The idea of exploring music — not simply listening to it — resonates with Dr. Peter Schmunk.
“I had a professor as an undergraduate who was so gifted at taking a piece of music apart and helping you see how the parts worked together — sort of unlocking the key to a work of art,” he says. “It wasn’t just pretty or entertaining, but you saw it as an intellectual construct. You felt like you were an informed listener and had the key to how it worked.”
Schmunk, Mr. and Mrs. T.R. Garrison Professor of the Humanities at Wofford, enjoys passing along those keys to his students, particularly in the realm of classical music, a passion he has enjoyed since his undergraduate days at the University of Utah.
As a student, Schmunk joined a group of friends at a Utah Symphony concert commemorating the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.
“The concert was great, and the audience really responded,” he says. “After six or seven curtain calls, the conductor came out and simply held the score in the air, a gesture that affected me profoundly by deflecting the audience’s praise to the creative genius of the composer.”
Schmunk went on to finish his undergraduate studies at the University of Washington. His graduate work included studies in music history and comparative arts. The Utah Symphony experience inspired Schmunk to teach “What’s So Great About Classical Music?” during Interim as a way to help students experience the intellectual and emotion depth of classical music. To experience music on a professional level, Schmunk and his students attended a performance of a Beethoven symphony in Columbia, S.C., the opera “Carmen” in Charlotte, N.C., and a concert of contemporary choral music in Spartanburg.
“A lot of people have never been called upon to listen closely to classical music,” says Schmunk, who hopes the Interim stimulates in students a lifelong source of meaning and pleasure. “I think that takes a leap of sorts. Few people just sit in a chair and listen to music. They’re doing something else. You have to put other things aside and listen and focus.
“Classical music takes time. You have to be willing to give to it, maybe on faith that it will reward you in return. Of course, I think it will, enormously.”