Mini-Courses at Madison Public Library

Registration Open for Summer 2012!

This program of non-credit short courses is jointly sponsored by Drew University’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies and the Friends of the Madison Public Library.

These courses are intended to be suitable for the general public, with no prerequisites. However, they are taught at a level consistent with Drew University’s outstanding academic reputation. There are no examinations, grades, or required reading.

Spring, Fall, and Summer term mini-courses are given at the Madison Public Library. Occasionally Summer term mini-courses are held on Drew’s campus in Madison, New Jersey.  2012 summer course registrations and course descriptions are available.

Summer 2012 Registration Form

Summer 2012 Drew Mini-course Offerings

Great Film Scores II with Robert Butts
Five Tuesdays starting July 3-31 from 1:30-3:30pm

Robert Butts continues his review of film music with his third minicourse on this fascinating subject. He believes that the film score was the most significant musical innovation of the twentieth century.  Inspired by the Romantic ideal of program music and opera’s use of the orchestra to create mood and emotional context, composers developed a musical language that has only recently come to be recognized not only for its role as part of the film itself, but also for its musical values and ideas.

Music has been an integral part of the success of films from the beginning. Composers have incorporated elements from all forms of music to add to the ambiance, emotion, and drama as well as developing character and plot.  This course discusses some of history’s most memorable and effective film scores, highlighted by excerpts from the films.  Included are scores by Harold Arlen, Kander and Ebb, Miklós Rócza, Aaron Copland, William Walton, John Williams, Dmitri Tiomkin, Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota in such films as The Wizard of Oz, High Noon, Once Upon A Time in the West, Godfather Part 2 and E.T.

Dr. Robert W. Butts is a noted conductor, composer and conductor whose lectures have been a mainstay of the minicourse program for fifteen years. He currently serves as Music Director/Conductor of The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey and New Jersey Concert Opera and as artistic director with Opera At Florham. 

The Star and Crescent Rising: The Emergence of Modern Turkey with David Cowell
Five Thursdays: July 5-Aug 2 from 1:30-3:30 pm

This minicourse is a survey of the rise of modern Turkey beginning with the Ottoman Empire until the Republic’s emergence as the premier Islamist European state and ally.  Topics to be included are the end of the Byzantine Empire, the emergence of the Ottomans and the foundation of the modern state in Europe, the Sick Man of Europe, the Young Turks, the Civil War, the defeat of the Western Imperialists,  the Ataturk Revolution, and the emergence of the present system.

Turkey, today,  seen as the best example of an Islamist led state, is also the model of economic and social development and the emerging leader for the Turkish states in central Asia and the Muslim states and parties in the Middle East.  Culturally, Turkish authors hold Nobel Laureates, produce award  winning films, maintain opera houses and orchestras, universities, provide great food and dining, and supply the Western economies with engineers, scientists, business leaders and well trained and disciplined labor achieving in fact if not in law a place in contemporary Europe’s economy.

Turkey’s story has it all, strong men and dictators, military regimes, secularist and Islamist struggles, democracy and revolutionary regimes, third world poverty and economic emergence, IMF intervention and economic growth, and a peaceful transition to elected, democratic government and the emergence of civil rights.

David Cowell is emeritus professor  of Political Science at Drew University. He has taught six other minicourse in our program, covering such timely topics such as Modern Ireland, Government and Politics in the Middle East, British Politics Since Blair, the Northern Ireland Conflict (and Resolutions), and Peace and Conflict Resolution. At Drew he chaired the Political Science department, directed the Drew programs at the United Nations, in London and participated in and led overseas study and travel second year seminars in  Egypt, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. 

Current information about course availability and registration for Summer 2012 can be viewed at the following site: drewminicourses.org