The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

For someone who majored in music theory and history, I sure wasn’t very good at music theory and history. But by my senior year, we had gotten enough mandatory theory sequences that we were allowed to choose the next two theory courses from a list of… four. I chose two counterpoint classes for my last two semesters, the first of which was a Renaissance counterpoint class.

The professor of this class was the late David Lewin, a formidable figure we had often seen in the hallways of the music building. He would shuffle by with his head down, grunting in response to a greeting, or walking right by us without acknowledgement. He may have been the only music department staff member who was too scary to approach casually. This was probably one reason there were only four other students who chose this class. I suppose the lack of interest in Renaissance-style polyphony, or “species counterpoint,” was also a contributing factor. In any case, a class of five was great.

I was happy to discover that I was actually pretty good at this style of counterpoint. It was very rule-based, and writing lines of music in this style reminding me more of puzzles and math than of music. The five of us were also surprised to find that Professor Lewin was a laid-back and loose teacher with a sharp sense of humor. The persona that was so terrifying to us before was in fact not a reflection of some grumpy ill-will, but rather a result of the complete absorption of his concentration on whatever genius was occurring inside his head as he walked from one place to another.

Some of this genius appeared in a thick packet of paper he handed out on the second day of class. The packed was composed entirely of pages filled with doctored comic strips. (click on the strips to enlarge)

Let’s recap. The distinguished composer, theorist, counterpoint expert, and senior professor David Lewin sat in his office thinking up jokes to fill in the bubbles of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. He then found the perfect font to print the words in, then cut and pasted the scraps of text into the word bubbles of photocopied comic strips. Not only that, but the alternate text fit the panels perfectly and were truly funny, in a music-nerd sort of way. How much did I love this professor?!

Everyone knows that Bill Watterson is a comic and artist genius. Everyone knew that Professor Lewin was a brilliant music theorist. Who knew they would go so well together?

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Tags: cartoons music+theory renaissance+counterpoint David+Lewin Bill+Watterson