One down, two to go...
Dec. 5th, 2003 01:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaalaOne exam, that is. I've survived my first Queen's University exam. I loved the course, but thank G-d that endurance test is over. (I get extra time as someone with a learning disability, so I was sitting there for four and a half hours.)
I still wasn't completely finished with essay business (difficulty photocopying an awkward oversize score) until the end of Wednesday. (My professor, sweet man that he is, agreed to take the scores directly (instead of photocopies) and he'll even send them back to Toronto with all the stuff he had to borrow for our class to use.)
I collapsed in a heap of mental and physical exhaustion from about 9pm Wednesday evening to 1pm Thursday. The exam started at 12:15 today. That's simply not enough time to accomplish the minimum amount of studying required. (Naturally, I didn't sleep last night.) After this, there's World Musics on Monday, and Theory on Wednesday. All need quite a bit of reading, study, and practice... but tonight, I rest.
Have I mentioned yet that I dropped Ear Training and Sight Singing? Well now I've mentioned it. It's an annoyance to drop a course that I could pass so easily if I could only make it to class in the mornings, but I'm way behind on the material (difficult to practice on one's own) and could not stay awake long enough to make it to two separate (in-class) "exams"... so I figured that was it. As far as I can reckon it, I'm now down to a regular course load--not reduced (as is usually the case): regular.
By the way, that same professor of the Canadian Music course I enjoyed so much is teaching a course on opera in the Winter term. Romantic opera! No Mozart, but still... whee! That course would fit perfectly into the requirements for my degree; in fact, I've been intending to sign up for it since September, before professors were decided. It would be hard work--he's a difficult marker--but fascinating. And I can't take it because I have a required introductory conducting class at the exact same friggin' time! (And he's only here for this year, filling in for someone on hiatus...)
It's nice to have a class taught by a professor who is obviously just as much of a geek as I am. He looked similarly awestruck to me when John Beckwith visited. I think he practiced his introductory statements to the class beforehand so that he wouldn't giggle or look slightly embarrassed the way he sometimes does in class or, on the other hand, start grinning madly.
But anyway, my shared geekiness with the professor. I explained to him on November 26 that I had missed writing a listening log because I'd run out of time (and the ability to wake up early to work) after a busy weekend that included attending a concert he'd encouraged us to attend (featuring a new-ish Canadian work) for which I'd already bought a ticket. He was disappointed that I couldn't hand something in, but said that in the end it was probably more valuable to have heard the piece. Sensing the conspicuous gap in my story, I added that I'd also spent the weekend seeing Rex Harrington in Onegin in Toronto and he responded, "Okay, now I'm jealous!" (After a week of nobody around here having the slightest idea who I was talking about!)
When we meet in the halls, the topic usually turns to music. In fact, we had a conversation (for what must have been more than five minutes) when I happened to see him shortly after the exam. I had just finished the damn thing, and here we were discussing the pieces on it!
Whoa! So much for the resting. Okay, backing away from the computer now...
I still wasn't completely finished with essay business (difficulty photocopying an awkward oversize score) until the end of Wednesday. (My professor, sweet man that he is, agreed to take the scores directly (instead of photocopies) and he'll even send them back to Toronto with all the stuff he had to borrow for our class to use.)
I collapsed in a heap of mental and physical exhaustion from about 9pm Wednesday evening to 1pm Thursday. The exam started at 12:15 today. That's simply not enough time to accomplish the minimum amount of studying required. (Naturally, I didn't sleep last night.) After this, there's World Musics on Monday, and Theory on Wednesday. All need quite a bit of reading, study, and practice... but tonight, I rest.
Have I mentioned yet that I dropped Ear Training and Sight Singing? Well now I've mentioned it. It's an annoyance to drop a course that I could pass so easily if I could only make it to class in the mornings, but I'm way behind on the material (difficult to practice on one's own) and could not stay awake long enough to make it to two separate (in-class) "exams"... so I figured that was it. As far as I can reckon it, I'm now down to a regular course load--not reduced (as is usually the case): regular.
By the way, that same professor of the Canadian Music course I enjoyed so much is teaching a course on opera in the Winter term. Romantic opera! No Mozart, but still... whee! That course would fit perfectly into the requirements for my degree; in fact, I've been intending to sign up for it since September, before professors were decided. It would be hard work--he's a difficult marker--but fascinating. And I can't take it because I have a required introductory conducting class at the exact same friggin' time! (And he's only here for this year, filling in for someone on hiatus...)
It's nice to have a class taught by a professor who is obviously just as much of a geek as I am. He looked similarly awestruck to me when John Beckwith visited. I think he practiced his introductory statements to the class beforehand so that he wouldn't giggle or look slightly embarrassed the way he sometimes does in class or, on the other hand, start grinning madly.
- NB: John Beckwith. Have I mentioned him? Canadian music legend. He was a guest lecturer in our class on November November 21. When he delivered a public lecture the next day, Istvan Anhalt and Clermont Pépin (whose lecture on Monday I was really annoyed to miss because I was in class) showed up, along with every composer at the school and almost every professor. After the lecture, a camera was produced and professors got their picture taken with Beckwith! I don't think I'll be able to forget how starstruck so many of these full-grown professional adults looked.
But anyway, my shared geekiness with the professor. I explained to him on November 26 that I had missed writing a listening log because I'd run out of time (and the ability to wake up early to work) after a busy weekend that included attending a concert he'd encouraged us to attend (featuring a new-ish Canadian work) for which I'd already bought a ticket. He was disappointed that I couldn't hand something in, but said that in the end it was probably more valuable to have heard the piece. Sensing the conspicuous gap in my story, I added that I'd also spent the weekend seeing Rex Harrington in Onegin in Toronto and he responded, "Okay, now I'm jealous!" (After a week of nobody around here having the slightest idea who I was talking about!)
When we meet in the halls, the topic usually turns to music. In fact, we had a conversation (for what must have been more than five minutes) when I happened to see him shortly after the exam. I had just finished the damn thing, and here we were discussing the pieces on it!
Whoa! So much for the resting. Okay, backing away from the computer now...
