the curriculum: for credit or required by the program) or Optional Practical Training (OPT). This requires an application for employment authorization to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the payment of a $410 filing fee each time they apply. This adjudication process is long (90+ days at present). OPT is limited to 12 months per degree level (pre- and post-completion), although STEM majors may have additional opportunities to extend their OPT should they qualify.
Thus, the vast majority of international students at Middlebury are having to tap into their OPT time during their program of study, leaving many graduating with only a few months to engage in practical training opportunities in the U.S. The way our current institutional policy impacts international students and distances them from some of the same experiences their U.S. peers are already participating in is in distinct contrast with Middlebury’s commitment to full and equal participation for all individuals and groups. This proposal represents a step in the right direction by giving more opportunities for internships to international students.
(03/22/18 1:02am)
I would like to take this opportunity to discuss a series the Film Society hosted during February, the last film of which was “Losing Ground.” We selected three films (in addition to “Losing Ground,” we screened “Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Revenge” and “She’s Gotta Have It”) in celebration of Black History Month and each had attributes which made for interesting and valuable viewing experiences.
I run the Film Society with Cicely Bernhard ’20, and we had significant assistance in arranging this series from Sierra Jackson ’18. She helped us secure funding and put together the panel discussion for “Losing Ground.” American Studies Professor J Finley and librarian Katrina Spencer generously donated their time to watch the film and discuss it with us at the screening. The discussion afterwards provided unique feedback which deepened everyone’s appreciation and understanding of the film.
“Losing Ground” is a foundational film because it is one of the first feature films directed by an African American woman and as a result explores themes usually left untouched by more mainstream pictures. It tells the story of a black female professor, played by writer-director Kathleen Collins, and her struggles with her love life. She and her husband rent a cottage in the country for the summer, but she is drawn to the personal and professional validation offered by the city.
Predictably, its production value is relatively low, but the camerawork is competent and engrossing in a campy kind of way. Its confidence is endearing in the best sense because it is so sincere. The audience does not need to be told that its content is relatively autobiographical; this distinction is obvious from the first scene. Collins is giving a lecture on some esoteric philosophy, but her camera is not focused on her speech. Rather, it displays the hordes of men watching her speak intently. At first I thought this approach was too heavy-handed to work, that it made its point too quickly and without the appropriate degree of nuance, but as similarly blunt scenes appeared, I felt myself appreciating it more and more.
Some scenes are actually humorous with a real sense of comic intention. For example, Collins decides to act in the film project of one of her students and his performance is so over-the-top, so like a caricature in its depiction of a film student, that several of the film students in the audience, myself included, winced from the resemblance as we laughed at it. The sarcastic wit on display in this and other performances sometimes hurts with its accuracy and honest appraisals of that which it lampoons.
This project, so intensely personal, was not released until 2015. Kathleen Collins died of cancer in 1988, just six years after she completed this film. These two facts have delayed its prevalence despite its importance, not to mention its quality as a cathartic medium for its intended audience. Part of the effort in screening this film was meant to rehabilitate its reputation, because more people deserve to see it. The library now has a copy of the DVD available to be checked out. I would urge anyone interested in this film to try to see it, preferably with other people. It is worth a watch.
(03/15/18 2:45pm)
I would like to respond to the op-ed published in The Campus this week concerning the club sports bill. This bill allowed students to create new club sports through a process involving the Student Organization Oversight Committee (SOOC). I am currently the Atwater Commons Senator and a member of SOOC.
I welcome this opportunity to take the discussion to the student body more directly and receive feedback on what we passed with the intent of addressing any criticism by proposing revisions to the bill. Already, I have responded to people who told me they felt the vote was rushed and unfair by proposing a bylaws change designed to prevent such votes from happening in the future. I also want to have a discussion on ways to pay for the bill we passed and make the relevant proposals.
First, the SGA Senate and Finance Committee should look at their books and find places to improve allocations. SGA Treasurer Peter Dykeman-Bermingham, a contributor of last week’s op-ed, shared that the SGA is on course to run a deficit, so SGA should find programs that have outlived their usefulness and end them.
Second, several colleges assess separate activity fees for club sports, given the high per capita cost of these sports. Most club sport teams already require some kind of out-of-pocket dues in practice, so it only makes sense to create a more official and fair system.
