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Stanford orders geeks to study Mozart symphonies

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norman lebrecht

January 09, 2014

Fascinating piece in the Economist on attempts by the hi-tech campus to produce more rounded graduates. Wonder if any of the budding Brins will discover hidden 12-note rows. Read here.

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Comments

Cato says:

January 9, 2014 at 4:37 pm

I wondered why a map shop would encourage study of Mozart symphonies…

Roy Lisker says:

January 9, 2014 at 8:00 pm

Stanford is a big university in every sense of the word. I’ve worked with the music department and they are far from second-rate amateurs. Calling the student body “geeks” is like calling classical musicians high-brows and long-haired snobs. As a stellar prodigy, one can imagine that Mozart got more than his share of ridicule. In fact, the number of musicians, (writers, painters) that I know of who had to reserve their cherished crafts on weekends to nurse computing machines during the week, is legion.

thomas p says:

January 9, 2014 at 10:26 pm

The article leaves the impression that one mandatory course (if I understand correctly) is expected to have an effect on the anaemic arts scene of Northern California. I suppose if it just raised the level of cocktail chatter that would be a positive outcome.