Songs of praise, protest bring music, history alive for Rowan freshmen
Songs of praise, protest bring music, history alive for Rowan freshmen
November 5, 2007
Lourin Plant used the desk as a drum, encouraging his class to be
loud, as he kept time with the two students strumming their
acoustic guitars.
"Let's all sing this. One more time with feeling!" he exclaimed, as the 22-student class at Rowan University launched into "Kum Ba Ya," a slave spiritual.
Even though she's deaf in one ear and says she can't carry a tune, Frances Johnson, a writing arts professor who co-teaches the course with Plant, joined in.
Despite its title, "Songs of Praise, Songs of Protest," this three-credit freshman Honors course isn't about perfect pitch.
Rather, it's a course that examines the role music has played to enact social change in America. Through listening, singing, writing, and intensive discussion, students are analyzing how music worked to illuminate issues such as racial identity, stereotypes, class, gender, and social culture.
"With the protest songs, whether you could carry a tune wasn't a consideration," says Johnson. "The music's point is the message, and the social action that it stirred and promoted."
"The different voices just makes it juicier. It's like squishing berries of all voice types. If it's too perfect, it loses something," adds Plant, a music professor who is so jazzed about the course that, he confesses, "sometimes I just have to restrain myself."
The class' journey this semester is taking them from "Kum Ba Ya," a popular campfire song that actually speaks of the life of slaves, all the way up to the Civil Rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" to Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind."
In between, they're studying 18th century hymns, many of which were written by women who, denied a voice in other realms, wrote the music as a means of self-expression. They're delving into the songs of blackface minstrelsy, a little-taught area, says Plant, that initiates discussion on racial stereotyping. And they're discussing the work of a host of artists, including Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez and others.
"We started with spirituals and going all the way up to John Lennon. It's quite a romp," says Johnson, who as a writing arts professor in Rowan's College of Communication, is challenging the students with outside reading and writing assignments that delve into sociology, women's studies and African-American studies.
It's all the better that the course is generally taken by freshman Honors students in the first semester of their academic career, says Plant. With its co-taught approach, its subject matter, its singing, and the professors' commitment to establishing a true community of learners in the classroom, "Songs of Praise, Songs of Protest" provides freshmen with a learning experience much different from what they likely had in high school.
"The course is very powerful to first-semester students in college," says Plant, who during the first two weeks of class, performed at Lincoln Center with the New York City Opera in a new production of "Margaret Garner," an opera based on the Toni Morrison book Beloved. A baritone, Plant portrayed a slave in the production.
"The course is about coming together and understanding music as is relates socially...to our lives, to our country."
To that end, one of the students' first assignments was to compile a Top 10 List, in the spirit of David Letterman, of the most significant songs of their lives. Each student presented their top song to the class and wrote detailed essays about the importance of the music in their lives.
The exercise, says Johnson, was fascinating, emotional, and unifying. Students' top songs ranged from Cold Play's "Don't Panic" to Tom Waits' "Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen" to Billy Joel's "Piano Man."
Most of the songs were new to both Johnson and Plant, but the emotional connections the students shared about the tunes were universal, they note.
"The level in which they shared was just unbelievable," says Johnson, who also shared her top song, "Be Not Afraid," which, she says, helped her get through a tough time in graduate school.
"We remember songs because of the deep, emotional connections we have to the music and the lyrics."
Students in the course range from the self-described "musically inept," to guitarists, a cello player, and even a tuba player who was president of his high school band. Together, they're discovering different ways to hear and interpret music--and to analyze and communicate their findings.
"Now, when I listen to music, I listen to more of the message," says freshman radio/television/film major E.J. Campbell, an Irish music enthusiast who frequently totes his acoustic guitar to class. " I get more of a feel of the struggles they endured and the martyrs they celebrate in the songs.
"The class is an alternative style of teaching. We've been able to learn a lot about each other."
Campbell, in fact, decided to provide a global perspective on protest music when he profiled the 1981 hunger strike in Mount Joy Prison in Belfast for a recent class presentation. He sang "Bobby Sands from Belfast," a protest song, for the class.
Other class presentations by students have focused on the Little Rock Nine, John Lennon, the Chicago 7, Bob Marley, Bessie Smith, the Freedom Riders, the Sex Pistols, and even current music that protests the Iraq War.
For Plant, an assistant professor of voice in the College of Fine and Performing Arts, the course is a chance to explore the emotional effects of music-and to introduce students to different music...from slave spirituals up to Marvin Gaye. Plant's No. 1 song on his Top Ten List is Gaye's anti-war anthem, "What's Goin' On."
"It's an anthem about war, race and finding a way to bring people back together," says Plant. "It resonated very much with me. When I hear those bongos, it takes me back to 1971 and to my own hairy adolescence."
"This is history to them," adds Johnson, who directs Rowan's Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. "But it's not history to me. The first music I listened to and was involved with was in the 1960s. I saw Peter, Paul and Mary. I went to Pete Seeger concerts.