Third, we should help the administration support club sports. Middlebury is a wealthy institution with successful alumni. I am sure we, and the administration, can work together to find a donor to support club sports with an endowment. Going forward, I would be interested in working with people to make progress on this possibility.
Fourth, we should shift our financial model from the current allocations model to an events-based allocations model. Currently, many organizations on campus have money left over at the end of the year, which rolls over. This money is never used by students. Changing our allocations model will allow money to be spent more efficiently so that we use as much of it as possible. An events-based allocation model would have student organizations operate by making more new money requests than they have in the past. This proposal, due to its complexity and relationship to the budgeting process, would need to be implemented in the 2019-2020 school year, not next year.
Something SGA mentions whenever we brainstorm ideas is to bridge the student – athlete divide. Club sports are, by definition, in between intramural opportunities and intense varsity sports. The passed proposal takes concrete steps to bridge this divide and bring our community closer together through the shared experience of athletics. With it, ambitious students will be able to add valuable teams to the College community that will fill a current gap in the social life here. Please also go online to find a longer version of this article. Thank you for reading.
(10/11/17 11:00pm)
On Saturday, Oct. 7, the Danish String Quartet played Bela Bartok’s First String Quartet, Sz. 40 Op. 7, Beethoven’s Seventh String Quartet, Op. 59 No. 1, subtitled “Razumovsky” for their Russian patron, and a collection of folk tunes arranged by the quartet. They encored a piece by a contemporary Danish composer. The rest of the wonderful folk tunes they played are on the quartet’s new CD, titled “Last Leaf.”
The program said that this ensemble only plays music they enjoy playing, a statement I would not have believed before hearing their lively performance. The best parts of yesterday’s performance were those moments when a new theme, usually a folk theme, entered the music, and the players traded it among their instruments, clearly enjoying their performance. Despite the length of the concert, which started at 8 and ended at 10:30, I was never unhappy to be there.
The concert started with Bartok’s quartet, a continuous 30-minute mass of music which sometimes seemed to descend into Schoenberg-esque atonality only to recover into an Hungarian folk tune. Divided into three movements, lento, allegretto, and allegro vivace, the piece was a good one for the beginning of a concert. It takes a considerable amount of effort to derive meaning from listening to it, and people are usually the most alert at the beginning of concerts.
The cellist spoke briefly about the latent programmatic content in its composition: Bartok was not succeeding as a composer, had failed to attract a spouse, and had escaped to the countryside to collect folk melodies. This explanation helped to ease the toughness of the music, which oscillated wildly between Late-Romantic extended tonality and rough-hewn folk melodies.
This odd mixture of styles and influences provided many opportunities for the players to shine, and they did. Whenever a new folk melody entered the contrapuntal mass, that line stood out immediately, for whoever was playing did so with a specific zeal, the sort that only appears when one is really passionate about something. The recording of these would not do this quartet justice as viewing the players live adds an intangible quality to the performance which makes going to such concerts worth the cost in the first place.
Next, the quartet played their folk melodies. There is less to say here about the concert itself and more about what they played and how they played it. It is rare that a quartet plays something so outside the standard repertoire. Even some of the more adventurous items from last year like Berg’s Lyric Suite can be found at several concerts per year, but these folk tunes were truly unique.
Allison Carroll, director of the Performing Arts Series Society, said it took three years to book this quartet because their performance schedule is set years in advance. She said the reason she wanted this particular quartet so much was because they play these folk melodies.
Not only were the melodies excellent music on their own, the particular zeal with which the quartet played could inspire anyone to share this music with their friends whether they usually listen to classical music or not. The deeply-set rhythmic qualities of these pieces make them accessible to the uninitiated.
After the intermission was Beethoven’s quartet. This canonical classical piece uses a Russian folk theme in its fourth movement.
The first movement begins with a wonderful rousing theme played first by the cello and then by the first violin. It moves and develops well in some sort of sonata form, but this is one of those pieces where it is difficult to tell just where the development section ends. The second movement is a scherzo by most meanings of that word: it is funny, it feels like Bartok is toying with his audience, and the players smiled throughout it. If the descriptions of the first two movements seem brief, it is because the third movement seemed so long in comparison. This was another movement where it was difficult to tell the exact contours of the sections, but the overall effect was profound. The moment the music transitioned from the funeral march of the third movement to folk music in the fourth was one of the most moving of the night. This moment exemplified how enjoyable it was to see the players trade the same theme amongst each other. October continues to be a promising month for classical concerts, with soloist Soovin Kim performing Bach’s partitas this Friday, Oct. 13, and the Heath Quartet performing Friday, Oct 27. Both of these PASS events will take place in Robison Hall.
