World History
Class Lectures
Thursday, August 25, 2005
(A word of explanation: rather than formally lecturing about history this afternoon, I talked about effective study habits, stressing the importance of being able to put things in our own words, rather than simply memorizing sounds that we do not understand and which we will soon forget. To illustrate that, I briefly sang portions of two songs, one in German and one in French, two languages that I do not understand. Over forty years ago, I had memorized these songs: Richard Wagner's "Song to the Evening Star" from his opera,
Tannhäuser and "Mephistopheles' Serenade" from Charles Gounod's Faust. My voice coaches would roll over in their graves! But I did what my class asked me to do and uploaded the sound clip. Sometimes you've got to be willing to look like a fool.)