Video concert report

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