Video concert report

INSTRUCTIONS

Choose from among the videos provided at the end of this document, and write your report on your choice.

Do not write on something else.

Given that you cannot report on a live concert experience, this paper will be very similar to the Song Analysis. Focus on two areas:

1. Your subjective responses to the music.

Remember, “subjective response” refers to your personal reactions – your impressions of mood and emotion. In some types of music (i.e. Baroque), a given mood will tend to remain fairly consistent within a single movement. In other types, mood may shift much more frequently.

Your subjective responses should be on the brief side, and should take up no more than a total one of the three required pages.

2. Your objective musical observations of the music. The space given to objective observations should add up to at least two of the required three pages.

Getting started:

Listen to the full video several times, jotting down subjective impressions.
Where applicable, note where in the timing the breaks between movements or musical numbers occur.
Ask yourself: how has the composer used musical elements to produce your subjective responses? This question leads to your objective musical observations.
What you should NOT write about: the history of the piece or its composer, or the story of any piece that tells a story. This paper is about your responses to, and observations of, the music.
Objective Musical Observations

A few observations may be general rather than specific. For instance, if you are writing about a piece without tempo changes, you can simply use a musical term to describe that tempo.

However, use timings to note the places you hear specific musical points of observation.

The key to a good (and high-scoring) paper is to make a lot of specific musical observations. That means a lot of timings. “Specific” can include very short moments (one timing), or short passages of music – for instance “There is a steady crescendo from 2:16 to 2:43.”

All observations should be your own.

You should certainly review the Musical Elements handout from the beginning of class, and use the terminology given there. I have posted that handout on Blackboard under “Course Materials.” However, I do not expect expertise beyond the material presented in this class.

To be clear: unless you yourself are a musician capable of more sophisticated levels of analysis, your paper should not – I repeat SHOULD NOT – include more sophisticated levels of analysis. You should never include information in a paper that you yourself do not thoroughly understand.

And, as a reminder: you should never include information of any kind without citing your source. If you do that you are committing plagiarism: intellectual theft. Plagiarism is a serious academic offense, and will get you in trouble.

There are plenty of elements you can observe using the tools from this introductory class. These may include:

Tempo, and tempo changes
Meter and other aspects of rhythm
Dynamic levels and changes, either sudden or gradual
Density changes. This is usually one of the easier elements to observe, particularly when you have a visual to refer to. How many people are singing/playing at any given time? Does a density build or reduction affect dynamics?
Timbres:
Instrumentation, including instruments featured in solo moments.
Voice types. Soloists? Ensembles? Choir?
Text setting styles in vocal music – do you hear melismatic writing? (lots of notes on a single syllable) Syllabic? (mostly one note per syllable). Both? Where?
Harmony: Mode and mode changes; passages where you hear build-ups and releases of tension (note the specific release points, in particular).*
Pitch ranges
Texture and texture changes
Structural form (the sections of repetitions, variations, and contrasts you hear as the music progresses. Don’t worry about identifying any specific standard form, though if you do, great.)
*Unless you are a musician with your own knowledge of music theory, please DO NOT provide harmonic analysis. That includes any information about chord progressions and keys, other than keys mentioned in the title of a piece.

Please note that you are expected to listen to, and make several observations about, the ENTIRE video of your choice, not some small portion thereof. That is true whether the video is of one large piece of music, or several smaller pieces.

You do not have to observe everything about every minute of the music, but your paper should demonstrate that you have thoughtfully listened to the full video.