Introduction!
Hello Everyone! My name is Matteya and I’m a third year music major. My main instrument is the violin but I also like to play the piano and guitar for fun! I grew up here in Vancouver and have lived here all my life. I hope to go to grad school elsewhere and eventually get a job in an orchestra and teach to violin aswell. In my free time I like to run, listen to music, and solve Rubik’s cubes.
In this course I hope to expand my extremely small knowledge of literature. I enjoy reading but tend to put it on the back burner of priorities when it comes to how I spend my time. I think that this course will reignite my love for reading and allow me to read new genres and books that I haven’t been exposed to before! I was never much of an English or Social Studies student in high school so I think that the contract grading system will relieve some of my anxiety when it comes to grades. Despite this, I find literature and many forms of personal expression to be really interesting. When it comes to media or things that people consume for entertainment, everyone has a different interpretation. No matter the intention of the author, performer, or creator, the audience is going to be affected in many different ways. I always try to connect what I learn in my different classes back to my music and my violin. I think that learning about the literature that comes from the places where a lot of western classical music was written will inform my playing and my interpretations. It also makes listening to music from a similar era, country, or historical situation much more interesting.
Last term I took AMNE 377 (Roman Art and Architecture) and to be honest it traumatized me a little bit. Despite my struggles in that course, now it’s interesting to hear the Roman Empire mentioned and how Romance Languages were derived. There was such a clear divide between the Romans and the Barbarians but it makes sense that after the fall of the Roman Empire that the two groups would eventually mingle. It’s also interesting to see that this is how the different Romance Languages were formed and developed because of the evolution of the languages in different regions.
I’m looking forward to this term and this class! Thanks for reading!
Hi Matteya!
The violin and guitar are instruments that produce truly beautiful sounds. I find that string instruments in particular, are extremely intricate. I have pretty small hands, so I struggled to learn string instruments but always admired those who could. I personally played the flute for about 5 years in band. What kickstarted your music career?
As well, I also have little knowledge on literature and I hope to gain a lot of new perspectives from this course. I look forward to the books that I will end up reading and maybe I will discover a new favourite. It’s nice to meet you!
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer,
Nice to meet you! Yes I agree, string instruments create such beautiful sounds! I love playing with the different types of colours I can get on the violin. I also have really small hands haha but I get by! I was going to major in comp sci but decided that I hated it and music was my back up. But I’m so grateful that I get to study music because it truly is my passion!
Hope to see you in class!
Matteya
Hello Matteya,
It’s nice to meet you! It’s cool that you come from a music background for this literature class – I think we can get a lot of new interesting viewpoints on literature when having knowledge of other creative fields by making connections between them. Do you listen to music while reading, or have it silent, or just with natural noise? Maybe the books weren’t written with a soundtrack in mind, but just as you say that appreciating the culture from the literature enhances the interpretation of music, thinking about what music would be relevant to the book and its ideas is cool too!
I also agree that the contract system helps alleviate the anxiety related to literature and grades. I feel like having the choice on how much you do is so important, and also the one-time opt-out existing as well, because it gives more of that security in the choices made.
Xavier
Hi Xavier,
Nice to meet you too! I think it depends on my environment. If I’m at home or in a quiet space I’d prefer to read with the silence but if I’m out and there are many things happening around me then I usually listen to some calm jazz music. Jazz is the only thing that I don’t find too distracting.
Yeah the contract system is something I’ve never seen before! It makes me much more excited for this course!
Hi Matteya, and welcome to RMST 202! I’m sorry to hear you were traumatized by Roman Art and Architecture… but in this course our aim is to tear down that Roman Empire! 🙂
Hi Matteya!
I love your approach in trying to connect your learnings back to your music, and believe this would actually make the learning process much more fun. I also liked how you mentioned that consumers can always have different interpretations and be affected differently, independent of the original purpose. I hope you get to enjoy this course 🙂