https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnKJpYGCLsg
For this semester you will draw your musical performances from this recorded event: YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 Grand Finale.Links to an external site. The entire performance, including discussions about various performers, lasts almost 2 1/2 hours. For your paper, choose any pieces that you like making sure that you have a total of at least 45 minutes of music. You can find the timings and names of the pieces/composers in the expanded notes.
The concert report should read much like an in-depth newspaper review, combining factual information with your own critical evaluation and including the following elements:
• name and composition of performing group, location and date of performance (intro paragraph)
• general type of concert: string quartet, vocal recital, symphony, choral concert, etc. Names of pieces and composers (intro paragraph)
• physical description of performing group and performance venue
• general description of compositions and musical style.
• more detailed personal descriptions of your chosen pieces. Include musical information on style, rhythmic and melodic features, solos, etc. This is the most important part of the paper. Make sure this description goes beyond the poetic! If you find a piece that reminds you of soldiers marching, butterflies, etc., that’s OK. But you need to tell me what it is in the music that makes you feel that way. Describe melody, tempo, dynamics, rhythms, texture, etc. Do not use a template approach. (In other words, don’t limit all of your descriptions to the same one or two musical elements, such as tempo.) Remember that this assignment must consist of your personal descriptions of what you heard.
• Many genres of classical music are multi-movement. In other words, they consist of more than one section and each is actually an individual piece. For example, a symphony typically consists of four different movements. Other multi-movement genres include concerto, string quartet, suite, cantata, chamber music, sonata, etc. For such genres, you must provide a separate description for each movement.
• your overall reaction to and judgement of the concert
• audience response
Your concert report should be 3-4 typewritten pages in length, double-spaced. Top and side margins should be approximately 1” in size with the exception of the left side margin, which may be 1-1/2 “. Use a reasonable font size. Any final paper with substantial errors in grammar and/or spelling will not receive a grade higher than C+. Make sure your paper is well organized with introductory and concluding paragraphs and a clear, logical order to the main body of the work.
Coordinate your knowledge gained in class with your comments on the concert. I don’t expect technical formal analyses of compositions, but show me that you understand general terms and genres as covered in class. For example, if you hear a concerto or symphony, describe it in a way that shows me your understanding of what a concerto or symphony is. Don’t confuse individual movements and separate works.
Do not include any outside information, including info about composers’ lives, etc. This paper is ONLY about what you see and hear.
I will be happy to look over drafts that are completed at least a week before the due date. Drafts should be considered your best work and a possible final submission, and not merely notes.
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Further assignment info
In this assignment I will be looking for:
– the presence of all required information listed above
– comments that consist of at least five to six complete sentences per composition or movement. Don’t write a list; write a paragraph with complete sentences.
– comments that vary to reflect the individuality of each piece or movement. In other words, don’t use a template approach: “The tempo was….the dynamics were….the instruments were…” etc., for each piece.
– don’t call anything a “song” unless someone is singing.
– This paper must reflect YOUR observations only. Even one sentence of description taken from an outside source constitutes plagiarism and will earn you a grade of “zero.”
In your paper, names of works should be underlined or in italics except for art songs, opera selections, etc., which should be in quotes. Check with your book or with me if you have questions about format.
I will be happy to look over drafts that are completed at least a week before the due date. Drafts should be considered your best work and a possible final submission, and not merely notes.
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Sample (good) student musical description
“In the first movement of the sonata you can clearly hear the predominance of the violin over the piano. There are many sudden dynamic switches between piano and forte, and the violin alternates between playing long held-out notes and shorter, more staccato notes, which gives the impression of rising excitement in the music. As the piece continues the violin and piano begin to echo each other’s flowing musical ideas, and their differing timbres are very striking. Next, the excitement continued to build as the piano began sharply accenting its tones, and there was a clear accelerando in the tempo accompanied by successive crescendos and decrescendos in the dynamics. The movement finished with a suddenly loud passage, followed by a quick very soft ending.”
Things to avoid…
Make sure that your comments (and those on the final live concert report) are not overly general, feature inappropriate use of terminology, or state that something is in a certain style without describing why. The comments below have been extracted from previous years’ assignments, and are examples of the types of overly general or nonsensical remarks to avoid. Hope this helps!
Throughout, the music was monophonic, homophonic, and polyphonic.
The melody and harmony are there, and are distinct and interesting.
This is a female piano piece.
Many dynamics were used, and I like this.
The music was clearly well formed.
The composition clearly contained texture.
The melody of this song is metronome because of how the tempo is.
The melody is in harmony.
The music contains duple and triple harmony.
The ending is unmistakable.
The composer really knows how to use instruments.
I liked the disjunct harmony.
This piece was in retardando style.
The piece had many movements, but they were all the same and very boring.
The piece had a lot of high and low notes, and really impressed me.
The ending made the melody and harmony.
The song was made up of notes, which made it interesting.
The harmony in this piece is tonal.
This piece sounds Italian. (Why?)
This piece sounds French. ”
The symphony had both loud and soft spots.
