Identify and explain at least one result from this influence. What artist or artists have had the greatest impact on the arts? According to research, what do you believe to be the most defining moment in the history of the arts? Identify the time period and discuss what was happening at that time and place that may have contributed to the production of their work. What are some modern examples of how the arts are reflected or influenced by culture? Discuss at least two examples of your own and include one example from the lecture video. Clearly explain the arts/culture relationship for each of your examples in order to convey a successful understanding. Be sure to include specific examples and elaborate on your comments as detailed in the Discussion Forum Requirements. This forum should be considered a formal writing assignment in addition to a class discussion. Include terms from your textbook. Research (outside of the required course readings) is required, so be sure to document your resources. Cinema-The motion picture, like other arts, is a vehicle of creative expression, and no study of the humanities is complete without including the me- dium. It is the most collaborative art form, involving many contributors. (think of those closing credits!) After each weekend, box office rankings of current films are re- ported in newspapers and on televi- sion; such information is seldom given concerning art gallery open- ings or the premiere performance of a new musical composition. Further evidence of public attachment to film can be found each year when nominations and awards in the in- dustry are announced. Most of the early part of the Academy Awards ? Movie poster for Up in the Air, 2009 telecast is spent honoring editors, sound mixers, composers of back- ground scores, costumers, and oth- ers who toil behind the camera and are frequently overlooked. But for at least one night the public is aware that film is indeed the most collab- orative of all the arts. When all of the participants somehow blend their talents, the result may be a film classic with a wide following for years to come. Films on DVD allow viewers to follow scene by scene the choices made by directors in achieving an effect. They are thus able to under- stand the reasoning behind camera angles, music or its lack, and, for astute critical viewers, even the Chapter9 compromises between the final product as shown on the screen and what the director may have origi- nally intended. Documentaries that often accompany the film itself en- courage critical analysis, showing viewers behind?the?scenes activities that contributed to the creative pro- cess itself. This chapter begins with a dis- cussion of the various elements, or conventions, of the cinema; for only by understanding their function can we view a film more critically and, if all goes well, with greater enjoy- ment. Next come milestones in early film history, followed by an analysis of some popular film genres. ***Music -We live within an audio environment that is most of the time unplanned. That is, we hear what happens to be around, whether it is a jet taking off, the squeal of auto brakes, a hair dryer, or an approaching train. Noise has been around forever. Mammoths were probably sending forth bellows at the moment human awareness was first forming. The majority of the worlds population still exists at the mercy of unwanted noise. Without music, we exist at the mercy of audio pollution as damag- ing to mental health as air and water pollution are damaging to physical health. Created by instruments or human voices, music can be defined as the shaped sound between silences: the better the shape, the richer and more pleasing the sound. Just as visual art offers a wide variety of shapes and forms to provide an en- riched visual environment, music has many sounds: Bach, Mozart, Gershwin, Armstrong, Sinatra, the Beatles, Maroon 5. Limiting our- selves to one kind of music is as det- rimental to growth as if we were never to set foot outside our house ? Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians, 1921 and discover the unlimited life expe- riences waiting out there. Many sounds in the natural world are like music: the song of birds, a mountain stream, gently fall- ing rain, wind over the prairie. The desire to imitate pleasing natural sound seems to be intrinsic to our species. Whistling can remind us of bird song (and note how we refer to the sound of birds in musical terms). The soothing sound of a flowing brook has inspired many composers. The Finnish composer Jan Sibelius wrote Tapiola, an orchestral work in which the strings recreate the sound of wind in a forest. In The Birds, the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi has the orchestra imitating the vari- ous songs and calls of different spe- cies. Composers recognize the affinity between nature and music. Most ancient cultures shared the belief that music was a vital compo- nent of the natural world, a gift from heavenly beings. One theory is that for very early people natural sounds were the voices of the gods, and hu- man song was developed to imitate their voices. In popular idiom, we Chapter 6 sometimes hear comments such as She sings like an angel. Whether or not one believes the mythology of musical origins, music appears to be vital to the human spirit. Is it possible to imagine what life would be like without it? Music is one of the endless treasures bestowed upon us by the humanities, and we are fortunate that, as this art form developed over the millennia, it di- vided into endless varieties. The purpose of this chapter is to encourage you to explore the wide range of musical sound. Some of it is recognized as part of the worlds ar- tistic heritage. Some of it is still very new and may achieve that distinction one day. (Its fun to predict what will.) We will first separate music into its component elements, then describe some of its major, and widely differing, forms, together with some suggested works from the past and present as well as from other cultures that may offer us a more well?rounded musical life. As in any introductory text, the process is necessarily selective. We attempt to open the door of musical recognition a little wider. *Literature-Who has not greatly elaborated on an incident that occurred, embellished with more excitement, more color than it had? In this sense, we are all born story?tellers. A few become professionals at it, but everyone can become involved in what others write and thus share their imaginations. Alas, however, some begin to lose interest and leave all that behind when theyre out of school and going off to their daily jobs. To those people we issue an ar- dent plea. Go back and look for your imagination. Youve left it some- where. But you cant ever really lose it. Maybe its hiding in a drawer along with the missing snapshots of you lying on a baby rug. How did it all start? What was the first kind of literature? Our guess is that the literary impulse was being felt long before there were written lan- guages to preserve the earliest expres- sions of it. In the visual arts, there are cave drawings that date back thou- sands of years prior to the beginning of history. Using our imaginations (which we just found in that drawer), we can suppose that early (very early) people were dancing, chanting, and pounding away with stones and sticks. And there ? Marc Chagall, The Juggler of Paris, 1969 music and dance! It is hard to imagine, however, that some form of literature did not happen along with these other arts. Lets assume that people are natu- ral?born poets and storytellers (and by natural progression, readers) and therefore there is no good reason to look upon literature as something locked away in libraries. Well look at a few examples of the major types, or genres, of literature: the poem, the novel, and the short story. Well see how they might have evolved, and the needs they may have served. Well discuss drama, a major genre of literature, in Chapter 7. Some of the works we shall study are classics, in the sense that they have outlived their time and con- tinue to be relevant. Some have earned the right to be called master- pieces. The more recent must wait a bit for such classification. A masterpiece is a work that in style, execution, and resonance far exceeds what other writers were do- ing at the same time. For example, though many sonnets were success- ful in Shakespeares time, many of his sonnets tower above those of his contemporaries in profundity, so- Chapte4r phistication of technique (handling of meter and rhyme), and the intri- cate use of words contained in what may be the largest vocabulary of any writer of the past or the present. Much of our wisdom springs from the memorable statements in his po- ems and plays. Many classics are also master- pieces, but they dont always have to be. Time and circumstances give continuing relevance to a classic. A masterpiece can always stand on its own, and it will find admirers in any age. Sometimes a masterpiece such as Herman Melvilles Moby- Dick (1850) is not recognized until much later. In the case of Melville, recognition came with a review published in 1924thirty?three years after Melvilles death. This chapter addresses itself to literature of the past and present which springs from the soul of hu- man beings and through which we come to understand ourselves and others with whom we share the amazing condition of being alive. We are going to discuss a few representa- tive works that have achieved literary distinction, some well known, others less familiar but with much to offer. The imaginative world of great literature gives human life another dimension. Janaro, Richard, Thelma Altshuler. The Art of Being Human: The Humanities as a Technique for Living, 10th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions. VitalBook file. Textbook is one source need two
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