Dear Everyone,
Your latest homework assignment is now posted in Tools tab. Just kidding, it’s in the Assignments tab. Gotcha. It’s also at the bottom of this email. Also, I will be in my office tomorrow afternoon (definitely 3-5pm, maybe earlier) if you want to come by and get your test, if you’ve not yet done. I will not be available for extra help during that time, though, I’m afraid.
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– William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a French painter active in the latter half of the 19th century. He was a strict traditionalist, painting in the Academic style throughout his career. Because of his tremendous ability in this domain, he became quite famous and respected; however, his lifetime saw the emergence of an artistic avant-garde, namely the Impressionists, who despised him and (what they saw as) the staid culture he represented. His Classical realism fell out of favor after his death in 1905, leading to a decline in prestige for his works, but renewed interest in representational painting has brought him the respect of the artistic community yet again, and his place in museums around the world is fairly secure. I find his career fascinating to think about: you’ve probably never heard of him, but you certainly know van Gogh and Monet. Why? Because those latter were not just brilliant painters, they were revolutionary geniuses. Being extraordinary at something (Bouguereau could really paint like a mofo) does not guarantee you membership in the G.O.A.T. club. At the same time, traditionalism was just his sensibility. Would he have been betraying himself if he had adapted stylistic advancements in whose merit he didn’t truly believe? Here’s one of his paintings that I think is really beautiful. I’ve seen it at the Met, though it’s not always on display.
– Beethoven’s Piano Concert No. 5 in E flat major (the Emperor Concerto), was the composer’s final piano concerto, and, like most of Beethoven’s work, it’s extraordinary. To me, the main theme of the first movement sounds like the first verse of Young the Giant’s “My Body“. Thoughts?
HOMEWORK 5:
Section 3.3: 2(a), (c), (e); 7(a), (c), (f); 8(a), (c), (f); 18; 20; 24; 28; 35(a)
Section 3.4: 6(a), (b) [make sure you understand all of Example 4]; 9, 13(a)
Extra credit:
Section 3.3: 35(b)
Section 3.4: 7(a) (you have to use a computer to calculate powers of a matrix, MATLAB is available on some computers around campus and I think Mathematica, Maple, and MATLAB are available for free through Stony Brook here: http://it.stonybrook.edu/software/catalog. Knowing how to use any or all of them will be extremely useful in your academic career and beyond. Helps with the ladies, too. And dudes!
Prof. Prattle 