My semesters always seem to taper off in a haze, with foot still mashing the pedal to the ground.
I'm currently working on my last final, a Philosophy paper examining the last century of concert music development in terms of Nietzsche's Apollinian and Dionysiac elements of artistic creation and human experience. Art music has been weird with this sort of thing. It seems like after Mahler 9, the door holding the Dionysiac in was blown of its hinges, despite the fact that the approach to music as sound event construction that occurred with Modernism seems to have its roots in Strauss' tone poems and even earlier, in Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique." That's Berlioz for you, the first avant-garde composer. And he used 'opium' as the excuse for this approach (and possibly its inspiration...)
This semester has been hard and grueling, and I haven't even had any shows yet. Next semester will be my hardest yet: 3 shows, 19 credits, travelling with Essence, reprogramming The Classical Hour on The Lion, still working, quite a few pieces (including an opera libretto), and hopefully keeping my weight down.
I'm highly anticipating graduation, although, and I really hate to say it, I've kind of taken to the party scene a bit. Not a whole lot (I'm not going to tear brick enforced maps out of the ground or take my pants off in public (yes, I've seen both happen here)), but enough to dull me out a bit. In a way, it's a good thing to put that backpack down for a few hours; at times, it's even helped me refocus. But at the same time, it hasn't really done anything else positive or negative for me. Well, yes, I slept through my radio show on Sunday. But I was also up until 4:30 for three or four nights in a row working on an English paper. So, yeah... That, and my sore throat, were already a long time coming.
Do I regret any of that? My paper came out great, and I'm (mostly) enjoying myself, so no. The only thing I regret is not being able to compose because of papers. But then, that's because of papers. Hopefully, my ideas will gestate and burst out of me as soon as I finish this last paper.
I guess that's what my haze looks like: droplets of papers, and projects, and classes, etc. etc. And what's being left out of my vision? I don't know where I'm going to be in a year, and that frightens me a bit. Quite a bit. So I'm overworking myself to ignore that (and the dull world around me). I just hope the haze doesn't clear up too late...
Here's what I leave you with. Enjoy.
I'm currently working on my last final, a Philosophy paper examining the last century of concert music development in terms of Nietzsche's Apollinian and Dionysiac elements of artistic creation and human experience. Art music has been weird with this sort of thing. It seems like after Mahler 9, the door holding the Dionysiac in was blown of its hinges, despite the fact that the approach to music as sound event construction that occurred with Modernism seems to have its roots in Strauss' tone poems and even earlier, in Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique." That's Berlioz for you, the first avant-garde composer. And he used 'opium' as the excuse for this approach (and possibly its inspiration...)
This semester has been hard and grueling, and I haven't even had any shows yet. Next semester will be my hardest yet: 3 shows, 19 credits, travelling with Essence, reprogramming The Classical Hour on The Lion, still working, quite a few pieces (including an opera libretto), and hopefully keeping my weight down.
I'm highly anticipating graduation, although, and I really hate to say it, I've kind of taken to the party scene a bit. Not a whole lot (I'm not going to tear brick enforced maps out of the ground or take my pants off in public (yes, I've seen both happen here)), but enough to dull me out a bit. In a way, it's a good thing to put that backpack down for a few hours; at times, it's even helped me refocus. But at the same time, it hasn't really done anything else positive or negative for me. Well, yes, I slept through my radio show on Sunday. But I was also up until 4:30 for three or four nights in a row working on an English paper. So, yeah... That, and my sore throat, were already a long time coming.
Do I regret any of that? My paper came out great, and I'm (mostly) enjoying myself, so no. The only thing I regret is not being able to compose because of papers. But then, that's because of papers. Hopefully, my ideas will gestate and burst out of me as soon as I finish this last paper.
I guess that's what my haze looks like: droplets of papers, and projects, and classes, etc. etc. And what's being left out of my vision? I don't know where I'm going to be in a year, and that frightens me a bit. Quite a bit. So I'm overworking myself to ignore that (and the dull world around me). I just hope the haze doesn't clear up too late...
Here's what I leave you with. Enjoy.
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