Mus 10 Introduction to Music Theory

Mus 10 Introduction to Music Theory

Listening journal: guidelines

Overview. As you know from the syllabus, the listening journal is worth 8 percent of your final grade.

One of the greatest pleasures in learning about classical music is listening to live concerts. Ordinarily, you would be expected to attend at least four such concerts and write up a 2000-word report on each.

Given the university shutdown, I would like you instead to write 2000 words about one piece only. Please find a live performance of that piece on YouTube or some other internet source.

Note. Unlike the informal writing of the in-class writing assignments, this assignment should feature your most polished prose.

Note. Initially, I stated in the syllabus that the piece must be unfamiliar to you. As we approach the end of the quarter, I recognize that asking you to seek out such a piece might well prove to be quite a time-consuming task. It is fine therefore, to write about a piece you know and love.

Note. You piece can be one of our “MUS 10 Faves.” If cannot, however, be the piece you discuss in your podcast.

Note. Your computer should automatically count the number of words.

Note. You do not need to write exactly 500 words. But you may not write more than 525 words or fewer than 475. This is how professional writers operate. It requires discipline.

What to include.

1. Identify the composer (with first and last names), the composition, the performing forces, and any other relevant information such as key and opus number, where applicable. Let’s say you were writing about one of Beethoven’s better-known violin sonatas. You would weave the following into your prose:

Example: Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata in F major, op. 24, for Piano and Violin, movement 1, nicknamed the “Spring” sonata.

2. You should also identify the performers in the video you choose.

Example: Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin; Lambert Orkis, piano

3. Identify the style period.

4.Then, devote at least 250-300 words (out of the total of 500) to the elements of music: form, texture, rhythm and meter, melody, harmony, pitch, and the like.

5.You may devote the remaining words to whatever other aspect of the music you like.

Checklist

____ Have I ensured that the piece that I am discussing is not the same piece I address in my podcast?

_____ Have I included the required basic information (composer, with first and last names, name of composition, movement, key or opus number where relevant, nickname if any, performing forces, and style period)?

____ Have I identified the performers?

_____ If I have read any outside sources on my piece, have I taken pains to paraphrase—to put in my own words—whatever I have learned from these sources?

_____ Have I reread the university and the class policies on plagiarism, found on p. 5 of the syllabus?

_____ Are my grammar, spelling, syntax, and punctuation correct?

_____ Are my 500 words logically organized?

_____ Have I ruthlessly struck any unnecessary words? On this point, you might wish to read the humorous essay posted in Canvas, “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words.”

____ Have I submitted my Listening Journal to Assignments (in Canvas) so that my TA receives it before 6 June at 8:00 p.m.?

I look forward to reading your musical insights.

Mus 10 Introduction to Music Theory

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