Thursday, November 18, 2010
Applications!
It's hard to believe that several of my applications are nearing completion. It's crazy to essentially see the the fruition of all your work for 12 years just off ahead. I feel like I've almost got my supplements for the UC's done (so thats 4 out of sixteen schools down), and I've also finished the "Find X" supplement for U of Chicago. I've gotta say, thought that essay was gonna be an abysmal struggle, but it ended up being an excellent opportunity for me to give a little insight to who I am. Hopefully I'll be able to keep that theme constant throughout the rest of my essay prompts, supplements or short answer. My next step I suppose would be to finalize my UC Apps before the system crashes, and submit those essays for one of the scholarships Tenesha informed me of, interestingly enough, the prompts are exactly the same, word for word. Beyond that I've just got to keep working on supplements and fill out the few individual seperate applications that are independent of the Common App. All in all its a crazy process, I can't wait to see how it all turns out, so I guess I'm gonna buckle down over break and really put some quality into these essays.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Tragedy Creation
As the date grows nearer where our tragedy piece is due, I'm leaning more away from making my musical representation of tragedy as a guitar piece, towards making an electronic, progressive house or trance track. I feel like certain progressive house riffs and and most trance riffs carry lots of emotion, especially comparison to guitar riffs. I'm not saying I don't believe one can create tragic music with a guitar, I just believe the certain styles of electronic music can carry more poignant sounds. A progressive house artist whose style I will be attempting to emulate to some extent is 'Deadmau5'.
This is a track by deadmau5 that is a good representation of what I am attempting to create: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrZX8Y49xMY
I hope to be able to create a piece that fluidly integrates both major and minor riffs, and some that hover somewhere inbetween. Through the fluctuation in major and minor sounds I hope to create music that aptly represents and can be interpreted as tragic. I believe progressive house more than trance carries the minor emotions associated with tragedy, as trance tends to be more uplifting or energetic, although both are usually emotionally powerful.
This is a track by deadmau5 that is a good representation of what I am attempting to create: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrZX8Y49xMY
I hope to be able to create a piece that fluidly integrates both major and minor riffs, and some that hover somewhere inbetween. Through the fluctuation in major and minor sounds I hope to create music that aptly represents and can be interpreted as tragic. I believe progressive house more than trance carries the minor emotions associated with tragedy, as trance tends to be more uplifting or energetic, although both are usually emotionally powerful.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Tragedy Essay
Below is an excerpt from my essay on tragedy delineating what I believe to be the perfect tragedy. Any feedback (whether it be on the writing itself, or my ideas) is more than welcome, and greatly appreciated.
"I believe the perfect tragedy is one that particularly resonates with the audience, because when a member of the audience can directly relate the tragedy to an event or pattern in their own life, it will resonate with them on a much deeper level. I believe a tragic hero that is of great importance and great fame isn’t a very relatable character to most people, considering most people aren’t famous, for if they were, fame would mean nothing and cease to exist. It is here that I take issue with Socrates’ and Aristotle’s approach to the perfect tragedy. I believe that the perfect tragedy is one centered around the common man; in this sense, I side with Arthur Miller. This is because, clearly, the character relatable to the vast majority of people, is the ‘common man’. I also agree with Miller that the tragic hero (the common man) should be eventually forced into a situation where he must choose between himself and his principles/morals, that results in him sacrificing himself for what he believes in. I say this because it a tragedy where this occurs teaches morality and loyalty to oneself through the tragedy. This facet of what I believe to make up the perfect tragedy is also in alignment with most of ancient Greek tragedy (and what Socrates and Aristotle believed to be the perfect tragedy) in the sense that the audience learns a valuable lesson they without having to go through a detrimental experience themselves. Finally, I believe that tragedy is greatly enhanced when a layer of irony is added. This is where I believe that Ibsen touched on a key facet of creating the perfect tragedy. Ibsen stated that tragedy should be about those who were doomed from the start; born into a world they had no control over, and were judged negatively for not being able to take control. This is a very extreme version of irony, but the fact that the tragic hero never had any actually chance at success, no matter how hard they struggle, makes the story all the more tragic and poignant."
I attempted to thoroughly relate my ideas to the opinions of great authors and my those connections eminent. I also tried to make the ideas flow in a logical and easy to process way. So if anyone should like to give me feedback on those things specifically, I would be very grateful.
"I believe the perfect tragedy is one that particularly resonates with the audience, because when a member of the audience can directly relate the tragedy to an event or pattern in their own life, it will resonate with them on a much deeper level. I believe a tragic hero that is of great importance and great fame isn’t a very relatable character to most people, considering most people aren’t famous, for if they were, fame would mean nothing and cease to exist. It is here that I take issue with Socrates’ and Aristotle’s approach to the perfect tragedy. I believe that the perfect tragedy is one centered around the common man; in this sense, I side with Arthur Miller. This is because, clearly, the character relatable to the vast majority of people, is the ‘common man’. I also agree with Miller that the tragic hero (the common man) should be eventually forced into a situation where he must choose between himself and his principles/morals, that results in him sacrificing himself for what he believes in. I say this because it a tragedy where this occurs teaches morality and loyalty to oneself through the tragedy. This facet of what I believe to make up the perfect tragedy is also in alignment with most of ancient Greek tragedy (and what Socrates and Aristotle believed to be the perfect tragedy) in the sense that the audience learns a valuable lesson they without having to go through a detrimental experience themselves. Finally, I believe that tragedy is greatly enhanced when a layer of irony is added. This is where I believe that Ibsen touched on a key facet of creating the perfect tragedy. Ibsen stated that tragedy should be about those who were doomed from the start; born into a world they had no control over, and were judged negatively for not being able to take control. This is a very extreme version of irony, but the fact that the tragic hero never had any actually chance at success, no matter how hard they struggle, makes the story all the more tragic and poignant."
I attempted to thoroughly relate my ideas to the opinions of great authors and my those connections eminent. I also tried to make the ideas flow in a logical and easy to process way. So if anyone should like to give me feedback on those things specifically, I would be very grateful.
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