Mus 202 music appreciation
Concert
Report Assignment
Your Concert Report should be on a performance of
music in the European-American-art music (“Classical music”) tradition.
It is suggested that you get approval of your concert choice in advance;
inappropriate concert choices will lower your grade by 10-20%. The report should be between 3-4 typed,
double-spaced, pages. You may attend an additional concert and write an
additional concert report for extra credit in attendance. Attach tickets
stubs or programs to your report.
CONCERT REPORT DUE last
regular class meeting
Suggestions
Write the first draft of your report as soon as possible after the concert so your impressions remain fresh, but don’t write during the concert. Use the program to remind yourself of what you heard when you write your report. Use the program as a way to helping yourself use correct terminology. Do not use the program notes as a substitute for your own thinking and personal reactions; do not cram your report full of historical tidbits about the piece. Comment on matters of historical background only if they directly influence your personal experience of the music. Read “Why So Serious?,” by Alex Ross in the New Yorker magazine, 8 Sep 2008, before you go to a classical music concert. It is about the evolution of classical music concert audience behavior.
Concert
Report Format
Introduction
(10% in length and value)
Briefly identify the concert. Who
performed? What pieces were performed? Where was it
performed? Briefly describe the
performance space, physical surroundings, and the appearance of the performers.
Objective Description of the Music (30% in length and value)
Describe instrumentation, dynamics, texture, rhythm
and tempo, form & relationships between movements, principles of design in
the compositions, etc. –– Note extremes or what is most striking. How do
these elements work together?
Subjective Reactions to the Music (50% in length and value)
Did you like individual pieces? Did you have
emotional reactions to any particular piece? Why did you react the way
you did? Was it in the composition or the performance or both? What
held your attention? Did your mood change in the course of the
concert? Was the concert full of variety or was it all more or less the
same? Could the performance be better? How? Could the
selection of compositions performed have been more to your taste? Was
this a familiar or a new experience? Was there a theatrical dimension to
the performance? How does your concert
going experience compare to those discussed in the Alex Ross “Why So Serious?”
article?
Conclusion
(10% in value)
Did you like or dislike the experience overall?
FURTHER
STYLE SUGGESTIONS:
Concert
review suggestions
1. Begin with a clear topic sentence and an
introductory paragraph that tells me what you are going to tell me.
2. After giving a general sense of your
impressions in the introductory paragraph, give details and specific
examples. Which of the two following
examples is more interesting to read?
In 1985, I attended a performance of the Mozart Requiem by a community
chorus and orchestra in
-
In 1985, I attended a performance of the Mozart Requiem by a community
chorus and orchestra in
Always
try to be specific as possible. One
could write, "the performance was exciting," but is that entirely
true? Surely some parts of the
performance were more exciting than others and some were not exciting at
all. Which is the more interesting
phrase, "a bird in a tree" or "a robin in a willow"? Details give life and energy to writing.
3. While details are good, don't just list only a
bunch of details. The reader will not
know what they mean. Don't just tell me
"redwood, alder, oak, pine, sycamore" –– tell me "FOREST!"
4. If you have
heard the piece before, especially on a recording, you may wish to compare the
performance with the one with which you are familiar. Were some of the tempos faster or
slower? Were some sounds more distinct
or more blended? Is the balance within
the parts of the orchestra, chorus and soloists different? Were rhythms more or less precise? Besides just listing differences that you
noticed, tell me what those differences mean to you. It was better
because it was slower or it was less interesting because it was slower or louder or softer . . .
David
Meckler
Rev.
Feb 2009
Cañada College