Week I: FIRST SONG

Jean Ritchie, Viper, Kentucky (Appalachia), photo from 1940s

WEEK I:  FIRST SONG

Reading: Read the initial S&P blog posts carefully (and thoughtfully) to understand the territory of the course

Downloads: S&P CD / Extras / Supplements   (3 download links).
You can find all downloads in the blog archive folder labelled Downloads on Berkeley Box
Download the files, listen and  and LISTEN & SING ALONG and LEARN!

Project: FIRST SONG
Here's what I told you in class:
A person singing (not a recording)  -- authenticity
Someone personal (grandparent, lullaby, camp song or...
What was the situation ("context")
Associations (A personal Song Trail)
Distance from now   (this quality)

Make this your first notebook post--by way of introduction
with image of your project
let the work speak

Additional notes to help you get started: See if you can bring to mind an image of the first song you remember hearing--sung by a person, not something recorded  (maybe a lullaby, or a song from a parent or relative?). A song where you feel the immediate connection through listening to someone sing. Make your project from this--a visual response--drawing, painting, collage or combination image--media open, but what you make should have something of your hand in it. Expressive, that is. We'll pin these up in 170 at beginning of next week's class.

Think of FIRST SONG as a kind of introduction--to your own world, the world you come from. See if you can get this quality into the image. Also, make this the first post on your personal "online notebook"--the blog I'm asking you to keep for the semester. On which you'll post your projects (week by week) along with notes on reading and class themes--the songs we're doing.

If you don't have one (a First Song), go back in time--your parents, grandparents--and make the connection through an earlier generation.

Note: For your  DIGITAL NOTEBOOK, lease use Blogspot.com--one of their simple (straightforward) formats so that the images you post read clearly. Send me an ACTIVE LINK before next class meeting so that I can make up a post with links to everyone's notebook. Not last minute, Get the URL to me by Wednesday.

See:   S&P Supplements Blog for my note on SYNESTHESIA
And the painting by R.B.Kitaj, The Singers (To Live in Peace)

IMPORTANT -- Do for Next Week:
Send me CONFIRMATION (I will send you Course Permission number as soon as I have them from office)
Digital Notebook (your personal course blog)--set yours up and send me active URL
First post: Who Am I (with photo!)  follow on what you did in applying for the class.
Reader's available next week -- bring to class--$25 CASH
Project: First Song    (we will pin these up at beginning of class)
Bring your small notebook for in class... for names and places

Note on your first post: It was pointed out last night that I appear to have asked you to do two quite different things-- Who Am I, and First Song. But if you think about it, they may work together--as two facets of the same story (your own life experience!) So--keep separate, starting with a Who Am I post--or combine in a creative way...