Blue Danube Sapphire Ring

College Course Blue Danube 101

College course, Music Appreciation 101, Corthell Hall 1969, Gorham State Teacher’s College. Mr. Gerald Chamberland instructed the class, which was simplified for non-music students. The class was really good. A half-century later, I remember much from the course. An important part of the class was listening to classical music with Mr. Chamberland and creating a visual narrative to accompany the music. His word pictures and the music remain with me today.

One really good example was Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz. Like the River Danube, it starts as a trickle in the high mountains and traces the water and its flow down the mountains, across hills, and through valleys, the music’s speed appropriate to the steep terrain. Then, the music slows as it becomes a large river flowing past villages and cities, and finally, the river reaches the sea.

Music Appreciation was a great course. This is my suggestion to all teachers and instructors: keep things simple, paint good visual pictures to go with coursework, and a deeper type of learning may take place. I met (and dated for a year) a violinist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, then for 3 years following college, I bought a season pass to the Portland Symphony Orchestra. –R.H.P.

The Danube River

The Danube River starts in Germany’s Black Forest and flows through the Bavarian Alps into Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania, ending 1,771 miles later in Moldova at the Black Sea.