The talk about a possible conduct of a seminar on literature and music came to life as the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Language and Literature Department, in collaboration with the Institute of Languages and Creative Arts (ILCA), successfully conducted the 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙒𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙥: 𝙊𝙣 𝙇𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚, 𝙈𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙘, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 last Saturday, May 13, 2023, at the Obrero Campus Training Hall of the University of Southeastern Philippines.

The esteemed guest speaker and international visiting lecturer, Dr. David J. Kendall, is an Associate Professor of Music at the La Sierra University in Riverside, California, United States of America. Dr. Kendall is a specialist in musicology with extensive experience and research on music and history.

The event was attended by the CAS Dean, Dr. Eveyth P. Deligero, the faculty of CAS Language and Literature Department, and students from Master of Arts in Literature, Master of English in Applied Linguistics, Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Cultural Studies, Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Applied Linguistics, and guests from other colleges and outside the university.

In the first part of the seminar-workshop, Dr. Kendall talked about his research on 𝘼𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄𝙨𝙨𝙪𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙇𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙎𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙤 𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝, bringing everyone back in time and gave us the opportunity to take a glimpse of the past. Archives from a particular church in Cebu and some parts of the Philippines were presented, specifically church documents, record of accounts, and letters, all translated from Spanish to English. Dr. Kendall also gave a thorough discussion on the things that had transpired during the World War II.

𝙈𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙇𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝘼𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙮𝙨𝙞𝙨, the title of Dr. Kendall’s second talk, is based on the book he published last year entitled “The Music of the Spheres in the Western Imagination”. The book describes various systematic musical ecologies of the cosmos by examining attempts over time to define Western theoretical musical systems, whether practical, human, nonhuman, or celestial. As Dr. Kendall said, “Do not use bent for negative being”, a depiction that the idea of bentness is how musica comes to its tune.

During this educational session, the participants, especially the students, were invited to study about the universe that was created in C.S Lewis’ Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, both fictitious worlds built through music, with similarities between consonance and light and discord and darkness.

 

Words by: Jenny B. Demoral, Language and Literature Department Intern

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