Unit I Study Guide

The disciplines in the humanities are:

• Visual Arts (that means painting, mixed media and sculpture mainly)
• Architecture ( buildings and monuments)
• Printmaking which is also sometimes categorized as Visual Arts as well (serigraphy
or silkscreen, lithography, etching, and woodcut and wood engraving)
• Photography and Film
• Dance
• Music
• Theatre
The Humanities are disciplines that focus on the creative achievements of human beings,
especially those disciplines that make special used of the imagination. They respect and honor
the emotional response of their audience to these forms of art. The subjects of the humanities are
those artistic expressions that have been captured from unique and reflective aspects of past
cultural achievements.

The disciplines within the humanities can help one appreciate ones own culture and family
history with more depth. The humanities helps us understand ourselves better by looking at the
arts from our own family heritage and listening to the music that our ancestors enjoyed. We also
can expand our minds by learning about other individuals’ cultures that are different from our
own. Humanities helps people understand those who may hold a different belief or ideology and
promote respect for those who may be different in appearance or culture.

The disciplines focus on:

• the creative achievements of human beings
• the responses of human beings that deal with our emotions
• past cultural achievements
• how students can learn to appreciate cultures that may be different from their own
• helping one understand someone else better if they are from a different culture or have
different beliefs than what some is accustomed to having that may be different from their
own

What are some emotions that people have felt for hundreds of generations and are still felt by us
today?
They are the feelings that we call the universal feelings. Universal feelings are those feelings that
people have felt for many centuries and still are felt today. They may be feeling about happiness
and sadness, or loneliness, or despair just to mention a few.
Universal feelings may be as follows:
• Love
• Happiness, sadness
• Loneliness, sense of loss, isolation, longing to go back to a place
• Feelings of fear, Depression
• Anxiety, Anxiety
• Hope

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Why did some people paint on the walls in caves located in parts of Spain or France such as the
paintings in the caves of Lascaux, France or at Altamira, Spain?
Answer:
Because this was a way of communicating. This was before written history so there is not
absolute proof as to the purpose of these works of art which remain as records of humankinds’
achievements.

What are some reasons that some scholars think that some paintings were done during Prehistory
and what could they represent or mean? The cave paintings from Prehistory represent a way of
life and help us understand that animals were very significant to those people at that time. The
cave paintings were a method of communicating and telling stories.

What is the purpose of humanities?

• The humanities helps one find ways of giving more meaning to one’s life since one can
see that to be human is to undergo many emotional experiences.

• The humanities helps one place art and creative achievements into categories and periods
of time.
• The humanities helps students discover a better sense of who they are.
• The humanities helps add value and depth to one’s life by giving more in depth
information about what it means to be human.

What is an exception?
Something that happens that is not consistent. Sometimes it may be a situation that involves
something that is creative which cannot necessarily be measured. It can also be something
difficult to explain since it is spontaneous and may not occur again in the same manner.

There are exceptions found many times in the field of humanities since they are a discipline
involves creativity and the imagination.

Sometimes it is difficult for the audience to understand what the performer is expressing. In
music for example, how do we know what the musician is expressing?
At times it may not be possible to comprehend the full meaning of the work at the time of the
performance.
• If a musician is creating a composition that has the purpose of expressing anger or
frustration, the type of sounds may be dissonant (musical term meaning un restful in
sound) and they may sound clashing.

Why does music have the ability to make you feel sad or happy very quickly when you hear it?
Music is an expression that can alter ones’ mood rapidly. The type of music that one hears may
help someone change their mood significantly.

• Music is one of the humanities disciplines that has the ability to alter ones mood
• Very quickly.
• We are used to the “convention” of the orchestra playing in the background when we
watch films (We are used to hearing music and may not even notice it when

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 we watch a film. It really does make a difference what type of music is used in a film
since the music helps create a mood and sometimes helps create a sense of time and
place.)

Why does studying a creative work in depth and detail offer one potentially the feeling of respect
for the work?
• Studying helps one see what goes into making or producing the work.
• It helps one identify with the creative process and helps us respect the artist and what he
or she goes through when he or she creates.
• The process that an artist uses is important for the lay person to understand. If someone
tries to understand what an artist goes through when he creates, it is helpful to try to
understand what methods the artist uses in the creative process. An artist is someone who
is not always understood and respected but an artist is someone who should be looked
upon as helping us understand our culture better.
What is a product?
A product is the finished work that an artist produces. It could be a painting, a musical
Composition, a script for a film, or a script for a play or drawings for a building to list a
Few. The product is the end result.