(09/27/17 11:29pm)
The first concert of the fall 2017 season involved such a large and skilled ensemble playing such important music that it can only be termed a triumph for the Middlebury community.
The Vermont Symphony Orchestra performed four works in the following order: Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Dance of the Furies from Orfeo ed Euridice, Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony Op. 4, a new composition from Paul Dedell called Breath with pictures from Porter C. Thayer arranged by Jesse Kreitzer, and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante K. 364 with soloists Jaime Laredo on viola and Pamela Frank on violin. The performance, conducted by Jaime Laredo, lasted a little over two hours with an intermission between Breath and Mozart.
Before describing the music and the performances, which are certainly worth describing both for their execution and their positive effect on this community, I suggest to those who were unable to attend the show to listen to the pieces performed in order to better appreciate the musicianship and music.
For the Dance of the Furies, it is possible to find a version by Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music which employs the harpsichord for accompaniment. I usually try to avoid the harpsichord, and they did not employ one at the concert, but this version, with its fast tempo and relentless intensity, would give any listener a similar impression as we received at the concert. It was a good piece with which to start the concert as it was liable to wake up anyone trying to sleep through it. While he originally left it out of the original opera and composed it a dozen years later to entertain the dance-hungry audiences of Paris, Gluck succeeded in creating this entertaining music. This dance is a short piece with only one purpose: to jolt the audience with a burst of violent energy.
The Simple Symphony had multiple moods, but they all seemed to run along the same general theme of the joys of childhood. We received a short speech from Mr. Laredo about the youth of the piece; Britten composed it when he was 20 using themes he had composed at the piano between the ages of 9 and 12. Even though it was composed nearly 70 years ago, I found it the most modern of the concert because of the second movement, subtitled “Playful Pizzicato”. Though pizzicato playing is common and there were several fine examples of such playing in both Breath and the Sinfonia, I cannot remember any pieces before this one which made do without the bow altogether for an entire movement. In looking for recordings, it appears that many smaller ensembles have recorded it at live concerts in two arrangements, one with about half as many instruments as the other. The concert used the larger arrangement, so I will recommend a recording by Filharmonický orchestr Iwasaki led by Chuhei Iwasaki. This performance has the same general air about it as the concert did and it keeps up the tempo in the second movement.
Probably the most important performance of the evening and ostensibly the reason for the concert in the first place was Paul Dedell’s Breath which accompanied the photos of Porter C. Thayer. The piece, however, was more than just a soundtrack.
As director Jesse Kreitzer explained, he worked with Mr. Dedell closely as he compiled the images for The Porter Thayer Collection and his most recent work Caregivers, sharing inspiration and acting as equal partners in a process that usually involves a composer doing his work after the images have been selected. This project is a collaboration between the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival allowing it to reach a far larger audience than it might otherwise.
What makes this work so great is that it both uses film and music in creative and engaging ways and while also bringing together people. I will have more to say about this project and plan to reference it in future articles, but have refrained from mentioning much about the performance itself, other than that it was worth seeing, in the hopes that people will try to attend one of the performances of it on the VSO’s “Made in Vermont” tour. Future performances can be found on the VSO website.
After a brief but well-earned intermission, the concert finished with Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. I imagine, as it is a piece by Mozart, there is not much that can be said that has not already, and so I will only offer that it is a successful piece which uses the unique ensemble to great effect. There are not many double concerti from this era; the only similar pieces I can think of by the great composers are Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto.
This form has the unusual strength of being able to show the skill of the soloists in relation to the orchestra and to one another. There are several instances in the piece, especially in the first movement, when Ms. Frank played a theme and was promptly echoed by Mr. Laredo on the viola. The effect was stunning.
The cadenza from the first movement was probably the highlight of the concert for me; the skilled playing combined with the effortless re-entry of the orchestra for the final tutti worked wonderfully. For reference, I suggest the Itzhak Perlman recording which can be found on YouTube.
