Wilderness Survival; Wednesday, Second Period [03/20].

[sword_chocobro]

Class had received notes that they'd be meeting back outside the preserve again for class, and, hopefully, they'd be doing the same for the rest of the semester, and when they arrived at the spot, they'd find Gladio waiting for them....with lots and lots of stuff.

"Hey, guys," he said, "we've been spending way too much time inside the danger shop for how nice it's starting to get out here, so we're back in the real woods again. And since the last few weeks have been pretty intensive with our sustenance units, I was thinking we'd take it easy this week with a nice hike through the preserve."

He paused, looked at all the stuff gathered around him, and then grinned.

"Well," he amended, "easier, and by my standards. Which means it's a good time for a lesson on building a pack for wilderness survival when you head out into the woods. We'll go over the the essentials, and then you'll take some time to figure out what you want in yours and how you want to pack it, keeping in mind that we're taking it with us. And I want to see at least a few basics, so you can't just stuff a pillow in yours and call it good."

Although there might be a weird sort of respect for anyone who had been thinking of trying that. Gladio was definitely a work harder type of guy, but he knew there was a lot to be said for the work smarter types, too.

Music, Wednesday

[suitably_heroic]

“So, we’ve been spending a lot of time talking about folk music,” Atton said. He was at the front of the class, wearing his nice new leather gloves, looking like he hadn’t been mysteriously absent last week. Go figure. “But around the 1400s, Earthers got a little more pretentious about it. During the period known as the Renaissance, music got more complex. More instruments, more melodies at the same time, actual basslines. People started figuring out how to write all of this stuff down properly, too, so pieces could be played the same way everywhere else.”

He waved towards the instruments corner. It was absolutely packed with stuff. “A lot of the musical instruments we use on Earth today were more or less invented or refined in this period. People got weirder and more complicated with it. The style that resulted would come to be known as ‘classical music’, also known as pretentious stuff for stuffy people who can’t make it through a rock concert.”

What? What.

“The Renaissance ended in the 1600s, and gave way to Baroque, during which the modern idea of the musical ‘key’ was introduced. A key is basically a series of notes and pitches, named after whatever the first note in line is. We kind of touched on that a little during the chords lesson,” Atton said, waving a hand. “Baroque composers like Bach and Vivaldi made a name for themselves in this period, and they’re still frequently referenced today.”

He smacked the music player. “You might know this one. Four Seasons.”

"As the music started to be increasingly complex and multilayered, some composers started wanting to pare things down. They also worked toward much more restrictive notations, even to volume markers and how things should be played. It became much more structured. This led to what is properly called Classical music, because that's what the period in time was called." Honestly, Atton. "This is when we get composers like Beethoven." This is also when you get music named imaginative things like 'Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major'. Because apparently that's all you need to know about it." Classical composers were weird. What could you say?

"Eventually, they start to loosen up a bit more, and become more concerned with grand themes, myths and legends, and sweeping emotions, and you get the Romantic era," Lana continued. "Also a lot of them were very nationalistic and patriotic, so you have to deal with that. Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky is a good example of this style."

“If you’re wondering why we’re steamrolling through this, well, we’d need a whole semester to teach you guys the ins and outs of this particular brand of music,” said Atton, who had ignored any and all ‘honestly’s his co-teacher had sent his way, thank you. “But to give you more of a taste, we have a whole pack of info sheets of different composers here. Pick one, find something cool they made musically, and tell us about it next week.” He rolled his shoulders. (They still stung a little.) “The Romantic period was followed by the Modernist period, which dovetails right into what we call contemporary music. We’ll pick up on that actually interesting topic in a week or two. For now…”

He waved a hand.

“It’s time to practice some classical classic, I guess.”

Please don't all choose "Ride of the Valkyries".