This project is a combination of two types of assignments: research, and listening. You will need to find specified information about the pieces and composers, as well as talking about what you hear when you listen to each one. So — you can think of it as a research project with listening, or an extended listening assignment. You have a good while to work on this assignment — start now, pay attention to details, and ask questions as you go along (rather than waiting until a day or two before the paper is due), and you’ve got the ingredients for a good, well-written paper.
ASSIGNMENT: Write a 3-5 page (minimum, double-spaced) paper, comparing and contrasting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s setting (another term might be “version” — how he put that particular text to music) of the “Dies irae” movement of the Requiem Mass with Giuseppe Verdi’s setting of the same text (see below for directions for accessing these pieces — you’ll want to listen to each movement several times as you get familiar enough with each one to make comparisons) from their Requiem Masses, using resources other than our textbook (Music: An Appreciation — I will check this, so do not use that book). Include citations for the resources you use (see Writing Across the Curriculum, available at the bookstore, for format suggestions (and DO NOT use Wikipedia). Spelling and grammardo count for this paper. Please, no graphics for this assignment, just text — this is a formal research paper.
[NOTE: You may use Internet sources, but please do not depend on them for all of your information, as the quality of sites (and thus reliability of contents) varies greatly (in particular, avoid Wikipedia except perhaps as a starting point (only) for links to more reliable sources, since there is no oversight as to what gets posted there and thus no guarantee that what is posted is accurate); please include at least one or two printed resources.]
• Include brief background information on each composer and each large work (his setting of the Requiem Mass as a whole), plus a discussion of each “Dies irae” movement/text setting (translation below). For example, you can include discussion of such things as pitches, rhythm, dynamics, orchestration, etc. What do you hear (this is the “listening assignment” part of the project)?
• Finally, do these settings fit the Classical and Romantic patterns, as appropriate to their style periods? Which do you feel serves the text and its place in the mass better, and why? Which of the two settings do you prefer (which may or may not be different than your answer to the previous question), and why? This is your chance to think critically and write persuasively.