Melody in the Middle Ages Essay

In the early Middle Ages, melodic or textual embellishments added to plainchant were referred to as prosulae. In your own words, summarize the types of plainchant to which prosulae were most often added and the reasons for those additions. The Book of Hymns is one prime example of a prosulae. Plainchant was being sung day in and day out by the monks, who had already added some slight melody, but was still not easy to memorize. By adding some rhythm and separation in syllables throughout the melody, a new way to not only memorize the verses, but also present them, was born. In the early Middle Ages, melodic or textual embellishments added to plainchant were referred to as prosulae. In your own words, summarize Notker’s description of how and why he came to add words to melismas, and his teacher Iso’s response. Notker realized as a young child that he wanted to find a way to remember the words to certain melodies, but with them being so long, he could not. When he came across a man with sequenced verses he was at first excited, but soon disappointed as they did no better than the long, monotonous melodies he remembered as a child. When he decided to add words to these verses and took them to his teacher, Iso, he both appreciated and pitied Notker. He went back and corrected some mistakes pointed out by his teacher, and these changes proved to be successful. The new verses were deemed worthy and copied to a roll for the all of the boys to sing.

Definition of love Essay

Is there a specific and accurate definition of love? The true meaning of love is very difficult to find for adults. Do adolescents mature enough to manage love? It is too complex to define love in one word. Even though adolescents are physically matured like adults, they still need to develop mentally because they are still insecure. Teenagers are like thin glass cups; their appearance and mind seem clean and transparent, but they are delicate and can be broken easily.. I have observed closely from SAT preparation academy called Honors Review Learning Center in Tenafly, New Jersey. I was in 10th grade geometry class and pre-calculus class to survey, and I also tutor students for extra help. With these I was able to gather that there were seven to eight students in a class room, but they were mostly Asians. There was only one white boy in that class, this was because of the low population of this town; Tenafly has large population of Korean. When I observed geometry class, I was not able to ask questions from each and every one of them, but I noticed that boys tend to seat with boys while girls seat close to one another. They are all from same high school, so during the break time, they will gather and hang out together in a classroom. However, in Pre-calculus class, students are from different school, so they seat together without forming any groups or clique. They tend to do things separately even during the break time, like talking on the cell phone, texting with friends, or doing their works. However, after few days, students get to know one another and they started to seat by genders again. Having noted all this, I decided to focus my observation on gender of adolescents. After two hours of class, I tutored Jason Moon for extra help. I explained the materials that he did not understand in class. Although, I attended this academy during my high school year, it was only for private tutoring. However, the tradition of intense focus on secondary school education continues to be strong and seems to endure more, than my high school years. Jason is fifteen years old and he is a student of Tenafly High school. Jason’s parent work together, therefore he has to remain in this academy until his mother is done with her job. However, after two hours of class, Jason seems to lose concentration when he studies with me, so we spend more time talking to each other than studying. Jason is an Asian American student, but his parents are both Asian Asians. When I told him that I attended New York University, he was more interested in parties and girls in the city, instead of the college life in the city. He has very outspoken personality and likes hanging out with friends. He told me he is in a relationship with two girls, although both relationships are not a serious type. However, one of the girls wants him to be committed. Then, I asked if he had had any sexual relationship with any of them, but he said no. The girl was not born in the United States; she came from Korea several years ago. So, I tried to enlighten him that there are cultural differences in dating. I also told him that Asian women devote themselves to their boyfriends or husbands, and they very serious about commitment issues. However, in America, dating tends to be much less formal. Adolescent boys and girls still go together to events, and they spent more time together informally. The second girl that Jason was dating was born in the United States. She tends to date less formerly than the other girl, so, she does not want to commit herself to Jason. American adolescents begin dating earlier today than before, and their dating behavior tends to follow a sequence. First, same gender looks for place where they can meet other groups of different gender, mixed gender group arranged to go to the same events together, and adolescent couples begin to date as pairs. It has also been noted that biological maturity has slight effects on the timing of dating for different individual. Adolescents date for recreation, companionship, intimacy