Music 1A Concert Report Guidelines

Concert Report Assignment

Concert attendance

In order to complete this assignment you will need to attend a professional public concert outside of class, selected from those included on the Concert List posted at the top of the home page. Any concert not on the list must have prior approval. Avoid the heartbreak of having your attendance and review rejected by not gaining prior approval.

Acceptable concerts include professional orchestras, soloists, and instrumental or vocal ensembles, and comparable college or community groups performing music relevant to the content of this class.
Be sure to read the Concert Protocol page before attending your concert. It includes important information that will help you get more out of the concert you attend and help you select a concert.

Assignment Format

The following are required on the concert review assignment and are part of your grade:

  • Typed, double-spaced, 3-4 pages in length not including cover sheet.
  • Must use conventional size and formatting of text - e.g. 10-12 point font with 1" margins (believe it or not, large font and narrow margins does not make the paper appear longer to your instructor).
  • Must include the printed program (not the whole pamphlet) from the concert and your ticket stubs. Photocopies are unacceptable. Papers without these elements will not be accepted
  • All materials (text, program, ticket stub) must be stapled together securely. Folded corners, paper clips, etc. instead of staples will not be accepted.
  • Careful editing, proofreading, and spelling is expected, although minor errors may not affect your grade.
  • check carefully for subject/verb agreement, tense shift (stay in past tense)
    Papers that do not follow these format guidelines will be penalized substantially

Concert Report Assignment Content

Cover Sheet: Include the following on a cover sheet attached to the front of your review:
Title or other description of the event/performers you heard, along with the date and location of the performance. For example:

De Anza Chamber Orchestra

8:00 p.m.; Friday, June 22

Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco.

Your name, assignment submission date, course. For example:

Ronnie Dunn

October 19, 2014

Music 1A T/Th 12:30 pm

II. Descriptions The main body of the concert review should include brief discussions of each piece on the concert you attend. In most cases, a single paragraph for each piece should be sufficient, although you may wish to break descriptions of longer pieces into separate short paragraphs, one per movement.
Your description of each piece should include:

  1. The title of the piece and the composer's name, as listed in the concert program.
  2. A description of the piece. This can, and should, include elements from both an objective and subjective perspective:

With your new understanding of style and form, can you make out what the form is? What are some aspects of the piece that stand out? What was the dynamic range like" Are there multiple themes in the piece? How do they contrast with one another? Other distinctive elements in the piece? Use terminology from class.

Example:

Schubert: 9th symphony (“Unfinished)

First Movement

The first movement began with a short introduction by the basses, but soon it picked up with the rest of the orchestra joining in. I was listening for the traditional sonata-allegro form, and I did hear at least a couple themes, but I wasn’t sure where the different sections began or ended. I did notice that the oboes carried the first theme, and then another was introduced by the low strings. This movement was usually very dance-like--the main theme had a kind of short-short-short, short-short-short-long rhythm--but there were moments of real suspense, too; dark chords played by strings or brass before the first theme returned. It almost seemed like a rondo, as I kept hearing the first theme repeated. It seemed to begin and end in a minor key, but the repeated theme seemed to be in a major key. The movement was very long, nearly 18 minutes, so my attention drifted sometimes, but overall, the changes in instruments, and the return of a familiar theme kept my attention. It seemed like the piece wanted convey a sense of optimism, but it kept getting interrupted by dark moments and suspense! Even during the ending, where I heard the slow introduction again, then a big crescendo with the whole orchestra, it just seemed to just die out unceremoniously, dark and inconclusive.

You must describe every piece performed on the concert. Partial reports will earn a lower grade.

III. Summary: Following your review of the individual pieces and described above, you should conclude your paper with a final "Summary" paragraph in which you offer your reaction to the experience of the concert as a whole.

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