Description
Major Concert Assignment – Attend a live professional concert approved by your instructor. Your required concert must be professional classical music, or a Broadway style musical. It should be something like a symphony, an opera or chamber music. Middle or high school band, choir or orchestra concerts are not appropriate for this assignment.
Introduction
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
Title of the first work. This is your description of what you heard at the concert. If a work has several movements describe the manner in which the movements are related. Provide a narrative of your observations concerning melody, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, instrumentation, texture, form, etc. Describe the major musical characteristics of the piece, including the solos, tempo, dynamics, instrumentation, or themes, etc.
You must write about every piece on the concert. Comment on every piece on the program!. You do not have to describe all movements of each piece. If a work has several movements describe the manner in which the movements are related.
Heads Up!
The objective descriptions must consist solely of your own observations about the music as performed at the concert you attended. Your paper should not include facts about the music from other sources, such as: notes, the web, liner notes, other students, the text, etc. Including unaccredited material—program notes, web sites, newspaper reviews. Using outside sources in your objective descriptions will result in a failing grade.
Subjective Reactions to the Music – 50% in length and value
These paragraphs describe your emotional response to the music. Did you like it or dislike it and, most importantly, why did you react as you did? What about the performance affected you? Express your opinion, but don’t forget to explain your reasons.
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?
Write a single short paragraph of subjective reaction for each piece on the concert even if the piece has more than one movement. Do not write a separate subjective reaction for each movement in multi-movement pieces. Continue with titles of additional pieces / work
Objective Descriptions and Subjective Reactions for each additional piece on the concert follow here. Write on each piece performed.
Conclusion – 10% in value
Did you like or dislike the experience overall?
Quality of Performance
The final Quality of Performance paragraph is the conclusion of your report. It focuses on the concert as a whole, rather than on the individual pieces. What were the notable features of the overall performance? If you know the pieces, were there some different or even incorrect interpretations? Were there distracting elements in the performance? Or was this the most inspired and inspiring performance that you have ever heard? Were you emotionally moved by the concert? Were some parts of the concert better/worse than others? Were there aspects that you found especially pleasing? Were there any surprises at the concert? Would you go again?