and courtship, but these reasons change along with people’s age. As emerging adulthood, people tend to seek something different apart from their romantic partners. However, dating is usually and generally related to positive development of adolescents. Robert J. Sternberg, a cognitive psychologist, stated that three fundamental qualities of love are passion, intimacy, and commitment. These can be merged into seven different forms of love, which are liking, infatuation, empty love, romantic love, companionate love, fatuous love, and consummate love. Jason’s relationship with the Asian American girl does not have long term commitment, which means that there are two principal types of love being practice by Jason; infatuation and empty love. However, the first girl was looking for romantic love and companionate love. Feelings of passion appear to be virtually universal characteristic of adolescents’ love, and romantic love is more based on marriage, which is the characteristics of adults, but it is also related to cultural differences of dating behaviors. Jason told me that he feels more comfortable dating the Asian American girl than the other girl. People of all ages tend to have romantic relationships with people who are similar to them. I inquired from Jason if he feels comfortable talking about their sexual relationship, and he told me, he has not have any sexual relationships with of them yet, but he told me that he has practice other sexual behaviors, but not the sexual intercourse. Kissing and necking are the first sexual experiences most adolescents have with their sexual partner. The next sequential step would be petting. Therefore, dating and having sexual relationships would vary based on cultural differences. First, sexual intercourse has shown distinct ethnic differences. Recently, it has been noted that African American adolescents are more likely to move quickly to intercourse while Asian Americans are less likely to engage in sexual activity in their adolescences. It would be more accurate and effective if I was able to ask these kinds of questions from girls, but teenagers seem more comfortable discussing these kinds of information to someone of their gender and age group. I was born in Korea and lived in Korea for more than 15 years; this makes me more conservative about dating and sexual behavior than American students. In South Korea, boys and girls tend to separate themselves more than teenagers in the United States. Basic concepts of having relationship vary from culture to culture. Dating is even less formal in European societies, and also in non-western societies dating is fairly rare. In the United States, hugging and kissing is very common for greeting, but in Korea, the friendliest way of greeting other people is shaking hands. I was extremely surprised when I first came to America; I saw how they were very open-minded in terms of greeting others. Woman sitting on man’s lap in public is easily seen in America, but in Korea or any other Asian countries this is extremely rare. Moreover, the meaning of dating and having relationship varies in different cultures, but due to the development of technology, such as internet and media, the spread of American and European cultures of dating is fast spreading to Asia. Asian people today have become more aggressive and open-minded. There are three types of cultural approaches to adolescent sexuality: these are restrictive, semi restrictive, and permissive. American majority culture is probably best classified as semi restrictive. However this is shaded with ambivalence. For instance, the spread of internet had caused teenagers to adapt pornography earlier than before. Spreading of internet and media helps people to live better and comfortable lives, but it can also cause other teenage problems, such as teenage pregnancy and date rape. Sexual harassment includes mild harassment like name-calling, jokes, while severe harassment involves unwanted touching or sexual contact. Rates of sexual harassment in adolescence are strikingly high and it is often the continuation of patterns of bullying established before adolescence. In addition, females are more likely to be the victims while males are the harassers. Date rape takes place when a person is forced by a romantic partner, date, or has sexual intercourse against the partner’s will. Although there are no such occurrences of these inappropriate sexual conceptions in my observational place, however, it is more common in urban areas. Dating and relationship is constantly or more rapidly changing over time, not only from cultural differences, but also from advancement in technology. However, it is almost impossible to stop those two components. Based on my observation and my personal experience, the best way to lead the teenagers in right and appropriate manners is keep them active, make them do lots of healthy and productive activities. Also, by opening up this kind of conversation in the public, it will reduce teenage pregnancy and date rape. Forcing them and keeping them in-door might help at the initial stage, but it will cause even more terrible situations. If we know that our children will eventually date and have sexual relationship with someone, it would be better to teach them how to have a responsible relationship and safe sex before hand. This will reduce the teenage and unwanted pregnancy in our society. Therefore, we should come up with how to create more interesting and entertaining sex education to enlighten our teenagers in public.

