“Musical Performance Review: Exploring the Sounds and Styles of [Ensemble/Performer] at [Date, Time, and Venue]”

Your introductory paragraph(s) should contain basic information:
• The date, time, and place/venue of the performance
• The type and size of the ensemble
• The name of the ensemble or performer
• The title of the works and/or movements you will be writing about, and the name of the
composer(s)
• You can describe the setting, dress, behavior (of the performers and/or the audience), but don’t
get carried away; this report is about the music
Your body paragraphs should be descriptions of the works/movements that you’ve chosen to write
about. Each work/movement should, generally speaking, get its own separate paragraph or group of
paragraphs. If you want to talk about how multiple works or movements are related to each other, then
that discussion should get its own paragraph after discussing the works/movements individually.
Information in these paragraphs will vary, but here are some leading questions to get you started (if you
took good notes at the performance, this should be easier for you):
• What is the genre of this work? What aspects of the music are typical or atypical of the genre?
• What are the most memorable features of the work?
• What instruments were used? How were they used?
• Were there any solos or featured instruments (or groups of instruments)? Were the solos long
or short?
• What was the range of the dynamics? Were the dynamic levels stable or constantly in flux?
• What kinds of tempos were used? How did the music transition between the tempos? Was
rubato used, and, if so, what effect did it have?
• Were there any melodies, themes, or sections that were repeated? Were they repeated exactly,
or with some variation?
• What was the form of the music? How was it structured or organized?
• Is the work programmatic? If so, how does the music represent the program?
• How does the work correspond to the stylistic period in which it was composed?
• How does this work compare to the other works on the program, or other works that you have
studied?
• If there was a conductor, how were his or her gestures reflected in the music?