COMMUNITY CALENDAR ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE NOV/DEC 2013 SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
VOL. 6.13
The Manhattan Piano Trio Friday, November 8 7:30 p.m.
In this Issue: Dean’s Lecture and Concert Series, Community Seminar, Concerts, Theatre, Graduate Institute, Bookstore
What’s past is prologue — William Shakespeare
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DEAN’S LECTURE AND CONCERT SERIES Please join us for the fall 2013 Dean’s Lecture and Concert Series. All lectures and concerts are free and open to the public and are followed by a questionand-answer period.
Rousseau’s Chemical Apprenticeship Friday, November 1, 7:30 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Christopher Kelly, professor of political science, Boston College Rousseau is usually thought of as a critic of modern science, but he devoted several years of his life to the study of chemistry. This lecture will explore the issues in chemistry that interested him and make some suggestions about the importance of this study to his mature thought. Christopher Kelly is professor of political science at Boston College. He received his doctorate from the University of Toronto and has taught at Yale, Georgetown, Dartmouth, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is the co-editor of The Collected Writings of Rousseau and the author of Rousseau’s Exemplary Life and Rousseau as Author. Recently he co-edited The Challenge of Rousseau.
Max Planck’s Cosmic Harmonium Wednesday, November 6, 3:15 p.m. Junior Common Room, Peterson Student Center Peter Pesic, tutor emeritus and musician in residence, St. John’s College, Santa Fe In 1893, Max Planck, newly appointed professor of physics in Berlin, was seconded to study the department’s Eitz harmonium, capable of dividing an octave into 104 steps. An accomplished musician, Planck learned to play this new instrument and used it to devise experiments in musical temperament— the only experiments he ever conducted in a career devoted to theoretical work. Planck’s “experiments” consisted of short musical compositions testing whether or not singers would revert to “natural” (just) tuning as opposed to the equal-tempered scale in common use. His surprising results contradicted his expectations and those of his teacher Hermann von Helmholtz: the habit of equal temperament was stronger than the pull of “natural” temperament. The following year (1894), the “black year” of German physics, left Planck the only surviving professor in his department through the premature deaths of Heinrich Hertz and August Kundt. Planck then turned to the problem of blackbody radiation, for which his musical experiments prepared him by alerting him to the power of habitual assumptions as well as by providing him the detailed example of a harmonium with tunable resonators, comparable
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to Hertzian oscillators. The modes of electromagnetic waves in a cavity have many analogies with the problems of tuning and temperament that Planck had just studied. His investigations of universal “natural” temperament led directly to his work proposing a new “natural” tuning of atomic resonators, from which Planck drew the consequence of a truly universal “natural” system of cosmic units. Peter Pesic is tutor emeritus and musician in residence at St. John’s College, Santa Fe. He attended Harvard and Stanford, obtaining a doctorate in physics. He has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Mr. Pesic also is a visiting scholar at Harvard University.
Sex, Wine, and War Wednesday, November 13, 3:15 p.m. Junior Common Room, Peterson Student Center Lynda Myers, tutor, St. John’s College, Santa Fe This lecture with slides is an introduction to Aristophanic comedy through its depiction in ancient Greek art. Lynda Myers earned a bachelor of arts degree from St. John’s College in 1971, master of arts degrees from the University of North Carolina and from Catholic University of America in 1975 and 1991, respectively, and a doctorate from Catholic University in 1996. She joined the faculty of St. John’s College, Santa Fe, in 1977, and served as director of the Graduate Institute in Liberal Education from 1985 through 1988.
Film as Liberal Art: Reading Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Friday, November 15, 3:15 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Faculty Panel In 1937, in part of the original statement of the New Program, Scott Buchanan observed that movies “... hold the position that was held once by Greek tragedy, the Roman forum and circus, the medieval church ceremonies, the palace arts in the Renaissance, and the opera of the nineteenth century...
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They are increasingly calling on all the cultural resources that we can recover, including even the classics in the sense that we are using them.” If Buchanan is right, it is more important than ever in the 21st century world of media bombardment that we learn how to deliberately and consciously cultivate the art of watching, not as passive reception, but as an active engagement with complex and rewarding texts. To this end, a group of tutors will explore Coppola’s The Godfather from a number of different perspectives, including use of the closeup, montage, lighting and camera angle, acting, scene and stage setting, and plotting and scenario.
