Category: Music

Write a thesis paper, with the thesis being “Queen Latifah played a groundbreaking role in the 
Hip-Hop industry by initiating a feminist movement. She challenged conventional gender 
stereotypes, promoted women’s empowerment, and transformed the way female representation is perceived in Hip-Hop culture. ”  What are you trying to prove?  What arguments do you bring forth to 
prove your thesis?  What is a good counter argument to your thesis, and how do you dismantle it?  
Paper should be about 3 pages, with 3 citations (minimum).
You will be evaluated on-
1. Complexity of thesis statement.
2.  Demonstration of subject and or topic comprehension.
2. Clarity of argument (is it well articulated and well researched?).
3.  Strength of counter argument.
Strength of counter argument rebuttal.

Recommended length: 5 pages minimum of double spaced, Times New Roman font, size 12, etc. No research outside of the sources given is necessary or expected—this is a LISTENING REPORT, not a research paper.
Follow These Steps: 
[IMPORTANT NOTE: These steps should be completed over multiple days; you will get better results—i.e., a better grade—if you spread these steps out.]
Preliminary Survey: Listen to all of the music in the links below. Listen closely and choose a piece that sounds interesting to you—not something you like, necessarily, but something you’d like to learn more about through multiple listenings—this will be your chosen piece for the report.
“Blind” Listening(s): 
Listen (again) to your chosen piece without doing any background research. I recommend listening to your piece all the way through to experience the whole, and then listening again in order to take notes of interesting things you hear. (Many of these works are long, so focus on only the first five minutes or so.) There is no limit to how often you listen to your piece, but I’d say as much as you feel is necessary to get “inside” the work. 
Once you’ve collected a number of thoughts about it, organize your thoughts and notes and WRITE a few paragraphs: give an overview of your experience, trying to be as specific as possible. You must try to use as much of the appropriate terminology you learned throughout this course. (This will be your first impression of the piece, which will deepen and change as you go through the following steps and continue your experience.)
Historical-Stylistic Context of the Composer: 
Next, do some research on the composer and his/her background. Read the composer’s entry in the Oxford Music Online Encyclopedia. The Guardian also has excellent composer profiles of each of the composers listed (and many others)—find your composer and read their article.
Once you’ve assembled your information, WRITE a few paragraphs that summarize the composer’s artistic interests, methods, philosophy, and/or work as a whole. Do not write a biography—write about what makes their music interesting, important, and unique, or what would potentially help the listener understand the music’s significance. 
Stylistic Context of the Music (Separate Listening): This is connected to the previous task, but instead requires “listening research.” Listen to other works by the same composer to get a broader sense of the kind of music they write. Start by listening to the second link included on the list, but also pull up at least one additional work of importance on Youtube (perhaps one mentioned in your research). This step will give you more insight into the composer’s “sound world,” and it will help you hear your chosen work in a different light. The more pieces you explore, the clearer this sound world will appear to you.
Second Listening(s): 
Listen to your chosen piece again, once or a number of times. Take notes again. Now having done some research and listened to other pieces, are you understanding this work differently? Do you hear more? Pay careful attention to how your thoughts and observations have changed since your “blind” listening now that you have more knowledge of and experience with the music. 
WRITE about your new observations and new thoughts in a paragraph or two. AS BEFORE, USE APPROPRIATE MUSICAL TERMINOLOGY.
Description of the Piece: Your previous notes and observations should be of a general nature. Now, try to describe what “happens” in the piece (within the first five minutes or so). You’ll have to listen to it a bunch of times. The purpose of this exercise is to get a general picture of the overall shape of the work, which is important because we can often get lost in the moment-to-moment details. Your “description” can be schematic and incomplete, also non-technical, and as detailed as you feel is necessary to “capture” what happens. Try your best to explain how the piece moves and changes over time. WRITE your description using proper terminology. 
Final Listening(s): Listen to the piece again, all the way through, without taking notes, without doing anything. Just listen to it closely and take it all in one final time. Do this with “fresh ears”—after some time away from it (maybe the next day?). I’ll bet you are pretty familiar with it at this point—do you find yourself listening more deeply, hearing more intelligently?
Take-Away(s) and Final Thoughts: Lastly, WRITE a couple paragraphs about the work and your experience doing this listening project. What are the important take-aways about your piece, about the composer, about the style in general, about the kind of “world” the piece inhabits? What makes this piece interesting, or important, or unique? If you had to tell someone about this composer, or about this specific work, what would you want them to know before listening? Try to be as specific as possible. Finally, write about your experience as a listener. Talk about how your initial impressions of the work changed after spending time doing careful listening, thinking, reading, and writing about it. What did you learn about this music, about yourself as a listener, about what music “is” or “can be” in general? Read everything you’ve written over again, then share your final thoughts.
Good luck and happy listening!