An Examination of Two Sides of a Controversy

One that might make your hair rise, scream with all your might or run very fast is the sight of a human skull and skeleton during a full moon in an old abandoned house. This is the usual scene in a horror movie. Indeed, people fear seeing human remains. But skeletal remains can also cause conflict between museum owners, scientists and tribal groups.Authorities are usually torn between legal wrangling of these groups each one claiming the remains’ ownership. Nations of the world are also locked in debates over cultural property rights and intellectual property rights. The dispute between two great nations over great artifacts also has some repercussion on the economy of these two countries.Almost all schools and universities in the world maintain a museum basically for their activities in arts and sciences. In here, actual samples or replicas of the past are stored and lessons are becoming interesting if students can readily see what they read in the books. The more interesting the contents of the museums, the more famous they become. This generates sense of pride for the institution and sometimes become a source of revenues too.This is the reason why museums are trying to acquire interesting objects and when they become part of the museum, the real owner of the object finds it difficult to claim it. This becomes the source of conflict between museum administrator and Native Americans in the case of ancient artifacts. Archaeologists too are hard bent on keeping them because they are prized possessions and scientists can discover various things from studying the object and contribute to the enhancement of science.One afternoon of a windy Sunday, more than ten years ago, while seeing hydroplane race, along the shores of the Columbia River, two students found human skull that was washed into the shore. An almost complete skeleton was also found in the place. Study conducted on the remains has yielded information that the skull is already 9,400 years old. A c onflict ensued immediately among scientists, Native Americans including local authorities (Ainsworth 2000).In Honolulu, Hawaii, artifacts were borrowed from a museum but apparently, the group who borrowed failed to return the remains and refused to reveal the whereabouts of the Native Hawaiian artifacts. This led to the filing of contempt of court by the federal judge against four heads of a Hawaiian gang.The four are members of the group called Group Caring for the Ancestors of Hawaii. Members of the group claimed that the artifacts were removed from its original place by an archaeologist and illegally offered for sale to the Museum. Group members assert that they just return the artifacts to where they rightly belong (New York Times 2005).An archaeology student recovered bones, beads and pieces of shells in Dry Lake Cave at the southern tip of Owens Valley in 1950. She wrote her findings in her record notebook. More than 50 years later, while her artifacts together with her record s are lying inside a stockroom in Hershey Hall, three elders of the tribal group Timbisha Shoshone of Death Valley carefully inspect artifacts trying to see objects with cultural value, which they feel are rightfully theirs. The land of their ancestors includes the Dry Lake Cave (Lee 2002).Pauline Estevez, a tribal leader, who had an invitation to visit UCLA from the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, remarked, â€Å"It is our obligation as Indian people to safeguard our land and its wealth, Some of the artifacts here are part of our treasures which we think should not be kept by the museum or its collector because the land is their rightful owner† (Lee 2002).That is the reason why Estevez took the opportunity to yield to the invitation of the Fowler Museum of Cultural History. As an elder of a tribal group, she feels that what belongs to her land should be returned because they are part of their culture. The artifacts can be their ancestors or the treasures they brought with them which witnessed the birth of their tribe. They take pride in those artifacts and should also be seen by the younger generations as part of their identity.The Kennewick man who was found in the shore of the Columbian river was supposed to be returned to the five American Indian Tribes who jointly filed a claim so that they can possess and rebury the remains that they believe are theirs. The claim was under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. The natives might have the same motive as those inhabitants of Death Valley. What belongs to them should be returned so that the remains of their ancestors can reunite with their land and the community where they once belong.The natives feel that their ancestors will be more peaceful going back to where they belong rather than to remain in the cold museum (Ainsworth 2000). That could be the same motive that prompts leaders of the Hawaiian group not to return the artifacts that were borrowed from the Hawaiian museum. They asserted that since those artifacts were taken illegally from their original burial place, they should be returned there so that the souls of their ancestor will really lie in peace.Meanwhile, a group of angry archaeologists who are interested in the Kennewick man want to study the remains. The finding of a 9,400 year old artifact naturally will interest them. They protested the move that will give the natives the right to the ownership of the Kennewick man. That started the legal battle between the archaeologists and the ConfederatedTribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (Ainsworth 2000). While the natives are fighting for the return of the remains so that it can once again be a part of the original community and peacefully lie there, the scientists are hoping that they can contribute significantly to the world of science if they can study the remains. They believe that they can learn from the past as a way of improving the future.Thomas spoke in a crowded Kroeber H all and states that the significant issue about the Kennewick remains are neither about religion nor science. According to him the issue is with regards to politics and not philosophy, about leadership and power. The question of who calls the shot when it comes to ancient American history.Is it the federal, the science community or the American Indian? Thomas is a vocal advocate of cooperative partnership between the American Indians and the scientists. He maintained that in a case like the Kennewick man, it’s a long and bitter fight, which can reach the Supreme Court. He believes that this case can be settled away from the premises of the court (Ainsworth 2000).

