ABSTRACT
As a young graduate student, J.G.W. once took a course in the history of modern music during an intensive summer-school session. The instructor was the composer Edwin Stringham, a distinguished visiting professor from Columbia University. He proved to be a most innovative teacher. His goal was to give us an understanding of impressionism. Rather than merely lecturing on its objectives, its history, and the lives of its composers, he also played impressionistic music (Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky). Still not content, he brought in samples of impressionistic poetry, showed us prints of impressionistic paintings (Degas and Monet), and photos of impressionistic sculpture. He showered us with what many years later became known as “holistic teaching.” Unlike other instructors, he stimulated our imagery as well as our cognition, and we derived a true insight into the meaning of “impressionism” because he presented it through many modalities: verbal, auditory, visual, and kinesthetic (J. G. Watkins, 1992a).