Between 1977 and 1984 there were numerous alternatives to the full orchestral score style. Describe these alternatives and give examples mentioned in the text from this period. Films of John Williams, the foremost exponent of orchestral scores, should NOT be considered as an alternative. 
Format: typed with double-spacing; use .doc, .docx, or .pdf
Length: at least 3 full paragraphs
Use footnotes only if you quote a source

• “Eric Whitacre changed direction at age eighteen, when he sang in the University of Nevada chorus and was overwhelmed by the beauty of Mozart’s Requiem. “In my entire life,” Whitacre recalled, “I had seen in black and white and suddenly everything was in shocking Technicolor.”
• In minimum 400 words to 500 words max (be concise), discuss an experience associated with a composer, songwriter, musician, etc. that gave way to your “technicolor” moment (i.e. when you viewed and appreciated music through a broader lens)
– for this assignment, write about Johann Sebastian Bach

Identify and write about specific music traits and aesthetics that place Stravinsky’s music in the early 20th century. Discuss also what sets Stravinsky’s music apart from earlier time periods.
Be sure to address each prompt thoughtfully and thoroughly, the total minimum amount of writing produced should be 900 words, the maximum is 1200.
Using the following link as a reference discuss Stravinsky’s compositional style, citing specific musical characteristics:  

How was Stravinsky’s music representative of Primitivism, and how would you compare it to other works of early 20th century?
Choose one of the two following musical examples (I already chose one, link is provided) as a basis for comparing Stravinsky’s work with that of earlier time periods. Cite specific musical characteristics in the piece that you choose. This should include standard practices such as writing about music through aural analysis (pitch, harmony, timbre, dynamics, rhythm, and form), the study of performance practice,  biographical research, and generally examining music through an historical lens in order to better understand how music functions in society: 

Research a musical culture/style/genre of your choice. Do your best to stretch your tastes and imagination with whom you could research.
Type a four page written report (double-spaced) or record a minimum five-minute presentation with oral delivery; include background information e.g. about the people who practice this style, history of the culture, facts about the musical culture, including descriptions of musical elements and instruments, and its relevance in today’s world. The travel project will be available after mid-term then you may submit the assignment whenever is convenient.
Please upload with bibliography to Canvas.
Due date is the last week of the semester. If you have any questions or need help choosing a topic please email me as possible.
Please use reliable databases such as the LMC library or Google Scholar to inform your project. Have fun!

I have to write an analytical paper on the piece Ach ich fuhl’s from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. i also have to give a roman numeral analysis for the piece on a different paper that is linked. (i will tip extra for help on that.) there are 9 points that my Prof. wants me to cover 
(THIS IS FOR THEORY 2)
1. Who was mozart? (when was he born, where did he die?)
2. In what year did he write this piece? What were the circumstances?
3. What is happening in the drama when this is sung? and who is singing.
4. Explain or analyze the structure of the poetic text, including rhyme scheme, meter , and grouping of the lines based on the rhyme scheme.
5. Looking at the lyrics as Mozart presents them, which lines does he repeat? make a comparison of some sort with the Schickener poetry on one side and the way it is presented in the pathway Mozart’s aria takes through it. 
6. show the cadences mozart’s aria has as they relate to the poetic text. Do cadences always come at the ends of the Band D lines, or anything like that? Does the aria divide in half the way the poetic text does?
7. Discuss the strength of the cadences you found, including deceptive and evaded the use of the various cadence types interact with representations of the text. 
8. what key does the aria work its way through? How does changing key interact with the poetic text or its meaning if it all?
9. Give a complete roman-numeral analysis for the piece on a printout of the score. (See attached, and I will tip extra for help on that or for you to just do it for me.)

