Beginner's Guide to the Humanities, A

by Bishop, Philip E.

• ISBN13: 9780130193742
• ISBN10: 0130193747
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Pearson College Div

Summary

An ideal supplemental text for any undergraduate course in humanities, or Introduction to the Arts. Helping students learn how to observe, enjoy, think about and feel in response to the arts, this practical beginner's guide to appreciating and experiencing culture gives students a handy introduction to the world of arts that they can carry with them. Self-contained chapters provide an essential companion guide to understanding a specific arti.e., painting, sculpture, music, theaterwith concisely defined key terms one should know, as well as a clear and insightful explanation of its process of creation.

Table of Contents

Painting	1	(14)
How to Talk in Pictures	1	(1)
The World of Painting	2	(1)
A Real Encounter: Diego's Dog	3	(2)
Extreme Art: The Paintbrush as Naked Woman	4	(1)
The Took Kit: Painting	5	(4)
Medium	5	(1)
Form	5	(2)
Color	7	(1)
Subject	8	(1)
Pictorial Miscellany	8	(1)
The Experience: How to Look at a Picture	9	(1)
Style Guide: The Tradition	10	(1)
Companion to Painting	11	(4)
Sculpture	15	(12)
Giving Shape to the World	15	(2)
A Real Encounter: A Shrine of Sorrow	17	(2)
Extreme Sculpture: Bust in Blood	18	(1)
The Tool Kit: Sculpture	19	(2)
The Sculptural Process	19	(1)
Sculptural Types	20	(1)
Sculptural Materials	20	(1)
Form	20	(1)
Sculptural Subjects	20	(1)
Sculptural Miscellany	21	(1)
The Experience: Sizing Up a Sculpture	21	(1)
Style Guide: Sculptors---Greats Since the Greeks	22	(1)
Companion to Sculpture	23	(4)
Architecture	27	(17)
Why Buildings Stand	27	(1)
What Buildings Mean	28	(2)
A Real Encounter: The Magic of Fallingwater	30	(1)
The Tool Kit: Architecture	31	(6)
Materials	31	(1)
Methods of Construction	32	(1)
The Arch	32	(1)
The Classical Temple	33	(1)
The Church	34	(1)
Architectural Decoration	35	(1)
Architectural Miscellany	36	(1)
The Experience: How to be In a Building	37	(1)
Style Guide: Architecture in American Cities, c. 2000	38	(2)
Companion to Architecture	40	(4)
Music	44	(16)
Music Class	44	(1)
The Essentials of Music	45	(2)
A Real Encounter: Four Seasons in a Gothic Light	47	(1)
The Tool Kit: Music, Technically Speaking	47	(6)
Musical Scales	47	(1)
Harmony	48	(1)
The Instruments	49	(1)
Dynamics	50	(1)
Vocal Forms	50	(1)
Instrumental Forms	50	(1)
Theatrical Forms	51	(1)
Music A to Z	51	(2)
The Experience: How to Listen---Really Listen	53	(1)
Style Guide: Musical Styles You're Most Likely to Hear	54	(2)
Companion to Music	56	(4)
Theater	60	(16)
The Elements of Drama	60	(1)
Who Makes the Play?	61	(1)
A Real Encounter: An Angel over America	62	(2)
The Tool Kit: Theater	64	(3)
The Stage	64	(1)
The Set	64	(1)
Theater by Degree	65	(1)
A Theater Glossary	66	(1)
The Experience: Playing Along	67	(2)
Style Guide: A User's Guide to the Theater	69	(2)
Genres	69	(1)
Historical Types (European only)	69	(2)
Companion to Theater	71	(5)
Opera and Musical Theater	76	(15)
Opera---The Greatest Art?	76	(3)
The Voice Is the Thing	78	(1)
Operatic Voices	79	(1)
A Real Encounter: Opera's Unrepentant Sinner	79	(2)
Open for Debate: Operatic Re-makes...or Rip-offs?	80	(1)
The Tool Kit: Opera	81	(2)
Opera by Degree	81	(1)
Opera Miscellany	81	(2)
The Experience: Stories in Song	83	(2)
Style Guide: Operatic Operators	85	(2)
Companion to Opera and Musical Theater	87	(4)
Dance	91	(14)
The Poetry of Movement	91	(1)
Elements of Dance	92	(2)
A Real Encounter: The Continuity of Dance	94	(1)
The Tool Kit: Dance	95	(3)
Types of Dance	95	(1)
The Ballet Company	95	(1)
Dance Technique	96	(2)
Dance Miscellany	98	(1)
The Experience: Move to the Music	98	(1)
Style Guide: Great Names in Dance	99	(3)
Great Ballets	99	(1)
Choreographer and Company	100	(1)
Dancers of the Modern	101	(1)
Companion to Dance	102	(3)
The Printed Image: Prints, Photos, Digital Art	105	(16)
The Arts of Mechanical Reproducibility	106	(1)
Open for Debate: Falsifiable Photographs	107	(1)
The Tool Kit: Printmaking	107	(3)
Engraving	107	(1)
Relief	108	(1)
Other Processes	109	(1)
Printmaking Miscellany	109	(1)
The Tool Kit: Photography	110	(4)
The Film	110	(1)
The Camera	110	(2)
The Darkroom	112	(1)
Color Photography	112	(1)
Photographic Genres	113	(1)
Photographic Miscellany	113	(1)
The Tool Kit: Digital Images	114	(1)
The Experience: Pictures, Pictures Everywhere	115	(1)
Style Guide: Masters of the Printed Image	116	(1)
Companion to the Printed Image	117	(4)
Movies	121	(14)
The Novel of the Twentieth Century	121	(1)
Who Makes a Movie?	122	(1)
A Real Encounter: A Shot Heard `Round the Film World	123	(1)
The Tool Kit: The Movies	124	(4)
Camera Work	124	(1)
The Shot (Continued)	125	(1)
The Story	126	(1)
Editing	126	(1)
Sound and Effects	127	(1)
Film Miscellany	128	(1)
The Experience: Watching While Thinking	128	(1)
Style Guide: Movie Genres	129	(2)
Companion to Movies	131	(4)
Encountering the Arts	135	(6)
Touring a City	135	(2)
Visiting a Museum	137	(2)
Attending a Performance	139	(2)
Index	141

