This short paper is intended to help you focus your listening in a more musically detailed way. In a previous writing assignment for this course, for example, when you’ve written about your favorite piece of music, you may have focused more on how the music makes you feel, and what you like about song lyrics. In this week’s Contrasting Musical Examples writing assignment, the goal is an Intellectual Approach, to focus on how the music sounds, musical characteristics of melody, harmony, rhythms, timbres (what instruments or voice types are used by the composer), and tempo. Follow the formatting requirements for a paper listed below. This is not a journal or discussion board.
For this writing assignment, choose one pair of pieces from this list of contrasting musical examples:
Pair A:
The King’s Singers performing a Renaissance madrigal [https://youtu.be/LJ7VirCScp0]
The Oak Ridge Boys performing one of their hits, “Elvira” [https://youtu.be/-4Hd9p30rck]
Pair B:
Christopher Parkening, guiter, performing Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring [https://youtu.be/0iX8tsA0N7E]
Peter Ostroushko, mandolin, performing “Heart of the Heartland” [https://youtu.be/k4JiIqX0aE0]
Pair C:
The Canadian Brass performing, Little Fugue in g minor by J.S. Bach [https://youtu.be/E2p7I3zmcfc]
The Canadian Brass performing an arrangement of “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” [https://youtu.be/slYsvyTIpks]
Pair D:
Celine Dion singing Power of Love [https://youtu.be/Y8HOfcYWZoo]
Huey Lewis singing Power of Love [https://youtu.be/wBl2QGAIx1s]
What to Do:
Start your paper by indicating which pair you chose. Identify the performers and the pieces they played. Then describe what you heard. How does the music – the melody, rhythm, tempo, harmony, and timbre – sound in each piece individually? Comparing the two, what sounds related or similar? Finally, what sounds different between the two pieces in the pair?
Length: 2 – 4 paragraphs, roughly 300 – 600 words. As with all writing for this course, write in complete sentences, and well-organized paragraphs. Provide supporting details. Check the rubric. Please follow the formatting specifications detailed below.
Requirements: 300-600 Words Times New Roman Size 12 Font Double-Spaced APA Format Excluding the Title and Reference Pages
