Final Thoughts

Sorry it's late Tony, these days just seem to slip by unnoticed, and then you look up and realize it's already Friday. In most cases, that would be a good thing, but when I've left behind unfinished work and have now only mere hours until my next final, the minutes I no longer have are the ones I need the most...

It is difficult to sum up an entire semester in a few short paragraphs. This is made all the more challenging when one considers how uniquely exploratory this semester has been. A class whose goal is to explore a world as rich as American folk, and seeks to understand the complex set of interrelated events, artists, songs, chord progressions, styles, lives and feelings which comprise such a realm is certainly one in which a very powerful community will form, with music at its core.

When you add on the facts that we not only explored the music intellectually, but physically and emotionally by singing every week, an even deeper connection begins to emerge. Further still, weekly art pieces based of these musical artworks seeks to bridge the musical and visual, creating some newer way of experiencing both. Truly then, we have done something not merely amusing, but deeply profound. I can say, without doubt, that I have learned an invaluable amount about American folk. Artists I never knew existed have now entered into my lexicon and become key players in the musicality of my life. Stories I couldn't tell for lack of wisdom, knowledge or ability, have now shaped the way I look not only at music, but at people, and myself. Discovering in this class how much I enjoy singing has inspired me to audition for choir next semester. Watching Tony's, Gigi's and Max's fingers dance beauteous fury and delicate grace has rekindled my desire to play styles of music I once shied away from.

Here then, am I, not as I once was, but as a more grown yet still growing, maturely childish, knowledgeably curious and dangerously explorative creator of ideas and worlds. And I think we have all become creators of ideas and worlds. Or, perhaps we always were, but there requires a catalyst for such potential to be released. Through VS 185X: Songs and Places, I think the process of reemergence has begun, and I believe the realms of artistic expression, both musically and visually, hold all of the answers. It is simply a matter of searching for them.