Excerpts

I remember beginning to play basketball at age eight, a game I still play twice a week, rickety knees and all. My dad handed me a basketball and told me to throw it as high as I could against the garage wall. He wanted to see if I could reach the ten-foot rim. I must have done okay, because he went right out to dig the post-holes in the backyard for a basketball goal. I played my best games on that goal in the Winter moonlight, dribbling on a frozen mud court. Think of this handbook as the garage wall and postholes for a different game--a lifelong enjoyment of the arts. It's easy for folks to think they don't measure up to high culture. They're intimidated by the orchestra in white tie and tails, or the hallowed silence of a museum. They're puzzled by the painting they see on the walls or by the drama where nothing seemed to happen. And opera--isn't that fat ladies singing? If it's confidence you lack, this handbook offers a gentle push through the door of that museum, theater, or concert hall. Once your fanny's in a seat at the Met or you're wandering the Louvre, this guide will deepen your experience of the moment. It teaches you to observe and enjoy, to think and feel in response to the arts. And afterwards at the bar or coffee-shop, or reading the museum guide or a newspaper review a day later, you'll find you speak the critical language of the arts. You'll know you're in the game when you find yourself in conversation with friends and family, and someone asks how you know all that. Maybe I'm the person to give you courage because I started where many of you do--as a beginner. I was reared in a small-town family that hardly ever ventured to the big city for culture. The first real play I remember was my sister's high school musical. I wandered through some museums in college, but as a literature major, I didn't pay much attention. I could tell you the plots of dozens of novels, but just one painting sticks in my memory--Goya'sSaturn Devouring His Children.As a college student loose in Madrid, I wandered through a door at the Prado, turned, and Saturn stopped me cold. Now I teach and write professionally about the visual arts (I'm art critic for a medium-sized city newspaper) as someone who's mostly self-taught. What I know about the visual and performing arts comes from reading books, magazines, and newspapers, and listening to smart people, and then constantly seeking out new experiences in the world of high culture. I have learned to understand and love the arts through a lifelong, incremental layering of knowledge and experience. As a teacher by vocation, I think that's the best way to learn. Being smart about art (and about other things, too) doesn't require a sophisticate's birthright or a minimum intelligence score or even a college degree. Art smarts come to an open mind that's willing to reach out, take a risk, and encounter new experience. I'm hoping that mind is yours. WHAT'S IN THIS BOOK Nine of the chapters that follow are each devoted to an art as you'll encounter it out there in the real world of museums, galleries, concert halls, theaters--all the places and spaces of culture where it actually exists. In each chapter, you'll find some or all of these elements. REAL ENCOUNTER Recollections and reflections are from my own encounters with works of art in this medium. Some are drawn from my own journal entries, written in the shelf-full of spiral notebooks. Some are based on my collection of performance programs, newspaper articles and reviews, and postcards--all the stuff I keep as a physical memory of the encounter. I often do the same thing with great meals at friends' homes or restaurants as a way of recalling the pleasure of the moment. It's a mental snapshot of the encounter. TOOL KIT A glossary of essential terms provides definitions of everything you need to know about this ar