The Challenges of Writing About Music - Guitar History

...

Etudes……………………………………….….…Matteo Carcassi (1792-1853)

Dominic Galiotto

Etude 1 and Prelude 1……………….……......….Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

Sara Adkins

II Allegro from Four Moods………………………………...Stepán Rak (b. 1945)

Mango Tango……………………………………………..…Jurge Kindle (b. 1960)

Sara Adkins Mallory Evanoff Jim Ferla

INTERMISSION

Preludiio (1936)……………………………………….Manuel Ponce (1882-1948)

Andrea Doyle, piano Jim Ferla

Concerto in D Major RV93 (FXII/15)…………….….Antonio Vivaldi (16781-741)

I Allegro II Largo III Allegro

Mallory Evanoff Sara Adkins Jim Ferla

Estudio 6………………………………………………….….Leo Brouwer (b. 1939)

Sunburst…………………………………………………..….Andrew York (b. 1958)

Harris Aaron Bergman

II Adagio from Concierto de Aranjuez (1939)………..Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999)

(arr. Zach Reeder)

Neil Ryan Sara Adkins Mallory Evanoff Jim Ferla

I India and III Fuoco from Libra Sonatine…………….... Roland Dyens (b. 1955)

Zach Reeder

--------------------------------------------

Reviewing a musical performance

-------------------------------

a suggested structure to the review

First section Give the facts

Who?

What

When?

Where?

Why?

Second section Describe the performance

Third section Give your opinion and supporting arguments

--------------------------------

The Challenges of Writing About Music

You have been asked to attend a musical performance and write a review. After it’s over, you meet two friends who have also been to the performance. The first says, "I thought it was terrific." The second says, "I thought it sucked." And the conversation grinds to a halt.

When you are writing a review, these kinds of comments don’t really go anywhere. You need to do more than simply react to your experience. But what should you do? Any paper for a Music course - whether it be a review or a research paper - must be analytical.

Analyzing music is difficult. First, because music evokes powerful emotional responses, you don’t often pay attention to what it is about the music, exactly, that moves you so much. Second, even if you are able to get past your feelings to describe what you hear, simple description isn’t enough. You must be willing to interpret the music and then support your interpretation with evidence from the piece.

Let’s look at an excerpt from a good musical review. Notice how the writer selectively describes aspects of the Kunju Opera, thereby creating an argument. Notice, too, that the writer doesn’t just provide a "roadmap" of the music; in other words, the writer doesn’t merely recite the notes and instruments, but instead interprets and analyzes what the music is doing.

...Above all, the music of Kunju Opera Theatre reflects the innermost, even secret feelings of its characters. We understand early on in the opera that the music ---- frantic, disheveled, violent, serene, or mystical ---- is a perfect mirror into the actors’ souls. For example, throughout the performance, whenever characters come to important realizations, we hear the dalo gong sound a deep, resonant sigh... Another example is heard in "Walking in the Garden," where the frantic percussion movements heard elsewhere in the piece give way to a softer, sweeter, more serene sound. The harmony created by the dizi flute, sheng organ, and erhu violin evokes Du’s tranquil, soporific state as he walks through the garden...

The writer has made the argument that the music in this opera reflects the characters innermost, secret feelings. Note how the writer uses evidence to support the argument. In doing so, the writer progresses from mere opinion to well-supported analysis. Also, note how the language is fairly simple. In other words, the writer doesn’t need to use technical terms to convey