Until I find a better place for these things, I'll put them here. They will likely be related to teaching and research at Allegheny, in some way.
Todesfuge, Bach, and Penderecki
Prepared for presentation on March 2nd, 2009 in Jaclyn Kurash's Intermediate German course.
At right, Bach's fugue in G minor as captured by HungryBackspace on Flickr.
Fugal Structure in the Todesfuge
Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken sie abends
wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie nachts
wir trinken und trinken
This haunting poem by Paul Celan gives us pause. Titled "Deathfugue," the author references a musical term: fuge in the German, fuga in the Italian, or fugue in the English. Understanding the meaning of the word fugue will help us understand the structure of the poem.
A fugue introduces a musical theme, which is then repeated in multiple "voices" throughout the piece. By "voice," I mean a melodic line, not necessarily someone singing. To understand this, we might first look at a fugue written by J.S. Bach, an incredibly prolific composer whose musical works help define the very nature of Western music.
What does a fugue sound like? That may not help some of you. So, lets both look and listen. The following is Bach's Fugue in G minor, or the "Little Fugue."
You are probably more familiar with the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, also by Bach. The fugue comes in at 2:45 into the piece. You can either listen/watch your way through (it's fun), or just jump ahead.
Emotion and Expression in the Todesfuge
Music and poetry are not only about structure. They are complex forms that are used to convey ideas and emotion as well.
Krystof Penderecki is a Polish composer and conductor. During the 1996-1997 academic year, I had the opportunity to get to know the Agnus Dei from his Polish Requiem as a baritone in the Kenyon College Chamber Singers. The Agnus Dei is an incredibly haunting movement of a remarkable piece of music. You can read an about an interview with Penderecki from 1998 if you would like to know more about this work, or his Wikipedia page to learn more about the composer.
The piece builds slowly, using discordance and a choir split into far more than four parts to build, withdrawal, and then build again to a massive cacophony (approximately 5 minutes in... but listen to the whole piece), reflecting the pain and suffering of the Polish people during the 20th century. Instead of attempting to describe the piece, you can watch a video of Penderecki conducting the piece himself.
As there is a fair amount of hiss in the YouTube recording, I also have an MP3 available if you know the password.
sad (definition)
adj sad·der, sad·dest
- Watching funny movies by yourself: "I signed up for British Comedy in Translation as my FS, but didn't attend any of the group movie showings. It was sad."
- Bonsai Kittens
Opportunities in Open Source
Prepared as notes for a presentation to the ACCEL team, September 2009.
I am interested in providing authentic learning experiences for my students that translate into real-world opportunities. This summer, I had the opportunity to see new ways that I might engage as faculty in Computing with students and the college in a timely, cross-disciplinary context.
Background
During my the summer I had the opportunity to join seven other faculty at Red Hat HQ for a one-week workshop regarding the use of open source software projects in the academy.
[ RED HAT ] A Fortune 500 company. They sell services surrounding Linux.
[ LINUX ] An operating system, which makes it like Windows. A critical difference is that Linux is written by (literally) tens of thousands of volunteers around the planet.
[ OPEN SOURCE ] Software (or other content) for which the code (or original source) is freely available. See also the CREATIVE COMMONS.
The workshop was called POSSE (Professors' Open Source Summer Experience). We worked with engineers at Red Hat as well as faculty from institutions around the world, learning the tools and community processes that surround open source projects. The revelation for me was that these large, open source projects (Firefox is an excellent example) are not just about code: documentation, PR, and many other aspects of their operation are managed in an open manner.
Open Source as Service
Contributing to open source projects is fundamentally an exercise in community service. However, very real skills must be developed to take part in these projects. Contributors must:
- Learn to communicate with the community. Some projects make heavy use of wikis. Some use weblogs. Some use IRC (think AIM chat, but with lots of people at the same time). Yet others rely heavily on mailing lists. Any participant must communicate using the tools of the community they are joining.
[ WIKI ] A website that can be easily updated within the web browser.
[ WEBLOG ] An on-line journal of thoughts and ideas, typically chronological.
[ IRC ] Group chat. Like AIM or Facebook Chat, but with lots of people at the same time. - Learn the tools of the community. Some communities use bug tracking tools to focus all of their efforts. Others use to-do managers and wikis. Most use some kind of tool for tracking changes. In all cases, it is up to the participant to use the tools of the community if they are going to participate fully.
[ BUG TRACKER ] A special tool that allows people to track errors in documents, and keep track of whether anyone is working on fixing the problem. Also called a TICKETING SYSTEM or PROBLEM REPORTING SOFTWARE.
[ TRACKING CHANGES ] In the community, often called "version control." Many specific tools (RCS, CVS, SVN, git, hg) are referred to, but they all mean "something to track incremental changes in a project." - Contribute. Communities value participation. If you don't contribute, you're not a member of the community.
- Listen and learn. While it is important to contribute, it also matters that you have paid attention to the community, the discussions, and learned from them.
[ DISCUSSIONS ] Also sometimes called ARGUMENTS, FLAME FESTS, or DEBATES. Every community has a different feel. Some are very direct; others, more warm-and-fuzzy. However, time is precious: most are concise to the point of critical—if you're not used to that kind of on-line environment, that is.
My point in sharing this list is to underscore a point about authenticity. Getting involved in open projects is not very different from the kinds of activities that take place in the workplace today. Electronic communication and collaboration are new foundational skills for our students, and we rarely address them in the curriculum. Taking part in open software and documentation processes provides students with opportunities to learn in real-world contexts. (Not to belabor the point, but when Red Hat is hiring software engineers, candidates must be able to point to open source projects they have contributed to in the past. If the candidate cannot, they probably will not get past the first round of review in the hiring process.)
Looking Forward
My goal in talking with ACCEL is to discuss ways we might leverage my experiences at POSSE here at Allegheny College. Talking with the team at ACCEL feels like a natural starting point for discussing the opportunities that exist in this space, and ways we might collaborate on going forward to pursue those opportunities for our students.
