MUA 1930. Fall 2021. Concert report. Directions and rubric
For the concert report, you will have to watch the concert by the Atlanta Symphony (see link below). You have to pretend you are in the audience and should watch the entire concert at one time (you may not watch excerpts at different times or days).
Link to the concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n050RT8Ad-s
Rubric:
a. Name of our course
b. Date of submission
c. Your name
d. Date of the concert (day when the concert took place)
e. Venue
f. Program (titles of works in italics)
g. Composer(s) name(s)
h. Nationality of the composer(s)
i. Dates of birth and death of the composer(s)
j. Date (year) when the works were composed or premiered
k. Name(s) of main performer(s): soloist, name of orchestra, conductor… you don’t need to include the names of every single member of the orchestra!
l. Medium (that is, instruments): just the main ones, no need to mention each single one. For example: “Strings, woodwinds, and brass.” Or “piano, violin, and cello.”
m. Style period: specify the period of the pieces included in the program (Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, or Modern).
n. Genre: indicate type of composition. It is usually designated in the title, ex.: “String Quartet No. 3”; “Symphony in C minor”; “Opera in three acts” etc.
Examples of genres: symphony, suite, ballet music, opera, motet, serenade, concerto, symphonic poem, opera overture, character piece, Lied, fugue, sonata, Mass, song, string quartet, cantata, oratorio, etc.
o. Definition of the genre of each piece included in the program (the glossary at the end of the textbook can be helpful)
p. Musical discussion: What are the musical features of each piece that illustrate the characteristics of the period they belong to?
q. Discuss your overall reaction to this concert. For example, were the performances convincing or even exciting? How would you rate the performers? etc. Please note spelling, punctuation and grammar do count towards your grade. Here, I am simply looking for your overall reaction. You do not have to like the concert to get a good grade. Just be honest and limit your comments to the music only. Things to avoid include (these are just examples) descriptions of the concert hall, personal statements unrelated to the music (how tired you were, whether you were in a bad or in a good mood, or that the violinist in a strapless red dress looked very sexy…) Also avoid language that may sound too casual (“The piece was very cool…”).
Length: THREE PAGES, double-spaced. Font: Times New Roman. Size: 12 points.
Read the report slowly before submitting it. Avoid the use of terms and statements you do not necessarily understand. Combining musical terms randomly will likely end up as a mistake. Examples (extracted from last semester’s reports): “the tones of the piece were polyphonic”; “the dynamics were both major and minor”; “the opera was written in F key”; “the sounds and feelings within the tones . . . were more distinct than . . .”, etc.).
Points will be deducted if you fail to answer the above-mentioned questions. In addition, points will also be deducted if:
a. The concert featured four pieces and you discussed only three.
b. You do not use paragraph form. Note: General information (names, titles, dates…) can go in bullets. Only the discussion must be in paragraph form.
c. You use contractions: “I didn’t” instead of “I did not”
d. Bad grammar and syntax in general
e. You fail to italicize the titles of pieces and foreign words and phrases, or the spelling is wrong.
f. You use the term “song” when the piece was not a song. The term is only used when a piece of music has a singer singing stuff… therefore a concerto, for example, is not a song, but a piece, a work, or a composition.
g. You neglect to fill any of the information listed above.
You do not need to include a bibliography.