This concert started off the year well and I look forward to the concerts this October, including those by the Danish and Heath Quartets, respectively, and a recital by violinist Soovin Kim.
(05/11/17 1:35am)
At Community Council’s May 2 meeting, Associate Professor of French William Poulin-Deltour introduced a letter from faculty which suggests taking several steps to prepare Middlebury for changes to immigration policy under the Trump administration. The steps include establishing a response team of faculty and staff, devising a naturalization resource program and developing ways to further involve the community in response to immigration policy changes. After Poulin-Deltour introduced a revised draft on May 9, it was unanimously approved.
Assistant Professor of American Studies J Finley presented a recommendation proposing the development of a module for first-year Faculty Orientation intended to teach new faculty to avoid language and actions that assume socioeconomic homogeneity in the student body. After Community Council reached out to would-be affected parties, the “Recommendation for Faculty Training in Socioeconomic Issues” was passed at the May 9 meeting.
Student Co-Chair Travis Sanderson ’19 then presented a recommendation that the Admissions Office create a working group charged with developing a new pamphlet by the end of next academic year for low-income students. This new pamphlet would list resources available to low-income students and potential estimated family contributions instead of just the price of attending and room and board. After much discussion, Community Council decided to table this recommendation so that more information could be gathered and so that the relevant parties could be notified of its ramifications.
Co-Chair Abbott brought up the response to the financial aid recommendation sponsored by Charles Rainey ’19 and passed at the last meeting. An official from the financial services office responded that the reason Middlebury could not change its policies to those suggested by the recommendation was because the College participates in an agreement with its peer institutions. This agreement is in place because it standardizes financial aid policies between need-blind colleges.
On May 9, Doug Adams gave an update on social house reviews. He stated that all of the social house reports were satisfactory. Since the reports were sent to him after the agenda was set, it was impossible to have Community Council read the entire report before the meeting. He suggested that they approve this report in the fall term.
Afterwards, Community Council went into executive session to approve new Community Judicial Board and new Academic Judicial Board members. This Campus correspondent left the meeting because of the executive session, in which only members are allowed to be in the room.
Conversation then turned to a recommendation on updating the admissions guide to give more information to low-income students. Several members expressed concerns about voting on the recommendation at the end of the year, before reaching out to the admissions office first. Some others felt that it was best to vote on the recommendation now so that conversation on it will continue into next semester. Community Council voted unanimously to support this recommendation.
Co-Chair Abbott provided an update on funding for Winter Term internships. She said she is working with the administration to implement a pilot program for funding for-credit internships during J-Term. The specific program has not yet been created but Co-Chair Abbott says she will continue to work out specific details over the summer.
After a brief conversation on the potential of introducing a recommendation relating to laundry in the next session, the conversation shift to the recommendation previously considered on May 2 concerning financial aid changes. Co-Chair Abbott said that the consortium with which the College is currently affiliated, the 568 Group, does not use the standards in the recommendation. She added that changing the ability-to-pay model to a willingness-to-pay model would drastically affect the College’s financial situation. Co-Chair Sanderson amended the recommendation to fit better these considerations.
After discussion between Co-Chair Abbott, Co-Chair Sanderson and Charles Rainey ’19, Tim Parsons said that he was uncomfortable with considering the recommendation because he felt he did not have enough information to have an informed opinion on it. He said that he wanted to have more conversations about this issue and that it should not be rushed.
Community Council voted to create a committee co-chaired by the SGA President and Community Council Co-Chair to consider this recommendation further.
Community Council voted unanimously to approve the committee. Community Council voted on the recommendation itself but the motion failed.
Charles Rainey said that wished that Community Council would vote now on the recommendation itself.
(05/10/17 11:42pm)
On Wednesday, May 3, the students of MUSC0240: Performing Chamber Music held their culminating recital in Robison Hall. The program included songs by Johannes Brahms, a string quartet movement by Dmitri Shostakovich, an aria by Johann Sebastian Bach and a piano quartet movement by Gabriel Faure. The concert lasted approximately forty-five minutes and included some truly exemplary ensemble performances.
