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50 YEARS, 50 VOICES
Dr. Ken Hicken
Ken was raised in Raymond, Alberta. He came to Lethbridge Junior College to teach music in 1966 and became the first full-time faculty in the 免费福利资源在线看片 section. Ken retired in 1995, and continued to teach music part-time until the end of 1999.
Ken discusses the challenges of interfacing the Music Department鈥檚 student educational requirements with the 免费福利资源在线看片鈥檚 mandate of liberal education.
The full audio interview will be made available online in late 2017. For more information please contact the 免费福利资源在线看片 of Lethbridge Archives. (mike.perry@uleth.ca)
(JT: 听Jim Tagg, Interviewer)
JT: 听When we moved to the west side, I can鈥檛 remember where you folks were.
KH: 听We were down in the bowels of the building, at the north end.
JT: 听Wow, that鈥檚 like the galley slaves.
KH: 听Well of course.听听Let鈥檚 let things go where they belong.
JT:听 Wow!
KH:听 At that time, I think this is worth mentioning, not everybody was pleased with the Music Department because we kept saying, 鈥榊ou and your liberal arts ideas are out of sync with what we have to do.鈥� 听And with all due respect, there were people there who figured the Liberal Arts were the key to eternal salvation in all areas and which meant, a lot of them figured, when you come to university here鈥檚 your chance finally to explore the world! 听Don鈥檛 concentrate on anything for a while, take a year or two, look around, see what鈥檚 there!听 Well, that鈥檚 not what musicians do. 听They did their looking around when they were 10 years old and decided they wanted to become a musician, play the piano or the violin or whatever.
JT:听 In those early years, I don鈥檛 believe there were any requirements.听 You could take whatever you wanted though too, I think. 听Couldn鈥檛 you?
KH:听 I don鈥檛 know.
JT:听 In 鈥�68, I think, the 鈥�68 calendar you could. 听Yes, it had that freedom idea.
KH: 听Yeah, well this was the whole idea: explore the universe! 听And then make a decision. 听Well, that was fine if you were interested in english, or psychology or sociology or basic science. 听I mean, you don鈥檛 have to have started 10听years ago. 听And that鈥檚 not true, because you did start 10听years ago, or more than that, but you started learning the english language and you learned basic mathematics, and you learned all kinds of things, and, which were a prerequisite. 听You couldn鈥檛 do university level work in mathematics unless you had at least done high school work. 听But there was not the equivalent in music.
JT:听 Yes,听I guess you were kind of on the political outs in Arts and Science there for a while.
KH:听 We were! 听They wanted, they thought, 鈥榃ell, you can have one music course per semester.鈥� 听And we said, 鈥楲ook we got to have at least three!听 You've got to听have to have music theory. 听You've got to听have music history and literature. 听You gotta have your performance area. 听You gotta have to have three!' 听But, oh yeah, they tried to combine all kinds of these things that we really needed with the things that they figured were really important. 听And there was just no meeting of the minds, whatsoever. 听But finally we got to a point that where it was hammered out. 听We could have 30 music courses out of the 40. 听Well, that was at least some progress. 听And then we got it sorted out so I think you could take, oh, two听or three听music courses per semester, and you sort of fitted in all this other stuff wherever you could. 听But, oh it was a battle.
JT: 听That must have been the 鈥�80s before that happened?
KH: 听Yeah. 听It was a battle, because the people who espoused the basic liberal arts idea, well they knew what they were on about and they were justified in what they were doing.听 The only problem was that they did not realize that basically, a basic liberal arts focus and emphasis doesn鈥檛 produce musicians.
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