Synthesis of Liberal Arts and a Professional Music Degree

I am a student in the Petrie School of Music at Converse College. Petrie School of Music, as a professional school of music, provides education toward a professional degree in music. Converse is a liberal arts college. As Martin Luther’s Small Catechism would phrase it, what does this mean?

According to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, the liberal arts currently “comprise studying literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science.” The liberal arts originally denoted the education a free man should obtain as opposed to that of a slave; in the middle ages the liberal arts comprised the trivium - grammar, rhetoric, and logic - and the quadrivium - geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy. In a liberal arts college, the objective is to impart to the student a broad basis of knowledge in a variety of fields and to discipline the student’s “rational thought and intellectual capabilities” such that the student has the intellectual flexibility to function in and adapt to our changing, complex world. In Converse College’s Opening Convocation, we students were urged repeatedly to explore and continually develop ourselves in various areas of study - to become “well-rounded” Converse women, schooled in the liberal-arts ideals of intellectual excellence and flexibility.

Also according to Wikipedia, a “first professional degree […] prepares the holder for a particular profession by emphasizing competency skills along with theory and analysis.” The student’s objective, in a professional degree, not unlike that of an 18th-century apprenticeship, is to become excellent and skillful in his or her chosen field. For example, as a pursuant of a professional degree in music, I am refining my skills in performance, in how my brain processes music, and acquiring background information about music, its history, and its musicians and composers.

Thus, as a professional degree student, most of my coursework, about 70 % according to the Petrie School of Music web page, is within my chosen field of music, but as a student in a liberal arts college, a significant portion of my coursework is in other subjects. Yes, I need musical skills, but I also need to communicate through the written and spoken word, both in my native language and in other languages, and to keep myself physically fit; accordingly, Converse College requires Bachelor of Music-Performance Majors to learn to do these things. In addition, many of the elective general education courses I can take not only provide a gymnasium for my mind but actually provide me with applicable information. Here are a few examples:
• Botany. Anyone who has ever help to take care of a lawn will appreciate the botanical reasons that dandelions are so difficult to eradicate, a few of which are that their taproots root them firmly in the ground and that their wind-blown seeds in their hundreds and thousands spread rapidly.
• Philosophy. In Cultural Collisions, one of the courses I am currently taking, we have discussed the concept of the Ethnographer’s Dilemma, which is that if you assume too much difference between your culture and the other culture, you will be unable understand the other culture at all, but if you assume too much similarity, you will overlook the differences, seeing just surface differences. I can apply this concept on a personal level when I meet people and get to know them.
• Religion. When I study chorales and hymns in music history, the fact that Martin Luther thought all of the congregation, not just a trained choir, should make music to worship the Lord and to help remember facts about God, and his reference to Biblical scripture to back this up, helps me to understand the development of hymn and chorale forms, which were often repetitive and easy to remember.

So the information and training I acquire in the liberal arts is applicable both in my general life as a human and in my activities and studies as a musician.

(By the way, as one might have guessed from the multiple references to Martin Luther, yes, I am Lutheran.)

Why college? Why Converse? Why Music?

I have been asked three questions. “1.) Why did you decide to go to college? 2.) Why did you decide to come specifically to Converse? and 3.) What could possibly be possessing you to make you decide to study music? Oh, and let's throw in a fourth question, just for kicks: 4.) If you woke up tomorrow and couldn't do any kind of music anymore, what would you do instead?”

I hope nobody minds that I answer these questions in logical order rather than the given order.

I am a member of a family that values a college education. Since my mother has a master’s degree and my father is a Ph. D., my parents assumed that their children would go to college. They at least partially instilled in me and my brother the values of Learning and Trying Hard, deciding to home-school my brother and I to this end. Because my father had direct oversight and control of my education, if an assignment was not getting done he could tell whether I was slacking or rather just could not grasp the concept. In other words, I would only not go to college if either I clearly could not handle college, if I chose a career in which a college education was not an advantage, or if I myself did not want to go to college. I and my family want me to go to college for further learning and education, for better personal preparation for the “real world”, and for the joy of it.

In my high school years, I continued to study piano and to train in my regional children’s chorus. I discovered that not only did I enjoy music, but also that I had some talent for it. As I began the college search process and asked myself what field I would most likely major in, music was the obvious answer. My parents and I know there are jobs in music education, as private teachers, and as church musicians, so I have some reassurance of a way to earn my living. I can study what I want to study – music – without becoming entirely bankrupt.

During my college search process, I looked for certain characteristics when I investigated a college. Academically, it needed to strive for academic excellence, be a liberal arts school, and have a strong music program. Specifically, its music program needed an excellent piano professor; a choral program, because I enjoy choir and could decide to become a choral director; and an organ program, since I had started taking organ lessons and wanted to continue my study of organ. I also wanted the college to be friendly, hard-working, and, hopefully, Christian. On top of all these requirements, the college had to be small, because, as a homeschooled child, I was used to a class size of two. These requirements and preferences were demanding, but I was willing to go to a college far away from my home in New Jersey.

The summer betwixt my junior and senior years of high school, my family and I visited our North Carolina relatives on our way to our summer vacation and a look at Furman University. My relatives knew I was looking for a good, small school with an excellent music program, so on their suggestion, we also visited Converse College while we were in the area. Furman failed to impress me – it had too much football, among other reasons – but Converse did. Everyone was so nice. When I flew back by myself last winter for my audition, a couple sophomores hosted me in their room and introduced me to their friends, so I was able to get to know the Converse students better. When Dr. Weeks and Dr. Couch each gave me a piano and an organ lesson, respectively, their lessons were excellent. So when I had to decide which college I wanted to go to, Converse College shared first place with St. Olaf College, which was even further away in Minnesota. This decision was difficult, but Converse was much less expensive , so Converse won. Now that I am studying at Converse College, I am very happy with it.

Music is a major component of my life, but if I could not do music, I would probably be a mathematician. My father has a doctorate in mathematics, so he has given me a few research-style problems which I have found frustrating. I like teaching, so I would probably teach mathematics in a school. It seems odd that I am not currently taking any mathematics courses this semester. However, I know my father has a new math course waiting for me when I come home for Christmas. Then I will also accompany my violinist brother and tell them what a good choice Converse was.