Pleasantville Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Pleasantville - Essay Example and polished world they represented did not express the truth about life, thus giving people a false belief about what it means to live in the United States. Looking at the writings of Cornelius Plantinga Jr. and Bruce Epperly, the film Pleasantville is analyzed against writings that express the meaning of God within the life of the Christian, creating a discourse on how the perfection of this world is measured against the expectations of God. Plantinga reminds his readers that God expects us to embrace suffering, to go out into the world and serve without expecting to find glory. Epperly reminds us that the world is bigger than the human experience, that finding the whole world gives the human experience the authenticity that God had intended. Through looking at Pleasantville through the writings of Plantinga and Epperly, the Christian experience in the world is expressed as more than just the illusions of perfection as it is sought after within the confines of the American dream. The film Pleasantville (1998) is a fantasy in which the idea of what is the ideal of American life is explored through the concept of 1950s television. Television shows such as Leave it to Beaver and Daddy Knows Best are often used as measures against which the American dream is examined for the best case scenario. In the film Toby McGuire and Reese Witherspoon are sucked into an alternate universe of Pleasantville, a black and white television program. Pleasantville is McGuire’s favorite television program and a bit of magic occurs during a marathon which pulls them into this universe. The perfection of the world is challenged as the black and white life of the characters begin to give way to bursts of color as they emerge on landscapes and people when their belief systems are challenged by the two interlopers. This symbolizes the nature of the oppression of emotions as they are released so that a greater depth is experienced. The restrictive, always content and serenely bla nd

Combined joint task force-horn of Africa Research Paper

Combined joint task force-horn of Africa - Research Paper Example Terrorism has been one of the key issues in countries such as Yemen, Djibouti, Sudan, Ethopia, Eriteria, Somolia, and Kenya, commonly known as Horn of Africa. Lot of efforts and key strategies have been formulated over a period of time to counter this menace One such effort to combat terrorism was the establishment of a Combined Joint Task Force which was formed to address the issues of terrorism in Horn of Africa.The paper understudy is aimed at giving an overview of this task force and its operations typically in Kenya The paper understudy is aimed at giving an overview of this task force and its operations typically in Kenya with a view to address the efforts launched in by this team in combating and reducing terrorist activities. Moreover, it also accentuates on the manner in which the contribution of Kenya with respect to war on terrorism has attracted the United State’s attentions and interest in the region. The establishment of Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa took place on 19  October, 2002  (Combined Joint Task Force- Horn of Africa, 2011)  in North Carolina under the oversight of United State Central Command. CJTF - Horn of Africa conducts operations in East Africa, namely in Yemen, Djibouti, Sudan, Ethiopia, Criteria, Somalia and Kenya to build and foster an effective counterterrorism partnership. This was done to promote regional security, ensure stable conditions within the horn of Africa AOR, oversee conflict and dispute prevention, and safeguard and protect the interest of the United States and its allies. Prior to the creation of the CJTF – Horn of Africa, Kenya was plagued by rampant, unchecked terrorism that had impacts within the local, regional and global theaters. Once established however, Kenya’s ability to combat terrorism within the horn of Africa AOR bolstered dramatically.  Ã‚   The discussion of CJTF - Horn of Africa would remain incomplete without its role in Kenya which holds a very substantial and significant place in the war against terrorism. Many experts have regarded Kenya as a harbor of increasing terrorist activities and branded it as a helpless state victimized by waves of terrorism throughout the country. In 2003 the Government of Kenya accepted that western countries had been targeted by a possible member of the Al Qaeda network, affirming the potential of Al Qaeda operating within national boundaries. Beginning with a bombing attack on the American Embassy  (Ploch, 2011), the country’s capital showed signs of terrorist activities as far back as 1998.  Ã‚  The acknowledgement from government however, came very late. Since then, Kenya has become a regular victim of groups having international terrorism expertise. Further investigation determined that poor immigration laws and security legislature have greatly contributed to  the terrorism flourishing in the region. The cells in Kenya were completely under control by foreign groups from within the Gul f States and Somalia.  Ã‚  These groups eventually involved locals, helping them to establish their businesses and using these as fronts for their networks. The leaders of these Kenyan Cells were found to have connections with the Al Qaeda network and disappeared soon after the attacks on the US embassy. The government, in cooperation with FBI, then made endeavors to destroy these Al Qaeda controlled cells in various parts of country, including arrests in July and November of 2001 of Yemeni and Somali people.  Ã‚  Despite of all these efforts, the situation in Kenya never fully regained control and an Israeli airliner was shot down in Mombasa in  2002. The investigation led to another connection with Al Qaeda and revealed terrorist control over major elements of the national security system, as evident by their transportation of surface-to-air missile which was fired at an American military jet at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia  (Menkhaus, 2011). After this devel opment, the Kenyan government officially acknowledged the