The Age of Chronos and the Age of Zeus Friday, November 22, 7:30 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Janet Dougherty, tutor, St. John’s College, Santa Fe Plato’s Statesman contains one of the oddest of Plato’s stories, and the story provides the key to the dialogue. After giving a summary of the story, Janet Dougherty will argue that its two parts, describing first the divinely governed age of Chronos and then the deteriorating age of Zeus, correspond to the two parts of the dialogue before and after the story is presented. Statesmanship belongs to the latter age, which includes our own. Dialectic, as the Stranger sees it, must combine the method of division that corresponds to the Chronion age with striving for the good, which belongs to the needy age in which arts are pursued. Dialectic is that for which the whole conversation, it turns out, is pursued. She will conclude with some reflections on the Stranger’s sense of dialectic and its implications for the trial of Socrates that is the dramatic sequel to the Statesman. Janet Dougherty earned a bachelor of arts degree from Yale College in 1974 and master of arts and doctorate degrees from Harvard University in 1980. Before joining the faculty of St. John’s College, Santa Fe, in 1985, she held a number of academic positions, including teaching fellow in government at Harvard College and assistant professor of political science at Stonehill College. She also received a one-year French government fellowship.
Language, Thinking, and Acting Wednesday, December 11, 3:15 p.m. Junior Common Room, Peterson Student Center Corinne Hutchinson (SF03) This lecture will examine the relationship between language and the way people think and act. In particular, it will involve revisiting the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in light of recent research by professional linguists. A 2003 graduate of St. John’s College, Santa Fe, Corinne Hutchinson taught English for a year at Masaryk University in Brno in Czech Republic and went on to study linguistics at Georgetown University, where she recently received her doctorate. Her dissertation focused on the language use of Navajo children in a small New Mexico community
Good citizenship would teach accuracy of thinking and accuracy of statement. — MARK TWAIN, SPEECH, 14 MAY 1908
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COMMUNITY SEMINARS Community Seminars are special opportunities for community members to read and discuss seminal works in the same unique manner as do our students. Seminars are discussion based and small in size in order to ensure spirited dialogue. There are topics to pique every interest, and for many participants the discussion-based learning model is an entirely new experience. To register for the final fall seminar described below, please call 505-9846109 or use our online registration form. Teachers with proof of employment can enroll in a Community Seminar at a 50-percent discount. Community Seminars are free to 11th and 12th grade high school students (limited spaces available).
Three Early Films by Terrence Malick: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line Tutor: David Carl Dates/Times: Friday, November 22, 5-7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, November 23 and 24, 10 a.m.-noon Cost: $105 Malick’s Tree of Life exploded on the movie world in 2011 when it won the Palme d’Or in Cannes and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography for the 2012 Academy Awards. In the international film magazine Sight and Sound, 16 critics voted Tree of Life one of the 10 greatest films ever made, and it was ranked as one of the 100 greatest films ever made in the magazine’s overall poll. But before Tree of Life, Malick made a series of movies that first established his reputation as one of America’s most important filmmakers. Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978), and, after a 20-year hiatus, The Thin Red Line (1998) marked Malick as one of the most original and searching independent directors in the United States. We will spend the weekend charting the formal and thematic development of the first 25 years of Malick’s career to better understand the artist who produced Tree of Life 13 years later. Please view all three of these films on your own before attending class. We will only watch selected scenes from the movies to facilitate discussion.
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Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice. — WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
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LUNCHTIME CONCERTS Music of the 20th Century Friday, November 1, 12:10 -1:10 p.m. Junior Common Room, Peterson Student Center Peter Pesic, piano Tutor emeritus and musician-in-residence Peter Pesic presents a program of works for piano that features Stravinsky’s Sérénade en La (1925), Schoenberg’s Five Pieces, op. 23 (1923), and Kirchner’s Piano Sonata no. 1 (1948). Friday, December 6, 12:10 -1:10 p.m. Junior Common Room, Peterson Student Center Peter Pesic, piano Musician-in-resident Peter Pesic continues his tour of music of the 20th century with a program that features Chopin’s Études op. 10, no. 1–4 and Ballade in G minor, op. 23, and Debussy’s Deux Arabesques (1888) and Suite bergamasque (1890–1905). Peter Pesic is a tutor and musician in residence at St. John’s College, Santa Fe. He attended Harvard and Stanford, obtaining a doctorate in physics. He has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Mr. Pesic also is a visiting scholar at Harvard University. There is no charge for this concert.
