{"id":1021,"date":"2017-12-15T06:07:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T06:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/?p=1021"},"modified":"2017-12-15T06:15:55","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T06:15:55","slug":"composing-the-symphony-of-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/2017\/12\/15\/composing-the-symphony-of-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Composing the Symphony of Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most human experiences is to perform or listen to music. I\u2019ve been lucky witness this while playing cello in the Campus Philharmonic Orchestra this quarter. Being immersed in Tchaikovsky\u2019s <\/span>Romeo and Juliet<\/span><\/i> \u00a0reminded me of living in the Anthropocene. While I am not at all qualified to be commenting on Tchaikovsky\u2019s works, this metaphor works too well not to share. By first explaining how an orchestra is a complex system, we can connect the themes in <\/span>Romeo and Juliet <\/span><\/i>to what it means to be a human being in 2017. <\/span><\/p>\n

With its various sections of different instruments working together, an orchestra can easily be applied to systems theory. Every individual musicians needs to practice to contribute to the strength of the section. Each section needs to play in unison by playing the same pitches and coordinating their bow directions. Finally, each section interacts with one another. After all, a symphony with only violins would sound empty and one dimensional. Within this process of emergence, there is increasing complexity. All of these systems within systems interacting with each other create something greater than the sum of its parts. When musicians truly listens to the rest of the sections beside their own, they can play in perfect time and harmony. <\/span><\/p>\n

While there are countless of examples of how <\/span>Romeo and Juliet<\/span><\/i> relates to the Anthropocene, one of the most powerful is the ever changing time and key signatures. For folks who are not music nerds, this essentially means that notes have different value in certain contexts. Playing pieces that have several time and key changes requires awareness and quick thinking. If a musician is not paying attention, then they will play out of tune and time (I can speak from experience). Being mindful of the situation and making the correct adjustments is something that we must do in life as well. \u00a0Unlike this symphony, the human race\u2019s story is unfinished. We continue to compose the tale of the Anthropocene with every decision that we make. When we listen to different points of view and become mindful of our own actions, we will successful craft a more harmonious human race. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to listen to the inspiration for this blog post, check out the Campus Phil\u2019s recording of <\/span>Romeo and Juliet<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eHsSWsDY3-w&feature=youtu.be<\/span><\/a> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most human experiences is to perform or listen to music. I\u2019ve been lucky witness this while playing cello in the Campus Philharmonic Orchestra this quarter. Being immersed in Tchaikovsky\u2019s Romeo and Juliet \u00a0reminded me of living in the Anthropocene. While I am not at all qualified to be commenting on Tchaikovsky\u2019s works, this metaphor works too well… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[202,201],"class_list":["post-1021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-final-projects","tag-humanbeingness","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1022,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021\/revisions\/1022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}