Guest Review by Mike Mazur

One of our contest-winning Guest Reviews

Back during my college days in the mid 80s, I signed up for a class entitled 'Philosophy in Literature.' My classmates and I expected the professor to be the usual stereotype - an old man with a long gray beard who would babble on about Aristotle and Plato. But in walked a decent looking woman in her mid 30s. We thought it must be the graduate student / teaching assistant. But it wasn't. It was indeed the course professor, Tamara Horowitz. In 1976, she was the first woman to earn a doctorate in philosophy from MIT. Other notable facts about her: she was a cancer survivor and, in early September of 1999, she would be named the first woman chair of the University of Pittsburgh's philosophy department. Sometimes philosophy comes from unexpected sources, and another such unlikely source is Lisa's music.

When one thinks of the words in some of Lisa's solos, it is easy to see a deeper meaning in her music. For example, in Caledonia, "now I have moved and I've kept on moving, proved the points that needed proving" and "now I'm going home." Has the person completed some task and returned to his/her place of origin, or does this mean the person has completed life, home being where one's spirit goes to rest? This can also be the case in May it Be: "you walk a lonely road, oh how far you are from home," which is followed by, "when the night is overcome you may rise to find the sun." Could this mean that a person has passed life's trials (i.e. away from home, night) and is now headed to a better place (i.e. home, sun)?

These themes can also be seen in two other songs, The Voice and Green the Whole Year Round. But the concept of overcoming adversity to get 'home' is replaced by themes of 'continuity' and 'season'. Seasons may change but every year they come back again. One verse from The Voice: "I am the voice in the fields when the summer's gone, The dance of the leaves when the autumn winds blow, nor do I sleep throughout all the cold winters long, I am the voice that at springtime will grow." The Voice is God but instead of an end and a trip to heaven, everything starts anew again in spring. This theme of continuity and season is especially evident in Green the Whole Year Round. "Summer fades and the days grow short and the autumn winds they blow, and leaves of gold come tumbling down to the forest floor below" and "the winter lays her fingers cold on dark and lonely nights, But Christmas it will soon be here to usher in the light". So the birth of Christ is the light that brings us out of the adversity, i.e. the cold dark lonely winter. Also, the very title of the song itself exhibits this theme of continuity of life.

Tamara Horowitz never had her chance to lead Pitt's philosophy department. In late September 1999, only weeks after she had been appointed chair, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She died 6 moths later at the age of 49. Lyrics from Green the Whole Year Round jump out when thinking of this. "Memories of other days come tumbling from the past, to remind us like the seasons do that life goes by so fast." We often don't learn this fact until we face death.

Education, philosophy, and music share an important link. Aristotle once said, "Music has a power of forming the character, and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young." In the music chapter of his best selling book The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom notes "Nothing is more singular about this generation than its addiction to music." He also goes on to note, "It is available twenty-four hours a day, everywhere. There is a stereo in the home, in the car; there are concerts; there are music videos, with channels exclusively devoted to them, on the air nonstop; there are the Walkmans so that no place - not public transportation, not the library - prevents students from communing with the Muse, even while studying." This book was written in the mid-1980s, before the Internet, MP3 downloading, and I-Pods. Music has evolved even more in our society since Bloom's observations. Long ago, Plato said, "Music is moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and everything." That holds true today.

So, can you think of a better instructor for a course entitled 'philosophy in music' than Professor Porter?