The paper you write is NOT to be a boring research paper; it must be an attractive and pleasant to read. It should be fashioned like a magazine or on-line article.
3. As an entertaining, informative and persuasive article, it should include images and/or graphics in a well-designed manner.
4.  The article should be no more than 1200 words in total length (including sources/endnotes); 50 words more/less is acceptable. 
5.  The project must be done using Word (not Publisher or other software) and uploaded as a Word file.
6.  NO USAGE OF AI IS ALLOWED FOR THIS PROJECT.
7. The project Word file is to be uploaded on our Canvas site no later than Monday, May 6, at 11:59 p.m.
8. The article MUST contain at least five distinct paragraphs (more are very acceptable); 1st paragraph should contain your thesis (your restatement of the chosen prompt indicating your position); #2, #3, #4 (or more) paragraphs should contain your supports/evidence for your position; #5 Conclusion. As to your thesis, do not just make reference to (for example) “prompt #1”; restate the chosen prompt so that it indicates your position as to the prompt.
9. You must use and cite at least 3 published sources for your argument/evidence; at least one of the sources must be from a physically published source (i.e. book, magazine that has actual page numbers). Our MUS 236 textbook CANNOT be used as a source.
10.  Sources/references should be indicated within the body of your article, but the citation of the sources used are to be presented as end notes NOT foot notes. Citations should use either Chicago Manual of Style or MLA citation style. 

You will write a 1800 word essay describing what you hear happening in “Baby Song” by The Raincoats (from their album, Odyshape).  Using time-code describe the texture of the music and how it changes throughout song.  These observations should be empirical – that is describe describe what something sounds like to you (you don’t have to accurately identify what is making the sound).  For example: “The song starts with a steady rustling noise (maybe a drum); there’s no groove yet)” or  “At 00:43 a high voice sings [try to transcribe the lyrics] and about 6 seconds later whispering voices fade in – talking not singing – saying [try to transcribe the lyrics]; the high singing voice seems far away and the whispering/speaking voices seem close, right in my ear.”  Try to transcribe all of the lyrics.  If this fails, you can refer to lyrics available on the internet (the lyrics were printed on the record jacket when the lp was released).  Briefly discuss the affect of the song, how you perceive the various sounds of the texture (including the voices) together with the lyrical content working as a whole
Word count: The assignment says it has to be 1800 words long; it really does! Take 1800 words as a minimum (though try not to go too many words over! – 300-500 tops). But this shouldn’t be difficult: just keep going through the song – there’s always more to hear at any given moment, and the more detailed your description the better.  But also always mention how the overall feel of the song – its groove – sounds to you, and how it impacts you.  Or when you’re giving impressions of its impact always ask another question (ex. if you find it disorienting – what is it about the sound that’s hard to grasp? Is it always the same kind of disorienting throughout? Does it stay disorienting after successive listenings? Does reading the lyrics impact your feeling of disorientation?  Can the disorientation become pleasurable? etc.!).  
Also a heads-up: I’m aware of 5 different versions of this essay, written by students who were previously in this class, that are for sale online. If you copy-and-paste directly from any of these, you will fail and there could be further academic consequences. If you borrow ideas from them, you might be questioned on it, with consequences for your mark. One thing I am going to forbid: do NOT say that the string sound at the beginning sounds like a mariachi guitar; you will be docked severely if you do and the rest of your essay will be given greater scrutiny in regard to plagiarism.
And regarding musical texture: I’ve received a few requests to clarify what I mean my “texture” in regard to music.   Texture is the sound that you’re hearing in totality: the different sounds that make up a sonic mass/aggregate and the sound of the mass/aggregate as a whole (its density; its general pitch-range (are there high sounds? low sounds? everything inbetween?); its volume; etc.); also the movement (rhythm/groove) of the sounds in a perceived present-tense (are there lots quickly moving voices intertwining? are there lots of sustained voices? is there a combination and if so, what typifies it (i.e. you identify one high voice playing a quickly flowing melody over a sustained accompaniment, but with drums playing a groove)?).  Hope this helps!
If you tell me what you’re hearing (what things sound like, not what the instruments are) in your words, and do that for at least 1800 words, you’ll do well!

watch this video to answer these questions
https://youtu.be/im2TnEu5Qlk?si=BKsGhE1kxB5lbLdC
Name the singers, voice types, the opera, the scene and the composers; what is happening in this scene?
Describe what you see: Describe the scene: sets, costumes, make up, lighting, time period, style, etc. Describe the singers: body language, facial expressions, gestures.
Describe what you hear: How would you describe the vocal sound? Can you hear the orchestra? Any particular instruments? Is the tempo fast/slow/moderate? Are the dynamics soft/loud ? How does this scene make you feel? How does this story make you feel? Do you like/dislike/etc. this music and why? Was this an enjoyable performance? Why or why not?
Overall impression and personal reflection: How does watching the performance make you feel about your own musical development? Are you inspired, indifferent, intrigued? Would you want to hear this artist again? Why or why not? Why hear live music instead of a recording? Any other thoughts?
Use font 12, Times New Roman, 1.5 spaced
You will be graded on including all the relevant information, use of appropriate terminology and insightful comments about the performance.