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About the Course

The Lively Arts provides experience in the performing and visual arts through attendance at Fine Arts Center Performing Arts Series concerts of music and dance, as well as visits to University Gallery exhibitions of sculpture, photography, and drawings. Guest lecturers present weekly lectures about the structure and history of music (both classical and jazz), dance, theater, and visual arts. Discussion sections help students understand and apply information from weekly assignments, lectures, exhibitions, and concerts. The course is open to UMass students, Greenfield Community College students, and members of the community through Continuing Education.

Course Objectives:

1. Teach students to understand and (hopefully!) enjoy a diverse range of concerts and exhibitions.

2. Present an international view of the arts to help students learn to better appreciate the social and cultural differences of others.

3. Teach students the basic vocabulary and concepts used by jazz and classical musicians, ballet and modern dancers and choreographers, and sculptors and photographers.

4. Present each art form in historical perspective and teach students to distinguish the style of one historical period from that of another.

5. Bring students into direct, personal contact with musicians, artists and their work.

6. Help students improve their ability to write about the arts.

Topic Outline

A. "Classical" music

1. Musical language to describe tempo, dynamic level, style, form, and instrumentation
2. Concert and recital procedures
3. Strategies for listening: intellectual/analytical, emotional/affective
4. Musical periods and styles

B. African-American music and jazz

1. Jazz: "America's classical music"
2. The meaning of "improvisation"
3. Blues form and style
4. Slavery, spirituals, and gospel music
5. Periods and styles of jazz

C. Visual arts

1. Context and function
2. Constraints and qualities of media
3. From the human form to site-specific sculpture
4. A walking tour of campus site sculpture
5. Photography as an art form
6. Issues in photojournalism
7. Documentary photography in the 1930s: Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White, Aaron Siskind and Walker Evans

D. Dance

1. Elements of choreography
2. Techniques for relating choreography to music
3. Dance production: costumes, sets, and lighting
4. Kinesthetic communication
5. Historical periods and styles

E. Theater

1. Theatrical production: the process by which designers, directors, and actors
collaborate and interpret a script
2. Historical periods and styles

In addition to lectures and formal concerts, each semester The Lively Arts includes lecture-demonstrations by guest artists such as jazz artist Dr. Billy Taylor, cellist Julie Albers, pianist Jon Nakamatsu, and public artist Ross Miller.

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