凯文·巴伦茨（右），中国科学院写作项目硕士讲师，从2008年开始教授鲍勃·迪伦的课程。 2016年，CFA音乐教授杰里米·尤德金（杰里米Yudkin，左）加入了他的课程，他为课程增添了跨学科的元素。

艺术与文化

在波士顿大学迷恋鲍勃·迪伦15年

从2008年开始，Terriers在两位波士顿大学教授的帮助下，分析了一代人声音的诗歌和歌曲结构

1996年，年轻的凯文·巴伦茨从詹姆斯·麦迪逊大学毕业后不久就发现了鲍勃·迪伦的音乐。 As an aspiring 诗人 and writing instructor, 巴伦支海 connected to the singer’s notoriously elaborate lyrics and storytelling.

“Nobody has been as expansive as Dylan in terms of so many styles, so many emotions, so many themes,” says 巴伦支海, now a master lecturer in 波士顿大学’s College of Arts & Sciences 写作计划. “不是只有一个迪伦。”

In 2008, 巴伦支海 introduced 鲍勃·迪伦的歌词 to the 写作计划, a course that taught students to examine 诗人ic structure and figurative language through songs like “Visions of Johanna” and “Tangled Up in Blue.” 大约15年过去了，巴伦茨让这位创作歌手的名字和他的歌词留在新一代口中的决心仍然很坚定。 这门课在学生中大受欢迎，并在波士顿大学催生了更多以迪伦为中心的教学，以这位传奇词曲作者为中心人物，教授学生歌曲结构、艺术意图和文化批判。 15年之后，这门课程经历了重大调整，但它仍然充满了有抱负的作家、音乐家和粉丝。

“有一段时间，这几乎是我在写作课程中唯一教的东西，”巴伦茨回忆说。 “几年来，我每年可能会教五到六个部分。”

These days, college courses organized around a popular singer’s song catalog are increasing in popularity—especially if the singer in question is 泰勒•斯威夫特. 但在2008年，开设鲍勃·迪伦（Bob Dylan）课程是一个相对新颖的提议，而且引起了轰动。 美国国家公共电台 soon caught wind—and so did 杰里米Yudkin, a professor of music at the College of 美术.

“I wrote to him and said, ‘Let’s do this together,’” says Yudkin, whose background is in musicology and whose research ranges from medieval polyphony to Beethoven to the Beatles (he teaches a CFA music history course on the Fab Four).

那是在2009年。 But the two weren’t able to launch the interdisciplinary course they had in mind, Bob Dylan: Music and Words, until 2016, when BU’s 教与学中心 began administering 跨学科课程发展补助金 to faculty.

“我们得到了他们提供的第一笔赠款。” “Ironically, despite all the pushback, and people saying Dylan is no big deal, it’s not really serious music, it’s not really serious 诗人ry, we got the grant and then Dylan got the Nobel Prize.”

Although 尤德金和巴伦茨都有资格成为迪伦学家, the course they had in mind was “not just a class on Bob Dylan…[but] a more general appreciation of both 诗人ry and music.” 跨学科方面，借鉴巴伦茨在中国科学院和尤德金在中国科学院的奖学金，将是一个男女同校的实验，结合文本和听觉分析，再加上大量的流行文化历史。 该课程于2016年秋季开始，作为CFA音乐和艺术与科学澳门威尼斯人注册网站研究生院美国与新英格兰澳门威尼斯人注册网站研究项目（AMNESP）课程目录中的一门课程。

“我对合作教学有点担心，我花了一点时间来适应它，”尤德金说。 “I spent 24 years figuring out exactly the trajectory of a course over an hour and a quarter, what I’m going to do when, and so on.”

“我毁了这一切，”巴伦支开玩笑说。

“It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even have to look at a clock—I’m now so adapted to having someone else in the room having ideas about what to do.”

In class, 巴伦支海 and Yudkin play off each other’s relationship with the Dylan catalog, infusing their lectures with anecdotes and fun facts (did you know that the understated 约翰·卫斯理·哈丁 was, at the time, Dylan’s highest charting album?). 在澳门威尼斯人注册抒情意图和专辑流程的讨论中，每个人都向学生提出了探索性的问题，即他们发现短语的转变或使用会话音乐家的效果如何。 尤德金经常在键盘上演示音乐理论原理。

本课程的目标是培养学生作为文化评论家的分析能力； 有一项作业甚至要求他们写一首鲍勃·迪伦的歌，然后写一篇评论。 The syllabus is structured to follow the progression of Dylan’s early albums, from his self-titled debut through the “electric trilogy”—把一切带回家，61号高速公路重访, and 金发女郎—and ending with 1975’s 铁轨上的血迹, which some, including 巴伦支海, consider his best (Yudkin prefers 金发碧眼). Guest speakers have included a CFA guitar instructor, an executive producer of 美国国家公共电台’s 考虑到所有歌曲， and 克里斯托弗·里克斯, BU’s William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities and author of 迪伦的《罪恶的幻象》 (HarperCollins, 2004).

里克斯被巴伦茨和尤德金引用为课程内容的灵感来源。据里克斯说，他们“很久以前”就认识了迪伦，早期澳门威尼斯人注册迪伦的谈话都花在“注意到他注意到的东西有多多、有多多样，以及他注意到的东西之间的关系”上。

In a class on 1969’s 纳什维尔的天际线, an album of croony, intimate country songs, 巴伦支海, Yudkin, and teaching fellow Ryan Deneen (GRS’29’29), an AMNESP PhD candidate, begin a group discussion by asking students, “Does this album make Dylan sexy?” 一致的回答是：并非如此。

一代人的声音有时会在课堂上得到褒贬不一的回应。 In one discussion group, a student acknowledges that he doesn’t like the backing band on 金发女郎 because it “sounds like circus music”; 另一个人指出，迪伦的一些歌词让他们觉得厌恶女性。 一名学生说，他根本不喜欢一次听一整张专辑的迪伦歌曲。

“I think a lot of our students didn’t grow up with Dylan front and center,” 巴伦支海 tells 但是今天. “That’s something that’s changed a lot over the years.”

好吧，时代在变。

尽管如此，尤德金指出，该课程在上市后大约一个小时内就一直挤满了CAS和CFA学员。 报名的人包括音乐专业的学生、迪伦的粉丝，以及那些对这场闹剧感到好奇的人。

“Within the context of Dylan’s music, you could argue that this is a very basic musicology class,” Embie Burger (CFA’25) says. “We’re looking at all of the albums chronologically, so we’re seeing him as an artist throughout time, which impacts his identity and plays into the types of music that he makes.”

“It’s been really cool to analyze music that I hadn’t done before,” says Billy Sanders (CAS’24). “我认为一旦你有了这样的理解，你就可以在另一个层面上欣赏音乐。”

巴伦茨和尤德金说，这就是本质。

“When we designed the course, we said, Dylan’s a fascinating person and you could spend all day talking about his life and relationships and stunts and all that, but we really wanted to focus as much as we could on the work itself,” 巴伦支海 says.

尤德金补充道：“我认为（这门课程）之所以受欢迎，是因为音乐和歌词太棒了。”