Simplicity vs. Complexity in Music and the Arts [] LIFELONG LEARNING

Instructor: Owen Cantor

February 14, 18, 20  | 1-3 p.m.

Our class will examine how the pendulum of arts and culture swings in an inexorable arc. It’s an intriguing view because each swing shifts the way we understand and perceive the world around us. Filtered through the prism of classical music, architecture and visual art, our current position within the tides of history may be “business as usual.” Are you curious to find out why? Music and arts history is more than just a procession of names and faces: It’s a flowing stream of styles, forms and techniques within ever-changing social and political contexts. Intriguing examples abound. In classical music: Beethoven and Stravinsky were great composers yet “simply” different. In architecture: Mies van der Rohe “Less is More” and Frank Gehry “More is More!”. The list is long! Society travels a perpetual journey between simplicity and complexity. Let’s hop on for a revealing ride. 

In addition to practicing dentistry in Pittsburgh, PA, Dr. Owen Cantor trained as a symphonic French hornist. A former Carnegie-Mellon University artist-lecturer, he now teaches university lifelong-learning courses examining the diverse geography of classical music in European and American social and political culture. Owen firmly believes historians preview the future by looking backward in time.

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