The first pieces performed were from Brahms’ Zwei Gesange, Op. 91, which translates to “Two Songs” for alto, viola and piano. I do not usually comment on the visual aspect of attending these concerts, but the setup for this part of the performance was new and exciting, so much so that I hardly knew where to look.
Something that differed greatly in this concert was that the violist stood, which attracted attention to him and helped to balance out where people looked. The singer stood beside the piano and faced the audience.
In any case, the music was wonderful. The viola added an entirely new dimension to the song that I had not previously heard performed live. It complemented the singer perfectly and gave the songs a more powerful sound than could be created from piano and voice alone.
The second piece was the second movement of Shostakovich’s 8th String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 110. It was one of the few modern pieces I have seen programmed this year in student ensembles, and this performance of it shows how more contemporary pieces can be played well. This movement is fast, rhythmic and exciting. The speed and competence with which the quartet played impressed the audience greatly.
Historical context informed the quartet’s conception, as it was written for the victims of fascism and war. The effects of pain and suffering Shostakovich communicates with this music come across clearly with or without this additional program, showing how well he met his goals. At just under three minutes, the movement was short, but in that time it provided a stark contrast to the opening songs.
After the string quartet, voice and piano performed JS Bach’s an aria from “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” BWV 61 named “Offne dich, mein ganzes Herze” in G Major. This piece featured the simplest orchestration of the evening, with just keyboard and voice, but its musical significance lay in its strict adherence to Baroque forms.
After hearing the wonderful performance of The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge in German), hearing more Bach performed live was a treat.
Though known mostly for his short keyboard pieces like the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Goldberg Variations among modern audiences, Bach wrote vocal music that presents audiences with a wealth of listening material. The cantatas compose a significant portion of his list of works and many of them are not performed nearly proportionally to the instrumental works. Both pianist and singer performed this piece well, with an excellent degree of coordination between them.
The last piece was the first movement of Gabriel Faure’s 1st Piano Quartet in C Minor, marked allegro molto moderato. Even though it bears the mark of C Minor, one of the stormiest keys, the first movement’s tempo and rhythms suggest something more calm and tranquil. This fast movement has a fair amount of slower, more lyrical moments. It was interesting to watch the coordination between the pianist, violinist, violist and cellist for this piece. I imagine it took a great deal of focus to get the coordination between the parts just right, as the instruments switch in an out throughout the movement.
(05/04/17 1:32am)
The Brentano String Quartet performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Art of Fugue” on Saturday, April 29, in Robison Hall as the first part of the Middlebury Bach Festival, which also included a performance of Handel’s Esther. The Art of Fugue commands its place in the repertoire of classical music as the fullest existing exploration of contrapuntal technique, or counterpoint. This reputation can sometimes lead to dry performances that sound like a manual read aloud.
Thankfully, the Brentano String Quartet’s interpretation and performance style made for an interesting evening that reinvented this piece for the audience.
At every possible moment, the quartet educated the audience on the meaning of counterpoint and how the musical concept relates to other parts of our lives. At its most basic, counterpoint, or contrapuntal technique, is the combination of multiple subjects in a musical work in a rhythmically and harmonically pleasing way. A piece using the strict rules of counterpoint is sometimes called a fugue, but there exist many pieces that use counterpoint to some extent and they have many different names.
The overall aim of using these rules is to create a piece of music that combines different melodies in creative ways to create something greater than any of them alone. Most music uses two-voice counterpoint, or homophony, in which one voice takes the melody and the other accompanies it. The accompaniment can switch voices, but is always in a subservient position. In strict counterpoint, the voices are usually equal to each other for extended periods of time, sometimes sharing prominent positions but usually working with each other. Nearly all of Bach’s music employs counterpoint to some extent, but in “The Art of Fugue” he attempts (and succeeds in) documenting the possibilities that strict counterpoint allows.
The quartet, during breaks from the music, included readings from various literary works that used contrapuntal imagery to illustrate their ideas. These readings were diverse and even included a short play that showed in words what counterpoint means.
In the play, the first violinist began speaking about “The Art of Fugue” and its history. Then, the second violinist spoke about a contrary reading of the history of the work. After that, the first violinist spoke again with new information, but he spoke over the second violinist. Then, after the first violinist stopped speaking, the cellist spoke up with a third opinion about Bach’s work.