EVENING CONCERTS The Manhattan Piano Trio Friday, November 8, 7:30 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Wayne Lee, violin Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, cello Milana Strezeva, piano The highly acclaimed Manhattan Piano Trio returns to St. John’s College. The group will perform the Piano Trio in E-flat major, Hob. XV:31, by Joseph Haydn; Piano Trio no. 2 in C major, op. 87, by Johannes Brahms; and Piano Trio in G minor, op. 15, by Benrich Smetana. The Manhattan Piano Trio has been hailed by critics as one of the most creative, exciting, and dynamic young ensembles in America. The Trio embodies, in the deepest sense, the borough that is its namesake: these three
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American musicians represent starkly different backgrounds, and yet connect on a fundamental level to enjoy making music together. Wayne Lee, violinist, is a native of San Francisco; Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, cellist, was born in Reykjavik, Iceland; and Milana Strezeva, pianist, is originally from Chisinau, Moldova. All completed graduate degrees at the Juilliard School. Shortly after its formation in 2004, the Manhattan Piano Trio captured grand prizes at the Plowman Competition and the Yellow Springs Competition and received the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Listeners’ Choice Award at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. Since then, MPT has carved out its niche by performing concerts in a wide range of settings, from major concert halls around the country to venues in smaller cities. Strongly committed to educating new generations of musicians and music lovers, the Manhattan Piano Trio enjoys communicating with its audiences through both music and commentary. In addition to maintaining a rigorous concert schedule, the members of MPT are teachers, soloists, and recitalists who have performed internationally.
There is no charge for this concert.
Holiday Music from 17th and 18th Century Europe Friday, December 6, 7:30 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center Ellen Hargis, soprano Carla Moore, violin John Dornenburg, viola da gamba Jillon Stoppels Dupree, harpsichord Four early music superstars celebrate the season with French and English carols, Spanish Villancico, and Scarlatti and Telemann Christmas cantatas. Soprano Ellen Hargis is one of America’s premier early music singers, specializing in repertoire ranging from ballads to opera and oratorio. She has performed with the world’s foremost period music conductors and orchestras, been featured in successive seasons of the Boston Early Music Festival, and also performed at many of the leading festivals in the United States and abroad. Hargis teaches voice at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and is associate director of the Young Artists Training Program for the Boston Early Music Festival. She also is an artist in residence with the Newberry Consort at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, directs Early Music Vancouver’s annual Vancouver Baroque Vocal Programme, and is a stage director in residence with Chicago’s Haymarket Opera Company. Carla Moore enjoys exploring and performing the repertoire for baroque violin. A California Bay Area resident since joining the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in 1991, she serves as one of Philharmonia’s concertmasters and soloists as well as concertmaster for the Portland Baroque Orchestra (Oregon). Moore is a founder and co-director of Archetti, a conductor-less Baroque string band, and she performs and records chamber music with the early music ensembles Music’s Re-creation and Voices of Music. She teaches baroque violin at the University of California, Berkeley.
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John Dornenburg has performed as soloist in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Lebanon, and the United States. He has made more than 30 CD recordings, which include solo works by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Marais, Telemann, and many others as well as many chamber orchestra recordings on the violone. He is founder of the baroque ensemble Music’s Re-creation, director of Sex Chordæ Consort of viols, and co-director of Archetti Baroque String Ensemble. Dornenburg teaches the viola da gamba at Stanford University, the violone at the University of California, Berkeley, and he is emeritus faculty in music history at California State University, Sacramento. Jillon Stoppels Dupree has collaborated in performance with the Seattle Symphony, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the Magnificat Ensemble, and with early music superstars Ingrid Matthews, Jaap Schröder, Marion Verbruggen, and Vicki Boeckman. She has taught at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, the University of Washington, and the University of Michigan, and she is currently on the early music faculty at the Cornish College of the Arts. Recent activities include a residency at Stanford University, performances at the Bloomington and the Berkeley Early Music Festivals, and a solo Bach recording project.
There is no charge for this concert.
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Twelfth Night Friday, December 13, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 14, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 15, 3 p.m. Great Hall, Peterson Student Center St. John’s College students present William Shakespeare’s riotous comedy of mistaken identities. Referring to entertainments that traditionally took place in Elizabethan England at the close of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night celebrates licensed disorder and the general inversion of the order of things. The performances are free and open to the public.
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Coming Soon! Music on the Hill™ Elevated Back by popular demand and expanded, Elevated features nationally known jazz musicians in an intimate club-like setting. Dates and performers for the 2014 series are: January 25, Kathy Kosins; February 22, Chase Baird; March 15, Larry Ham and Woody Witt; and March 29, Alan Pasqua. Advanced ticket purchase is highly encouraged. Tickets go on sale January 6, 2014. Details will be posted on the Music on the Hill page of the college’s website.