"We don't lead them into discussions of war and politics," she continues. "They make the connections on their own. And they bring us the new protest music, such as music by Green Day. This class has been one of my best teaching experiences."
"Let's all sing this. One more time with feeling!" he exclaimed, as the 22-student class at Rowan University launched into "Kum Ba Ya," a slave spiritual.
Even though she's deaf in one ear and says she can't carry a tune, Frances Johnson, a writing arts professor who co-teaches the course with Plant, joined in.
Despite its title, "Songs of Praise, Songs of Protest," this three-credit freshman Honors course isn't about perfect pitch.
Rather, it's a course that examines the role music has played to enact social change in America. Through listening, singing, writing, and intensive discussion, students are analyzing how music worked to illuminate issues such as racial identity, stereotypes, class, gender, and social culture.
"With the protest songs, whether you could carry a tune wasn't a consideration," says Johnson. "The music's point is the message, and the social action that it stirred and promoted."
"The different voices just makes it juicier. It's like squishing berries of all voice types. If it's too perfect, it loses something," adds Plant, a music professor who is so jazzed about the course that, he confesses, "sometimes I just have to restrain myself."
The class' journey this semester is taking them from "Kum Ba Ya," a popular campfire song that actually speaks of the life of slaves, all the way up to the Civil Rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" to Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind."
In between, they're studying 18th century hymns, many of which were written by women who, denied a voice in other realms, wrote the music as a means of self-expression. They're delving into the songs of blackface minstrelsy, a little-taught area, says Plant, that initiates discussion on racial stereotyping. And they're discussing the work of a host of artists, including Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez and others.
"We started with spirituals and going all the way up to John Lennon. It's quite a romp," says Johnson, who as a writing arts professor in Rowan's College of Communication, is challenging the students with outside reading and writing assignments that delve into sociology, women's studies and African-American studies.
It's all the better that the course is generally taken by freshman Honors students in the first semester of their academic career, says Plant. With its co-taught approach, its subject matter, its singing, and the professors' commitment to establishing a true community of learners in the classroom, "Songs of Praise, Songs of Protest" provides freshmen with a learning experience much different from what they likely had in high school.
"The course is very powerful to first-semester students in college," says Plant, who during the first two weeks of class, performed at Lincoln Center with the New York City Opera in a new production of "Margaret Garner," an opera based on the Toni Morrison book Beloved. A baritone, Plant portrayed a slave in the production.
"The course is about coming together and understanding music as is relates socially...to our lives, to our country."
To that end, one of the students' first assignments was to compile a Top 10 List, in the spirit of David Letterman, of the most significant songs of their lives. Each student presented their top song to the class and wrote detailed essays about the importance of the music in their lives.
The exercise, says Johnson, was fascinating, emotional, and unifying. Students' top songs ranged from Cold Play's "Don't Panic" to Tom Waits' "Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen" to Billy Joel's "Piano Man."
Most of the songs were new to both Johnson and Plant, but the emotional connections the students shared about the tunes were universal, they note.
"The level in which they shared was just unbelievable," says Johnson, who also shared her top song, "Be Not Afraid," which, she says, helped her get through a tough time in graduate school.
"We remember songs because of the deep, emotional connections we have to the music and the lyrics."
Students in the course range from the self-described "musically inept," to guitarists, a cello player, and even a tuba player who was president of his high school band. Together, they're discovering different ways to hear and interpret music--and to analyze and communicate their findings.
"Now, when I listen to music, I listen to more of the message," says freshman radio/television/film major E.J. Campbell, an Irish music enthusiast who frequently totes his acoustic guitar to class. " I get more of a feel of the struggles they endured and the martyrs they celebrate in the songs.
"The class is an alternative style of teaching. We've been able to learn a lot about each other."
Campbell, in fact, decided to provide a global perspective on protest music when he profiled the 1981 hunger strike in Mount Joy Prison in Belfast for a recent class presentation. He sang "Bobby Sands from Belfast," a protest song, for the class.
Other class presentations by students have focused on the Little Rock Nine, John Lennon, the Chicago 7, Bob Marley, Bessie Smith, the Freedom Riders, the Sex Pistols, and even current music that protests the Iraq War.
For Plant, an assistant professor of voice in the College of Fine and Performing Arts, the course is a chance to explore the emotional effects of music-and to introduce students to different music...from slave spirituals up to Marvin Gaye. Plant's No. 1 song on his Top Ten List is Gaye's anti-war anthem, "What's Goin' On."
"It's an anthem about war, race and finding a way to bring people back together," says Plant. "It resonated very much with me. When I hear those bongos, it takes me back to 1971 and to my own hairy adolescence."
"This is history to them," adds Johnson, who directs Rowan's Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. "But it's not history to me. The first music I listened to and was involved with was in the 1960s. I saw Peter, Paul and Mary. I went to Pete Seeger concerts.
"We don't lead them into discussions of war and politics," she continues. "They make the connections on their own. And they bring us the new protest music, such as music by Green Day. This class has been one of my best teaching experiences."