NEH Enduring Questions Course on "What is Time?"

FAIN: AQ-50254-10

University of Richmond (Richmond, VA 23173-0001)
Jessie Fillerup (Project Director: September 2009 to September 2014)

The development of an undergraduate course that explores concepts of time through music and literature.

This Enduring Questions course would unite literary, philosophical, scientific, and musical works to reflect upon this question: what is time? Though interdisciplinary in scope, the course would be pursued from a musical perspective. Divided into an introduction, three movements (units), and a coda (conclusion), the course would examine works from the late fourteenth century, eighteenth century, and fin-de-si??cle/early twentieth century. Our study will be motivated by these questions: Is time the product of natural laws or human consciousness? How is time measured and experienced? Does technology affect the perception of time, or are there transhistorical modes of perception that resist change? Students would conduct discussions and maintain course blogs, alternating as posters and respondents; guest lecturers would also make posts. Students would present final projects at a Time Fair conducted at multiple venues around campus simultaneously. Grant period: June 2010-Dec 2011.

Associated Products

Eternity in Each Moment: Temporal Strategies in Ravel's "Le Gibet" (Article)
Title: Eternity in Each Moment: Temporal Strategies in Ravel's "Le Gibet"
Author: Jessie Fillerup
Abstract: This article suggests that Ravel’s “Le Gibet” from Gaspard de la nuit (1909) features temporal and formal innovations that anticipate those found in Debussy’s Jeux (1913) and Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920). The analysis combines voice-leading techniques with Stockhausen’s notion of “moment form” (further developed by Jonathan Kramer), revealing multiply directed temporal strategies that assert points of stasis, nonlinearity, continuity, and discontinuity. In the poem by Aloysius Bertrand that inspired Ravel’s music, the poetic devices typical of French Romanticism contrast with Ravel’s distinctly modern approach to musical temporality, which explores both durational and spatial models of time.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.13.19.1/mto.13.19.1.fillerup.php
Primary URL Description: Direct link to article in Music Theory Online
Access Model: Open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Music Theory Online, vol. 19, no. 1 (March 2013)
Publisher: Society for Music Theory

About Time: An Interdisciplinary Course on Temporality (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: About Time: An Interdisciplinary Course on Temporality
Author: Jessie Fillerup
Abstract: Interdisciplinary teaching poses daunting challenges, even for faculty with multiple areas of expertise. I felt these challenges acutely when developing a course supported by the “Enduring Questions” grant program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In this presentation I describe the course design, summarize approaches to assessment, and discuss the challenges and opportunities I encountered when teaching the course. Students examined three historical eras, starting with the late fourteenth century—a time in which clocks started to proliferate in medieval towns. They also contrasted the “clockwork universe” of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the views of philosophers and scientists in the early twentieth century, who were grappling with the implications of Einstein’s relativity theories. Readings for the course included excerpts from Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales," Isaac Newton’s "Principia," Marcel Proust’s "In Search of Lost Time," and James Joyce’s short story, “The Dead.” These texts supported the study of temporality in musical works that include medieval chansons, Haydn’s “Joke” quartet, and Ravel’s opera "L’Heure espagnole."
Date: 10/21/2011
Conference Name: College Music Society National Conference

Syllabus for "What is Time?" (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Syllabus for "What is Time?"
Author: Jessie Fillerup
Abstract: This syllabus provides a list of topics, course materials, assignments, and policies for the NEH-supported course, "What is Time?"
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://music.richmond.edu/faculty/jfilleru/
Primary URL Description: The URL is a faculty webpage. The syllabus may be found under the "Grants" link.
Audience: K - 12

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