The players traded these words amongst themselves for some time, speaking over each other, to show the audience what counterpoint would look like if notes were substituted for words.
In addition to the play, which took place just before intermission, the lights dimmed every two or three pieces and the loudspeakers interjected with literary entries from Carroll to Sagan. This part of the performance gave the entire evening a feeling that it was about more than the music, that these pieces had an effect on more than just the world of music, but on everything.
Much of the music itself is similar in length to the modern songs we hear every day, but Bach’s pieces have a degree of complexity not seen elsewhere in the classical repertoire. The entire catalogue consists of 14 fugues and four canons increasing in contrapuntal complexity from beginning to end.
These fugues consist of subjects and countersubjects, sometimes called answers. Whenever the subject did not repeat in one of the voices in its entirety, that section constituted an episode in the fugue, meant to lengthen the piece and avoid too much repetition. The fugues included contributions from all the players in equal parts.
The original “Art of Fugue “did not include instrumentation markings, meaning that it can be played equally well by string quartet, harpsichord, organ, piano and my favorite, the saxophone quartet. The canons, on the other hand, included only two of the players for the entire piece. They traded musical material between each other in a lighter, less strictly contrapuntal way than in the fugues. Between the canons and the readings, there were plenty of opportunities to relax from trying to hear the interplay between the themes in the fugues.
Beyond the interesting music, the Brentano String Quartet provided an excellent and engaging concert in which they showed their skill and shared their extra-musical knowledge of the piece and those like it.
(04/27/17 1:39am)
I have never seen a film as big as director Abel Gance’s “Napoleon” (1927).
In light of the recent French elections, this movie — with its nationalist themes, cinematic innovations and durable quality — appears especially relevant.
A major factor in its nationalist themes is the film’s sheer scope: the reconstructed five-hour cut trembles beside the original 9-hour version; thousands of extras appear in hundreds of unique costumes in dozens of unique locations designed to evoke an unparalleled sense of grandeur. The film’s scope matches its subject matter: it depicts Napoleon Bonaparte’s charge of the biggest army in Europe through some of France’s greatest battles. The reconstruction has a fully orchestrated score featuring the most famous pieces from the historic era. Even the characters’ hats are too big for their heads. Compared to other epic dramas from this era like “Intolerance” (1916) and “Cabiria” (1914), “Napoleon” makes them look like Buster Keaton shorts.
Unlike with his previous efforts, which were set in the present day and tended to be critical of France, with “Napoleon” Gance creates a nationalist, historic epic to celebrate not only Napoleon, but his country as well. These motives become clear early in the film when Gance dramatizes the first singing of the French national anthem “La Marseillaise.” As a crowd of hundreds begins to sing the song, images of an eagle and a man waiving the French flag are superimposed on the screen. This scene lasts for the duration of the song, meaning that the piano accompanist in some of the original screenings would have been able to play “La Marseillaise” during it.
Beyond this central scene and the nationalist themes, the film offers a wealth of interesting cinematic techniques. A triptych (three screen) finale pre-empted most wide-screen formats by nearly 30 years. It is difficult to feel the full effect of the three screens on my computer, or even on a television screen, but the effect it has in a large theater must be profound. Even still, the moment when the screen widens represents a supreme dramatic push into the end of the story.
Originally, Gance meant for it to be part of a series of six film which would encompass Napoleon’s entire life. However, the sheer scale of this first film prevented the completion of the entire project, so the moment when the screen expands takes on extra importance because it is the biggest moment of the film.
Another interesting technique includes the use of extremely quick cuts, sometimes lasting less than a second, or only a few frames. Without the need to synchronize his images to a soundtrack, Gance was able to edit short shots together. The most prevalent example of this technique occurs in the opening scene, a snowball fight at the young Napoleon’s boarding school. This scene foreshadows a later part of the film where Napoleon and the children against which he is having the snowball fight challenge him in a real military battle. To emphasize their opposition, the film cuts between Napoleon’s face and his enemies faces at an extremely fast pace until his enemies are hit with snowballs. This technique shows up in other parts of the film at similarly narratively important or stressful times, and gives the film a greater sense of unity over its long run time.
“Napoleon” is an attempt to build French nationalism, an attempt to treat film in new ways, and an attempt to captivate its audience in its process. It succeeds on all fronts, becoming one of my favorite movies as it does. A DVD copy of this film is available in the library.