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Experience the Liberal Arts A Free Graduate Institute Event to Learn About the Liberal Arts Master’s Program Saturday, December 7 3:30 -7 p.m. Learn firsthand about the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts Program at St. John’s College! Tutors David Carl and Steve Houser will lead a discussion on three short works by Edgar Allen Poe: “The Man that was Used Up,” “The Man of the Crowd,” and “The Imp of the Perverse.” Each of which explores different aspects of Poe’s view of the situation of man in the modern world in the face of technology, urbanization, and the depersonalizing effects of progress. This event is an opportunity for prospective students to participate in a St. John’s College seminar and experience the great rewards of dialogue as learning. Following the seminar, participants will enjoy light refreshments while continuing the conversation with St. John’s faculty, staff, current students, and alumni. During a subsequent panel session, they will learn more about the program, which has often been described as a life-changing experience, as well as the application process. Space is limited. Please RSVP before November 25 to Zoe Haskell by email, Zoe.Haskell3@sjcsf.edu or phone, 505-984-6050. * Tutors are subject to change. Other tutors may be added depending on attendance. If you are interested in the Liberal Arts Master’s Program at St. John's College, Santa Fe, but are not able to attend the event, please also contact Zoe Haskell to discuss planning a personalized visit.
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JUNE 15 – AUGUST 8, 2014 | SANTA FE The Graduate Institute in Santa Fe would like to call your attention to an exciting new summer opportunity:
GREAT BOOKS…AND GREAT FILMS. 2014 will be the inaugural summer of the St. John’s College Film Institute, an eight-week program approaching great works of cinema as visual poetry. Each week focuses on a great director, spanning from the 1920s to the 70s. The program also will feature lectures and workshops by film industry professionals to help students develop a deeper understanding of the technical aspects of filmmaking. With nightly classes, film showings at local cinemas, and tutorials on works of film analysis (frequently written by the directors themselves), this program will attempt to approach all sides of film as a liberal art, exploring its unique status as visual communication in time and its contribution to the ideas of our culture. The Film Institute is taught by David Carl and Krishnan Venkatesh among other tutors. Classes are small, allowing each individual more time to learn. The cost of tuition for summer 2014 will be $4,900. THE DATES FOR THE FILM INSTITUTE ARE JUNE 15 THROUGH AUGUST 8. On-campus room and board are available for Film Institute participants at reasonable rates. Applications are accepted until December 14. Applications can be found at www.sjcsf.edu/gradprograms/sf_film.shtml. For further information, please contact Zoe Haskell at 505-984-6050 or filminstitute@sjcsf.edu.
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June 9 – August 7, 2014
NEW THIS YEAR…AN EXTRA WEEK OF HOMERIC GREEK! The Graduate Institute in Santa Fe hosts the Summer Greek Institute, a nineweek accelerated course in ancient Greek. This summer we have added a ninth week and changed the pacing to an “accelerated” course. Intensive language programs across the country are known for their high attrition rate (often around 50%) and extreme stress: this is why the Greek Institute is not an “intensive.” While our program still requires an enormous amount of work and dedication, and necessarily entails memorization, drills, quizzes, and tests, it also leaves space to appreciate the unique opportunities of a Santa Fe summer, from afternoon lectures at St. John’s to evenings at the Santa Fe Opera. In short, the extra week in this summer’s program is meant to facilitate a more humane, healthier pace, as well as an even deeper immersion in this beautiful language. This course prepares participants to read in Homeric Greek works such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. It will also prepares graduate students at other institutions to pass a language exam in Ancient Greek. The course’s grammar text is Homeric Greek, 4th edition, by Pharr, Wright and Debnar. (Note that earlier editions will not suffice.) Following the completion of the grammar component, participants immerse themselves in a careful reading of selections from the Iliad and the Odyssey. This year’s tutors will be Llyd Wells and Alan Zeitlin, veterans of last year’s inaugural program. Returning as well will be popular assistant Thomas Conroy. Classes are small, allowing each individual more time to learn. No previous experience in Greek is necessary to apply. The cost of tuition for summer 2014 is $2,900, considerably lower than tuition for comparable study at other institutions. THE DATES FOR THE GREEK INSTITUTE ARE JUNE 9 THROUGH AUGUST 7. On-campus room and board are available for Greek Institute participants at very reasonable rates. For further information, please contact Zoe Haskell at 505-984-6050 or GreekInstitute@sjcsf.edu.
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VISIT THE ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE BOOKSTORE
> Hunger Mountain: A Field Guide to Mind and Landscape by David Hinton The Horologicon: A Day’s Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language by Mark Forsyth (The Inky Fool) Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures, and Innovations by Mary Beard Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman The Conference of the Birds by Peter Sis The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E. B. Hudspeth The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems
FALL HOURS Monday 8:45 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Tuesday 8:45 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Wednesday 8:45 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Thursday 8:45 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Friday 8:45 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Closed Saturday Sunday 12-6 p.m.
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