There鈥檚 nothing wrong with the traditional college classroom. Nothing at all, Robert Shay stresses. But when it comes to teaching a course titled 鈥�,鈥� the College of Music professor of musicology admitted that, sometimes, it鈥檚 time to leave the classroom behind.听听
In this case, when Vienna beckoned, Shay and 10 of his upper-level undergraduate students answered the call. During Maymester, they headed off to get up close and personal with the Austrian capital. Part of the CU Boulder Study Abroad program, this exciting, interdisciplinary two-week experience was one of the many instructor-led Global Seminars, Shay points out, noting that 鈥淐U does 30 or 40 of these around the world.鈥澨�
Planning for such an intense on-the-road course began 鈥渁 few years ago,鈥� says Shay. 鈥淏efore we left, we had three class sessions, sort of as a crash course. I wanted to get the basics in place.鈥� Once in Vienna, everything changed. 鈥淏y actually being there, you鈥檙e seeing these things we鈥檙e talking about,鈥� Shay adds. 鈥淭here鈥檚 an immediacy. I can see how rapidly students can internalize information.鈥�
And there was a lot of information to internalize鈥攁nd a lot of sights to see. Though Shay鈥檚 specialization is music, this course involved all of the arts, particularly new views of architecture and painting鈥攃reative breakthroughs that had made the city a hub of revolutionary activity at the start of the 20th century. 鈥淚t was the birth of the Modernist movement,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here was enormous political upheaval.鈥� The artistic explosion became known as the Vienna Secession, led by architects Joseph Hoffmann and Joseph Maria Olbrich, and painters Gustav Klimt, Alfred Roller and Koloman Moser. Their goal was to join Europe鈥檚 growing Art Nouveau movement. Secessionists sought a new purity that would chase away traditional styles and bring together all of the separated arts. Olbrich designed a Secession Building, which currently houses Klimt鈥檚 enormous 鈥淏eethoven Frieze鈥� in the basement. Yes, Shay and his students visited the impressive gold-domed structure.
Besides a visit to Klimt鈥檚 remarkable 112-foot salute to Beethoven, Shay and his students were able to sample live music while in Vienna, attending a performance of Alban Berg鈥檚 opera 鈥淟ulu鈥� and a concert in the famed Musikverein concert hall. In fact, Shay points out, the course was offered as a music course. Nine of his charges were music majors, the other a music minor. 鈥淲e had focused on [composer Arnold]听Schoenberg beforehand and one of the students chose him for the integrated topic.鈥澨�
Shay explains that the course requirement included a paper based on the Vienna trip. Other topics chosen by the students included women composers of that period and Viennese architects.
Since nine of the 10 young travelers had never visited Europe, one wondered about the impact of visiting the great Austrian city. 鈥淲e talked as a group afterward,鈥� recalls Shay, 鈥渁nd I got a general sense of their response to the trip鈥擨 think I whetted their appetite for more learning and for more travel.鈥�
