Fantasia: "Preliminary Research"

Waking up, I was still undecided between food and classical music. Although I leaned towards the latter topic, I was unsure if I would have enough resources to pursue it.

I perused the blogs of a few people interested in music on the ’08 Berlin trip—Levi Linsey’s was particularly interesting as he dealt with the differences between Seattle and Berlin in how each present opera. His methodology consisted of attending some performances and being a keen observer. Personal interactions seemed to play little role in his final blog posting (and presumably, paper).

Regarding classical music, I am more interested in the instrumental genre. I am also a musician, but am also the first to admit that my ear is embarrassingly underdeveloped (intonation isn’t too much of an issue on classical guitar). As instrumental performances don’t have as obvious of “sets,” I feel as though I will not be able to conduct a project based around comparisons of performances. In theory, I could try and compare only on the auditory aspect of musical performance (think about that one for a second), but that can be accomplished by sitting in a library all day with a CD player—plus, I already mentioned the issue with my ears.

To further dampen my spirits, I noticed that another student from the ’08 trip who originally pursued the topic of instrumental classical music ended up with a final project on swing dancing. I thought that maybe there wasn’t enough information out there to pursue a research project based around classical music.

Enter Shawn and Julie (or more accurately, I entered Julie’s office). I stipulated my situation, and they started filling me with ideas on how to pursue music. One intriguing suggestion put forth by Shawn is to look for “found music,” that is, walk around and try hard to notice the sounds surrounding you. Although this isn’t “classical music” per say, the idea of wandering around for the sake of getting lost and listening intrigues me. Julie also got me in contact with Manuela, who responded by giving me a wealth of people to read up on—some “classical,” some not.

As it stands, I think I will pursue the topic of music. Although I prefer looking at instrumental classical genres specifically, it is no longer a requirement—getting lost in other types of music is starting to appeal to me. Finally, my fear of not having enough sources to get information from has been dispelled.

Julie and Shawn were like surgeons yesterday—I came in with a problem, and they fixed me up in 30 minutes. So…a special thanks to you both, (Medical) Doctors Wong and Villegas.