Greetings! It’s our first week back on campus and it’s a winter wonderland! Actually, we’re having a fairly warm (15 degrees!) and precipitation-less weekend, so some of the snow is starting to go away temporarily, but it’s still very winter-like and beautiful out there! I’m from Southern California, so snow is still a fairly new concept for me, but this is now my second Wisconsin winter and I think it’s quite gorgeous! One reason for this could be that I don’t have to actually clean up the snow (out of my driveway, walkway, roof, etc.), because that is very well taken care of here on campus. Within about an hour of every snowfall, the snow-shoveling crew has cleared most of the sidewalks, roads, and outdoor walkways, so getting around campus is still very easy, if a little chilly!
In case you’ve been wondering what most of us at Lawrence have been up to for the past six weeks, we’ve been on our long winter break! After fall term ends in late November, we go home for Thanksgiving and then don’t come back to Lawrence until just after New Year’s. A few of my friends actually stayed at Lawrence for part of winter break, for a new program called “D-Term” (December Term). D-Term was a two-week academic term where people could take unusual classes that are not offered during the regular academic terms. One of my friends took a class on the author Jorge Luis Borges that was taught entirely in Spanish, and there was also a class on Ancient and Byzantine Coins as well as a Shakespeare Intensive! My friends who were on campus really enjoyed D-Term, but I was back home in California for the entirety of the break, where I spent time with my family, caught up on sleep, practiced clarinet, and spent time soaking up the sun. Still, I much prefer to be constantly active and busy, so it is great to finally be back at Lawrence!
Aside from the frigid weather, my first week of classes went pretty well! This is a very music-heavy term for me (I’m a clarinet performance major) and I’m now well on my way to completing my conservatory requirements! I am taking my fifth and final term of music theory, and my first of two required music history survey courses. I’m actually very excited for music history; I’ve done a lot of theory training so far and I’ve been expanding my clarinet repertoire quite a bit over the past year, so it will be great to finally acquire the historical context for the music I’ve been working on. This class covers music history up to the year 1700, so we are starting by studying Gregorian chant and early minstrel and vocal music from the 13th and 14th centuries. In music theory, I will be writing a paper analyzing the form and style of a piece for voice and piano by Robert Schumann. I am also very excited for orchestra this term, because I am playing the bass clarinet on two of the pieces! The bass clarinet is basically a deeper sounding and larger version of the standard Bb clarinet, and it is a great instrument to play on. The music faculty at Lawrence are great about giving all of us a chance to gain playing experience on the auxiliary instruments of our respective instrument families, so this will be a really exciting opportunity!
That’s all for now! Next time, I will be writing to you in the midst of Lawrence’s legendary Trivia Weekend!