Physics lab Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Physics lab - Essay Example In fact, we create cars and vehicles with built-in breaks for us to be able to control their acceleration or speed and direction from time to time. We wear our seatbelts because of the danger associated with riding in a car vehicle in a speed. We also create objects with a design of making it easy for us to employ unbalanced force to transfer them from a place to another for instance and in order to break the law stating that they have the tendency to remain at rest once they do. The unbalanced force we might exert could be measured. A very important idea is the creation of meter for acceleration or speed in vehicles. Measuring the speed of an object in motion is important because in the case of automobiles this could at least ensure our safety on the road at a greater odds. On the other hand, â€Å"when a force is applied to an object, the change of motion in the object is proportional to the force applied to the object† (Grimshaw, 2007, p.74). This is Newton’s powerful second law of motion. In a simple understanding, we can easily state this law in a manner that we are conscious of the fact that heavier objects require more force to move them. At this point, it is very important to calculate the specific amount of force usually is needed to be employed in order to move an object to a certain direction or distance. Based on this concept, Newton therefore was able to calculate force as the product of the object’s mass and acceleration. This exactly applies and validates the stated given idea linked up with his second law of motion. Another learning from Newton’s concepts and ideas include the relationship existing between static friction and gravity. From the class discussion, I learned that provided an object is set undisturbed on a surface for instance, the only force that acts on it is a gravity. Static friction is therefore developed in this case because the object

Human Cloning and Its Consequences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Cloning and Its Consequences - Essay Example Human cloning is also wrong for other reasons, one of them being that human clones might have their bodies harvested for body parts and/or human organs. Then they would be left for dead. We must remember that every person has a soul and a spirit. People should not be grown like oranges on a tree. There has been talk about, indeed, cloning people in order to harvest their organs for one’s clone. This is not only morally reprehensible, but also ethically wrong. How one could even consider raising a human, only to use the human’s body parts for another human—is almost inconceivable. It is possible, but why would any forward-thinking individual want to do something like that? Not only is it a moral lapse, but it would also be a societal lapse as well. The value of human life would be reduced to what a human could provide in terms of body parts and/or organs for another human being. That is absolutely disgusting, not to mention wrong. Human cloning has no place in our society. Perhaps someday, people might have more of a vested interest in seeing their clone produce body parts or even organs which they might be able to harvest for themselves. This is not only ethically dangerous but morally backwards. Cloning has no place in our society because we do not want people who look just like us, talk just like us, and, in short—make a mockery of the human race. Everyone is an individual, and even clones would have their own personalities, even if their bodies were to be identical to the people being cloned. It has come to the attention of a one Dr. Gregory Pence that such research is necessary in order to foment the research field in ethical medical bioengineering. As a medical doctor, he can see many reasons for why people should indeed embrace cloning in all its forms. However, when Dr. Ruth Macklin presents her ideas as to why she feels that cloning would not be a good idea, her rationale seems to make much more logical sense as to why we sho uldn’t clone humans. In his book Medical Ethics, Dr. Pence—a seemingly ethical biomedical doctor— argues in favor of cloning, noting that it is not something of which one should be afraid.2 Of course, the idea of cloning people is not an entirely new one, but we must take into account the risks and the problematization of human existence. We already know that stem cell experiments are taking place, so the question remains, â€Å"What next?† How far will we have to fall as a society for us to realize that cloning is immoral and wrong? It may not be easy to convince those who are persuaded by scientific research that cloning is the way to go—the wave of the future, if one will. It will not be easy to convince those who are insistent upon the fact that there is nothing wrong with cloning—when the ethical scruples are staring us in the face. How is it going to be possible to clone people ethically? It just doesn’