(04/21/17 5:08pm)
Sometimes the most intimate settings make for the most moving concerts. The spring piano recital by the students of Diana Fanning was one of those sometimes. The Music Department sponsored the concert which featured 10 students from all years who performed a wide variety of keyboard works. The concert was open to the entire Middlebury community.
The first performer, Chaeree Lee ’18, played the andante movement from W.A. Mozart’s K. 283 G Major sonata followed by Frederic Chopin’s Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34 No. 2. These slower pieces helped to start the concert well by putting the audience into a mood to listen. I enjoyed the Chopin waltz more because of how the waltz rhythm changed so much after the first minute or so. It is an interesting activity to try to hear the difference between a waltz for listening and a waltz for dancing.
Julien Souffrant ’19 performed Claude Debussy’s Reverie L 68. The popular TV show “Westworld” features this piece prominently in several important dramatic moments. Played in concert, it loses the dramatic connotations but none of the emotional catharsis
Laura Harris ’17 played Franz Schubert’s Impromptu in G-flat Major, Op. 90, No. 3, D. 899 and Alberto Ginastera’s Danza de la moa donosa from Danza Argentinas, Op. 2, which translates to “dance of the beautiful maiden.” Schubert’s Impromptus are counted among some of the finest pieces of solo piano music because of their soaring melodies, of which this piece is a fine example. The Ginastera piece reminded me a bit of the Debussy pieces in terms of how it did not seem to include motivic or contrapuntal devices but rather flowed naturally.
Tiansheng Sun ’20 shared Enrique Granados’ Quejas, O La Maya y el Ruisenor, which translates to “Laments,” or “the Maiden and the Nightingale.” I was again reminded of the Debussy pieces which came before and after.
Garrett Johnson ’20 played Claude Debussy’s La Cathedrale Engloutie from his first book of preludes, L 117, which translates to “the sunken cathedral.” Watching how this piece was played in person helped me gain a new perspective on it. It is difficult to hear the effect the low notes have on the higher notes in recordings. Hearing it in the concert hall, with the sound filling the room, helps to give a greater sense of what Debussy was trying to do (and succeeded in doing) with this piece.
Andrew Smith ’18 performed J.S. Bach’s Fugue IX in E Major, BWV 854 from the Well-Tempered Claiver, Book I and Johannes Brahms’ Intermezzo in B-Flat Minor, Op. 117. I felt that the intermezzo especially was one of the best pieces of the evening. For the past few weeks, I have listened to Glenn Gould’s Brahms recordings on repeat, but hearing it live makes all the difference in the world.
After a brief pause in the concert, it resumed with Junya Iwata’s ’19 playing of the Allegro from J.S. Bach’s Italian Concerto BWV 971 and Gabriel Faure’s Nocturne in A-Flat Major, Op. 33, No. 3. Both were played beautifully. After listening to so much impressionist work in the Debussy, it was refreshing to hear some French music in a more classical vein.
Gareth Cordery ’20 performed the third movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op.31, No. 3. It was Beethoven’s 18th piano sonata, which, along with Op. 49, represent the last entries in his catalogue, which come in sets. The piece has significant portions requiring crossing the hands, like many of the pieces on the program, but the ease and grace with which Gareth played those sections in this piece astounded me. He also performed Claude Debussy’s Les sons et parfums tournent dans l’air du soir and Les collines d’Anacapri, both from Book I of his Preludes, and they translate to “sounds and fragrances swirl through the evening air” and “the hills of Anacapri”, respectively.
Gloria Breck ’19 played the first movement of Dmitri Kabalevsky’s Sonata No. in F Major, Op. 46 and the third movement of Beethoven’s Sonata in E Major, Op. 109. I was again amazed by the quality of the playing, especially in the Kabalevsky. The storminess communicated in the first movement makes me want to explore this composer’s entire catalogue of works.
Finishing the concert after nearly two hours, Zach Blacker ’19 performed Chopin’s Ballade No. 3 in A-Flat Major, Op. 47. Like the Chopin played by Chaeree Lee ’19, the music felt fitting as a transition. The way in which the piece developed over the course of a few minutes blew me away. Overall, this concert was a great experience. I look forward to future concerts by these and other musicians.