CLAS Acts October 2021

Monthly newsletter of the TT faculty of CLAS

A Note from Dean Drake

On September 30, with students, community members, faculty and staff, I attended the opening reception for the gallery exhibition Honest and Unrefined: Art Outside the Academy.  It seems like such a fitting way to begin the GVSU Arts Celebration 2021-2022.  Our times demand that we allow ourselves to be provoked, and that means centering the provocateur. Activating the value of access to higher education requires curious and humble attention to visions and voices we may have ignored.

This year, every gathering feels a bit rebellious.  I’ve been energized to meet more of you in person at our coffee and conversation events, and I’m looking forward to the launch of our Brews with the Dean series.  I appreciate your time and find I’m learning a great deal about what is on your minds right now as you dig into your teaching, scholarship and creative work. Many of us feel outside our former practices in one respect or another, even as we seek to renew them.  It is good to come together in that process.

On October 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Cook DeWitt auditorium, you will have the chance to hear our next GV Arts Celebration event--Beethoven’s belated birthday party.  The Tesla Quartet might seem to be playing the repertoire of an archetypal composer, but if we think about it, Beethoven was a sometimes-controversial figure, eventually challenged with hearing loss.  We might understand him as an outsider that history has brought to the center.  Poet Ella Michael referred to him as “music's Leviathan.” And, as the Philadelphia Inquirer noted, Beethoven is “relatable right now (and it’s not just because his hair is a wreck).”

Later in the program, our colleagues from the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance will join the Tesla Quartet for String Octet by Mendelssohn. We will hear Letitia Jap and Megan Crawford on violin, Paul Swantek on viola, and Pablo Mahave-Veglia on cello. They will be interpreting a piece that Mendelssohn composed at an age younger than most of their students—a great reminder to remove barriers for the young as well.

While I’m on the topic of removing barriers, you have probably already read that we will run an internal search for a CLAS Associate Dean to lead our diversity, equity, inclusion and access initiatives.  Please consider applying, and/or encourage your colleagues to apply. 

Best,

Jen

Thinking About Early Careers 251 Years Later

With the performance of the young and already storied Tesla Quartet presented by Music, Theatre, and Dance  and the GVSU Arts Celebration coming up on October 4, 2021 (7:30 p.m., Cook Dewitt Auditorium, free), our thoughts turn to Beethoven 251 years after his birth.  The Tesla Quartet will play Beethoven’s String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4 and will share the stage with faculty for Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E♭ major, Op. 20.

Donovan Anderson, professor of German provides context, “When I think of Beethoven, I like to imagine him organizing a concert for the delegates at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The Congress was an opportunity to reorganize Europe after the defeat of Napoleon, and Beethoven was famous. 15 years earlier, while he was working on Opus 18 no. 4 in Vienna, Austria was embroiled in a European-wide war against Napoleon.”

Musicology Professor Lisa Feurzeig sets the scene, “After Haydn created and developed the string quartet in the eighteenth century, it became a genre through which composers were expected to show their strength and establish a reputation. Thus, it is not surprising that the two pieces performed in this evening's concert were written relatively early in the composers' careers. Chamber music - including string quartets and other combinations of players - was used both for sociable music making among skilled amateurs and for professional performance.”

“From 1798 to 1801,” Lisa notes, “beginning in his late twenties, Beethoven carefully prepared a set of string quartets that were published as Opus 18, part of his self-introduction to the musical world of Vienna. He had made his reputation as a pianist, and had not yet composed any symphonies, perhaps because he had been trying to avoid direct competition with Haydn. The tradition of publishing quartets in groups of six had been established by Haydn (who briefly taught Beethoven) and had become the standard for the genre. Opus 18 no. 4 is an energetic piece that requires close communication and interaction among the players, thus representing one of the key qualities of chamber music.”

Formed at The Juilliard School in 2008, the Tesla Quartet has gone on to performances at venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center as well as winning prizes and international acclaim.  The members are Ross Snyder and Michelle Lie on violin, Edwin Kaplan on viola, and Serafim Smigelskiy on cello.

Joining them for the Mendelssohn piece will be our colleagues Letitia Jap and Megan Crawford on violin, Paul Swantek on viola, and Pablo Mahave-Veglia on cello.

New MTD faculty member Letitia Jap is excited about this opportunity, “It is a thrill to be able to collaborate with the Tesla String Quartet on this wonderful and exciting work by Mendelssohn. One can hear the youthful spirit in this work. There will be much energy and joy on the stage!”

Donovan provides some background on the political scene, “Felix Mendelssohn grew up on the opposite side of the German-speaking world [from Beethoven], in Berlin, a city that had been occupied by Napoleon since 1806. By the time he composed the String Octet, any hopes for a unified, democratic Germany that still flourished in 1815 had been thoroughly quashed. Though Mendelssohn was only 16 years old, he had the fortune of having met and spent time with Goethe.”

Lisa notes, “Mendelssohn composed his String Octet, whose instrumentation is for two string quartets, in Fall 1825 at the age of sixteen. It has often been noted that some of his strongest pieces were composed when he was very young, and this piece is frequently labelled as his earliest mature work. Like the Beethoven, it is energetic and exciting, with a notably long first movement that demonstrates the young composer's mastery of formal musical structures. The third movement is supposed to be a setting of the Walpurgisnacht (Witches' Sabbath) from Goethe's Faust, and the composer's sister Fanny wrote about his vision of that movement as linked to the ephemeral world of spirits.”

No matter your perspective, this is one belated birthday bash you won’t want to miss.