New! Crosscurrents: Great Art, Music and Literature in Conversation 

Quarter 4: 

Giotto, Frescoes of The Scrovegni Chapel, Padua 

Polyphony: “Trecento” Ars Nova, by F Landini and others. 

Dante, Vita Nuova

When: Mondays 2 PM EST | 1 pm Central | 12 pm Mountain |11 am Pacific 

Mode of Instruction: Conversational Reading, Listening and Looking

Cost: $250 slow reading subscription. Subscription includes all-access to any slow reading pathway, plus monthly liberal arts consultations.

Seminar Archons: David Saussy and Jeff Johnston 

Syllabus: 

General Description of “Crosscurrents” series: 

We will meet once per week to look, listen, read and converse through select great works of art, music and literature.  

Each quarter will concentrate on one artist, one composer (or one genre of music), one writer, placing them in conversation with each other.  The art, music and writing curated for this series will be roughly contemporaneous – having been published or presented or performed in generally the same era in history, although they will not necessarily share the same nationality. The connections between them may or may not be obvious.     

Poets, writers, musicians, artists pursue matters that are very difficult to talk about, but are nonetheless vital to articulate. Each artist and each mode of art illuminates a certain corner of being – of fundamental conflicts or problems arising in human existence – that perhaps cannot be illuminated in any other way.  We benefit by spending time with these works because they are of such a character that they can awaken our minds and spirits.  

All too often we find these voices or works isolated by our culture of specialization. But each art has much to offer the others. “Crosscurrents” aims to remedy this situation, by placing the great artists, composers and writers in conversation with each other, allowing the direct, sustained listening, looking and reading to inform our own experiences. 

Our mode of learning is conversational, and priority is placed on direct observation of and reflection on the works of art themselves, allowing natural questions to be raised, and meaningful connections drawn, rather than amassing facts about historical information. 

For the artwork, we will be approach the viewing in a “slow seeing” approach, following the ‘pyramid of inquiry’ – that is, we place observation at the foremost portion of of conversation, asking such questions as: What do you see? What do you notice? What stands out to you? What do you notice about [a specific aspect of the work]? Can we describe [a specific aspect of the work]?  On another level, our conversation raises such questions as: What is happening in this work of art?What do we think is the story What do we think will happen next? What is the mood of this artwork? What word comes to mind when you look at this artwork? 

Our approach to music follows our approach in the Bach Listener’s Studio.  We will listen to several different recordings of the work, with the score available. Basic orientation to musical notation will be provided for those unfamiliar with written music – a great opportunity to ‘look under the hood’ and see the artistry of the music unfold. We allow questions to arise in the listening of different interpretations and following the score itself.

As far as reading the book selection is concerned, we follow our fundamental approach to reading in conversation, allowing questions to arise from the material itself, and learning how the author understands the issues, rather than imposing a “lens” or prefabricated theory or interpretation on the literature.

Crosscurrents is perfect for the beginner interested in getting experience with the various arts, and a conversation between the arts, without any prior knowledge; but it can be of interest to the more experienced alike, interested in serious conversation about life’s big questions as they arise in contact with great art, music and literature.