Exploring Music Online
The purpose of the concert report with its required attendance at a live art music concert is for you to experience and respond to a work of art as it is created in real time, and to reflect on the experience.
Learning Goals
This assignment is designed to foster the following program goals:
1. Critical thinking
2. Contextualized learning
3. Interdisciplinary thinking
4. Communication skills
5. Information literacy
6. Civic engagement
7. Lifelong learning
This assignment helps students develop artistic literacy through the following area goals:
1. Experience and respond to a creative work of art or creative process.
2. Recognize and interpret a work of art or creative process in a societal, historical or cultural context.
3. Describe or evaluate a work of art or creative process using appropriate terminology.
4. Demonstrate "appreciation" for the value of art in our lives and society.
5. Function as a member of an audience.
This assignment works towards course goals and objectives by helping students learn to:
4. Provide at least three evidence-based reasons for why some musical works from over a century ago are still relevant and popular today.
5. Theorize about the relevance of live musical performance today through academic research and first-hand experience as a critical audience member at a live concert event.
Instructions:
- Attend the approved live art music concert that you wrote about for your proposal.
- Take a picture of yourself at the event. Save your ticket and / or program.
- Construct a report about the event that meets the criteria outlined on the next page.
- Include a cover page with your name, the title and date of the concert, and the name of the piece you chose to research.
- Submit as an electronic copy to Blackboard by uploading it in the Concert Report folder. Include a picture of yourself at the event, along with a second picture of your ticket and program.
- No direct quotations should be used. Please summarize or paraphrase information. Cite all sources using in-text citations. Include a works cited list in MLA or APA format. Here is a citation guide.
Exploring Music Online I Spring 2017
Part One: Research (approx. 300 - 400 words)
Conduct research on a piece of music that was performed at your event, preferably the piece you listened to for the proposal. Here are some questions you should consider answering in this section:
What is known about this piece? Why was it written? What is the genre of this piece? Does it fit the expectations for its genre (e.g. number and kind of movements, length etc.)? If you dare, you may also write about things such as timbre, texture, form, melody, and harmony. This can be difficult with large pieces because they often feature multiple timbres, textures, and keys.
You may also write about the musical characteristics of the era (and how your piece reflects or rejects them), the historical context (what was happening in the world - is the work influenced by these things?), or any other technical or critical aspects that you can think of or to which your research leads you.
Use at least three sources for your research. At least two of these must be a scholarly source. Scholarly sources are dictionaries and encyclopedias, any article found on JSTOR, a textbook, or any book in the library.
Use this research guide to get started. I recommend using the Oxford Music Online database. Additional sources may be of your own choosing and might include the program notes from you were given at the concert, newspaper articles, concert reviews, relevant websites, or Wikipedia.
Part Two: Report (approx. 150 - 250 words)
Describe the event. Where was it? What was the demographic breakdown of the audience? Were they mostly old, young, students, community members, etc.? How did the audience react? What did the musicians play?
Part Three: Reactions (approx. 150 - 250 words)
What did it feel like being in the venue? What did you think about the performance? Did you enjoy the music? What did you experience as an audience member?
Part Four: Interview (approx. 100 - 200 words)
After the show or during intermission, talk to at least one person at the event that you don't know. Ask them why they came to this particular event and what they thought. Include a summary of this interview in the paper.
Part Five: Relevance (approx. 150 - 250 words)
Based on your experience, research, observations, and interview, theorize about the significance of live musical performance today. In this section, you should consider the following three questions:
- How is hearing the music live different from listening to recorded music?
- What does the dedication of the performers reveal about this kind of music?
- Do you think this type of music will continue to be performed and/or valued in the future, and why or why not?