Features
Prof talk with Rob Hopkins
By Robert Marston ’17
October 6, 2016
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Position: Associate Professor of Music
At Hamilton since: 1983
What was the last book you loved?
Robert A. Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power. I love all the Caro books on Johnson. Absolutely fascinating and insightful.
What was the last piece of music you loved?
“Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” by Cole Porter… ”When you’re near there’s such an air of spring about it, I can hear a lark somewhere begin to sing about it; there’s no love song finer, but how strange the change from major to minor, ev’ry time we say goodbye.”
What music did you listen to in high school?
The Fifth Dimension; the Beatles; Simon & Garfunkel; Dionne Warwick; Peter, Paul, and Mary.
Which musical artists or genres might we be surprised to learn you like?
Barbershop quartet music; Broadway musicals; Stan Getz (I used to play tenor sax).
What is a very obscure interest of yours?
How composers such as Franz Schubert achieved musical closure even in sonata-form movements that are rarely performed.
What are two “gateway” pieces you would recommend to someone who knows very little about classical/art music and would like to learn more?
Nice! Hundreds of years of great music in hundreds of different styles and I get to choose only two pieces?! I’d first want to know the general interest of the person before answering, but given no information I’d say (other than Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings”) the first movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and “Nessun dorma” by Puccini (and sung by Luciano Pavarotti). Be sure to find out the story behind “Nessun dorma” before you listen so you understand the emotions that are in play.
Who are your five favorite composers, in order from 1-5?
Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, Brahms and Bach.
What is your favorite book on music?
Leonard B. Meyer: Emotion and Meaning in Music. A terrific book that really makes you think.
What is your favorite chord?
That really depends on the specific context (the specific harmonic progression), but overall I’d say I love ninth chords.
You are a singer. Who is a singer you admire, and why?
Ella Fitzgerald. What can I say? She makes everything sound easy. She has incredible range, awesome interpretations and style, style, style.
What topic (or topics) do you wish you knew more about?
Lots of things, including the incredibly diverse contemporary music scene, and (since I’m chair of the Committee on Academic Policy this year) what a majority of the Faculty wants to change in Hamilton’s curriculum for the long-term. I expect to find out a lot more about the latter during this academic year.
What do you like most about teaching?
That teaching allows me to be part of an intellectual community of students and colleagues who strive to be life-long learners and help each other increase our understanding of this world.
What do you consider your best quality?
Always striving to do better.
What talent or skill don’t you possess that you wish you did?
Professional singing talent. I would love (at least for a while) to earn a living as a singer.
What is something you know now that you wish you had known when you were 20?
That raising children is the most important thing I will do in my life.
What would make you happy on an average day at Hamilton?
A former student of mine stops by to say “hello.”