Secondly, juries and finals are DONE! Let me sum up:
Monday: piano jury, Newton to Einstein final exam
Tuesday: Interpretive Analysis final exam, music history final exam
That's right, kids... once again, I've made it through another semester and I'm alive to tell the tale. All that's left now is my music history paper, which will be finished and turned in tomorrow. My violin jury was okay. Not great, but okay. The cadenza wasn't great at all. Maybe it wasn't even okay. But the Mozart in general was okay, and the Schumann, while less okay than the Mozart, was still okay. Oh, and Friday night after juries, I played at President Carlberg's house for the trustees' Christmas party. That was fun. Wes came too, and sang two Christmas-y songs, and Nathan came along and accompanied both of us. Then we all sang carols along with the party-goers. Mrs. Carlberg told stories of her childhood. And they fed us yummy dessert! It was great. So yeah, being the entertainment for yuppy rich people ain't bad at all.
My Newton to Einstein exam was pretty good. And I'm really happy, because they've already posted our final grades and I did WELL! Yes, that's right... the science class that I hated... I did well! Yay.
My piano jury was okay. Scary. I'm glad it's over. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'll continue taking piano lessons next semester. I like Dr. Polyakov a lot, but it's hard finding time to practice two instruments, be in choir, be in orchestra, be in chamber music, do well in classes, and have fun in life (that last item being, of course, the most important... heh).
My two final exams today were okay. Dr. Chung's final was scary and pretty hard... I missed at least half of the chord progressions in the dictation portion. Dr. Pelkey's final was hard, too, and kind of unfair, just because it didn't remotely reflect what we've learned and talked about this quad. I mean, we've basically only talked about Schoenberg, which is also frustrating, because Schoenberg is by no means representative of all that's going on in the twentieth century, and also because I don't even like Schoenberg. Anyway, the final was all these essay questions about neoclassicism and about French Impressionism vs. German Expressionism, and about social and historical and technological contexts, and about music post-1945, and blah blah blah. I felt like I knew most of it, I guess. But not really from class. Then there was the score analysis part, and that part was just annoying. I don't believe people who think you can discern great wisdom and enlightenment by doing a melodic contour analysis of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. I think they're just making it up. And that's what I did on the exam - I just made things up. It'll be extra funny if I get a good grade on that portion. I tried to say just the sorts of things that musicologists say. I did some number class analysis too, and said things that sounded good but that I didn't really believe, such as "Here Schoenberg employs frequent use of tones 2, 4, and 6, thus outlining a triad, although obscured by chromatic alterations, octave displacement, and intermediary tones." Heehee.
In the middle of the music history exam, as we were all analyzing our scores, Dr. Pelkey stepped out of the room for a minute. At that point, I calmly announced, "Schoenberg is poop." I don't really know what came over me; I just said it. Everybody laughed; I think it's what everyone was thinking. Or maybe not... I suppose it's possible that a person or two in that class really like Schoenberg. Anyway, I said it. Heh.
Anyway, now I'm writing my paper. It's about Shostakovich. It's super.
And on Friday, I get to go home. And soon, it will be Christmas. I love Christmas. I just love it. I love Christmas because I love Jesus, you see... I'm serious.
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