What is the process?

The stages that the person who is the artist goes through during the time that they are making
The work or creating the product.

Why should someone take humanities?

Studying helps one understand the seriousness and sincerity of the person who created art
works and it helps one understand how important the humanities are to our culture and
how the humanities can help us get along with all types of people.

Why does music have the ability to make you feel sad or happy very quickly when you hear it?
This is something that just seems to come naturally for humans to be able to feel things from
Hearing sounds. It may be considered universal.
• Music is one of the humanities disciplines that has the ability to alter ones mood very
quickly.
• We are used to the “convention” of the orchestra playing in the background when we
watch films.

Some pieces of music can trigger our memories and we think of situations and people when we
hear particular pieces of music.

Examples:

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 • Music from certain eras, for example high school years and music used at reunions can
make someone feel a certain way quite quickly and it makes someone feel similarly each
time they hear it. That is remarkable and unique about music.
• You remember where you were when you hear particular piece of music (composition)
• Music can bring back memories (good times or not so good of times)
• Music can reflect a particular time and place
• Music can represent an event such as a ceremony or event (it could be a school song or a
patriotic piece for example)
• Music is considered universal

Music can give a sense of time and place. It is very interesting how it can bring back an exact
moment in time. Music is unique in that way.
Good music can be listened to and performed for years and the feelings that it can make people
feel can be felt again over and over. The same sense of sadness is felt every time it is heard, for
example. That is really quite a phenomena.
Great music has characteristics such as being:
Unique, creative, innovative, meaningful, challenging and something that is not tiring
To listen to or to participate in and it is something that someone can be part of
Over and over again.

It seems that great music is music that does not get tiring when one hears it over and
Over again.

It seems that some of the greatest examples of music may not have been be understood
Right away when they were first performed. An example would be the “Rite of Spring”
By Igor Stravinsky. The “Rite of Spring” was not accepted when it was first performed.

Dr. Van de Bogart said that one should not get bored if they study the humanities because things
change when new findings are found such as the tombs in Egypt. The tombs of pharaohs have
been found and are still being excavated in the section of Egypt in the area called the “Valley of
the Kings”. The “Valley of the Kings” is north of Aswan and much farther south of Cairo on the
map. Look at a map to locate the sites. The Giza plateau is where the great pyramids are located
outside the city of Cairo, Egypt.

HOW TO EVALUATE THE ARTS:

• Sincerity - Is the artist sincere
• Craftsmanship - Was the correct technique utilized
• Magnitude - Did the work leave an impact of the participant
• Universality - Did it have ideas and feelings that are applicable to many types of people

Some performances are initially rejected because:

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 • An audience may not think that the work is worthy of their taking the time to watch it
• An audience may not understand it
• An audience may have a different idea of the definition of what a work of art should be
like or a performance should be like

What is an Idea?
“A space wherein lies the awakening of your own creative self” by Paul Baker

• Do you think that an artist needs to be able to reflect and project the world around him in
his art if he is going to become a great artist some day?

Each discipline of the humanities has elements.

Elements of the visual arts

Line, color, shape, texture, value, and perspective to list a few
Elements of Music:
Compositions sound different because the musician uses different combinations of the elements
of music to create the pitches and rhythms. Dynamics - loud or soft Pitch- high or low
Rhythm-the beat tempo – rate of speed
Texture -combination of sounds
Monophonic one melody homophonic blocks of sound melody with chords
Polyphonic two or more melodies together
Elements of Architecture: the elements are line, shape, scale function, context and color
The Elements of Dance are movement, sound, theme, choreography and staging, set design and
lighting
The Elements of Film are script, directing, acting, lighting, costumes, and editing to list a few

ARCHITECTURE COMPARISON Unit I and Unit III

The elements also help us understand types of building styles. Notre Dame in Paris, France
is a Gothic Cathedral for example. St. Sernin is a Romanesque Church.
During the Middle Ages there were several types of buildings that are still studied and their
structural forms are still utilized today. The names of the styles and buildings are places
such as the Hagia Sophia in modern day Istanbul, Turkey which is considered Byzantine.

Byzantine characteristics: domes, gold flat areas of paint in the building with paintings done
with heavy use of line, small windows, mosaics and icons. You will also want to examine the
appearance and characteristics of mosques which were also built.

Romanesque characteristics: rounded arches, small windows and a lot of brick work, .Floor
plan is the Latin cross.

Gothic Characteristics: pointed arches, stained glass windows, flying buttresses, spires, very tall
building, pointed windows, Floor plan is the Latin cross.