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MUSIC 250 |
INTENSIVE LISTENING |
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One of the main assumptions of this course is that you will get more from pieces if you listen to them more often. As a part of your work for the semester, I am requiring you to listen especially closely to five pieces of European Music from the last three centuries. All five are on the CD's for the class; each is an outstanding example of music written at that time. For each of the Intensive Listenings, follow these guidelines.. |
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1 |
Listen to the piece a total of ten times. After each listening, write down notes of what struck you about the piece. Note that there will be a total of ten separate responses. Your listening should be spread out over several days. Do NOT cram all the listening into one or two days--the perspective of time and a little distance from the piece is important in building your experience of the piece. |
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2 |
MUSIC MAJORS AND MINORS: For at least three of your listenings to each of the five pieces, you should listen with the score. Copies of the scores are on reserve at the Multi-media desk of in the tech center. SCORES SHOULD NOT BE CHECKED OUT, BUT USED IN THE MEDIA CENTER. Bring your CD of the piece with you. This is NOT required of non-majors, but, if you read music--even only single line--it will be very illuminating for you to listen at least once with the score. Here are call numbers for the scores:
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3 |
Take notes as you listen. This is a great opportunity to use descriptive framerworks we work with throughout the course--sound, form, texture, melody, harmony, rhythm--to help focus your listening and comments. MUSIC MAJORS AND MINORS: Intensive listening is your opportunity to do some more detailed nalysis of any aspect of the music which strikes you. It is especially valuable for you to use the"lingo" vocabulary from our work, and from other music major classes--theory in particular--in describing what you hear. |
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4 |
For each listening, comment briefly on how this listening experience differed from earlier listenings. Use these questions as points of departure for your notes, but do not be limited by them. What was new to you? What was familiar? How well did you know what was coming as the piece unfolded? What was newly striking, or most striking, to you as you heard the piece this time? What remained surprising in context even after you get to know the piece? What kept you listening--or did you lose interest? |
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5 |
You may find it useful to use the Listening chart itself, with times and sections--each of the five pieces has one in the text--as a skeleton framework to help organize your comments. But do NOT assume you should study the text or the listening sheet for these pieces to prepare you for listening, or--most especially--to tell you what you "should" be hearing. (In fact, in most cases you will be completing the intensive listening before we ase studying that period of music in class.) The purpose here is to learn by listening. |
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6 |
OPTIONAL: Listen to different recordings of the piece in the Multi-media center as a part of your ten listenings. How do the performances differ? How much difference in your experience of the piece did the different recorded performance make? MUSIC MAJORS AND MINORS: For each Intensive Listening, you are required to include listening to and comment on at least one alternative performance as a part of your Intensive Listening. Here are some alternative performances.
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7 |
I urge you to use the CD mediuem, and the special characteristics of the class CD's--ability to stop and resume, internal markers--as resources for your listening. If as your are listening, you hear something you want to write about , you can stop the CD, write your comment , then resume listening. DO NOT do this for all listenings--the majority of the time, you are simulating the hearing of an actual performance.,. Also you may wish to listen to different sections side by side which are NOT continuous in the piece. It's easy to do this using the Kerman Listening Guide--various sections of the piece are marked on the CD so you can compare sections. MUSIC MAJORS AND MINORS: You should definitely use this kind of "stop--start" analysis as a tool, including comparing similar sections side by side and noting what stays the same and what changes. |
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8 |
After the final listening and write-up, look back over your responses and answer these questions. How well do you now know the piece? How has this listening-learning process affected the way you now respond to the piece? How has your experience of the piece changed? MUSIC MAJORS AND MINORS: How did following the score as you listened affect your listening experience? How did having listened with the score affect your experience of listening to the piece without the score? |
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9 |
Turn in handwritten notes on your individual listenings and typed (brief) answers to the summary questions. on the due date specied below. |
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INTENSIVE LISTENING SCHEDULE |
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between |
listen to |
turn in materials by |
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1/30 & 2/20 |
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto #5 1st movement |
2/20 |
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2/21& 3/13 |
Mozart: Symphony #40 in gm 1st movement |
3/13 |
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3/14 & 4/3 |
Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique, fifth movement |
4/3 |
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4/4 & 4/29 |
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy |
4/29 |
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4/30 & 5/20 |
Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste 2nd movement |
5/20 |
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GRADING: Each set of materials--handwritten notes on listening and typed answers to summary questions-- is worth 6% of your course grade--30% total. This is important work! But it is the process of listening and becoming aware of how you listen that is important, not the specific details. You are receiving credit for the lcareful and attentive istening you have done; your materials are the product of that listening. For this reason, these materials are not graded for content, though they often will receive comments. Following the guidelines above, responding to the questions thoughtfully and turning your materials in on time will give you full credit. |