Concert Attendance Report

Due FRI, 7/23 – Concert Attendance Report – 700-word minimum
This assignment is 20% of your final grade.
Normally you would need to attend a live concert in person. However, in light of COVID-19, please watch a concert on Youtube this semester. You must watch aWorld Music concert that is at least 45 minutes in duration. Please find a professional or college-level concert. This must be a video of a live performance and NOT just a soundtrack. You must be able to see all the performers playing their instruments or singing.

Examples are Indian music, Chinese music, Latin American music, and so on – music from different parts of the world. Any type of music covered in this course counts. American Jazz music also counts, since it’s covered in class. Please, no Western Classical music such as Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, etc.
Everyone needs to check with me before your concert so I can give approval first. Send me several URLs (YouTube links) of possible concerts.
Note that this is NOT a research paper – do not look up someone else’s interpretation of a particular concert and paraphrase it. Write in your own words based on your own understanding of the music. These are to be your observations. The grade will be lowered significantly if the writing is not based on your own observations and work.

However, you may do basic research as needed, such as looking up the spellings of the names of performers or looking up when a piece was written. Cite this basic research in a Works Cited section. Beyond this, everything is written based on your own observations.
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Your Assignment:
Write a review of a concert (musical performance) from YouTube. Read the instructions carefully.

You must include the following:
1) Introduction of the concert: who, where, when. What were your first impressions of the musicians and the venue?

2) Give a basic overview of each piece; i.e. how many were there, name of each piece, style of the music, etc. What instruments were used? What can you tell me about the pieces of music in general?
3) Then focus on one single piece of music for the in-depth analysis, using the following criteria from the course (include ALL the terms in your paper):
Structure/Form of the Music – i.e., are there repeats, a distinguishable format, etc.?
Purpose of the Music – why was it written?
Tempo – the speed of the music.
Dynamics – the volume of the music – i.e., loud, soft, medium loud, and so on.
Rhythm – sound patterns of the music, the organization of sound that consists of long notes, short notes, moments of rest.
Melody – the “tune” of the music that you can usually follow along to.
Timbre – the sound qualities of the instruments or human voice.
Harmony – how the music sound when multiple sounds come together.
Historical Period – when it was composed?

Include all the terms above in the correct context, demonstrating that you understand what they mean.
When addressing the above, be specific! Avoid generic comments like, “The tempo and timbre were interesting” and not explain why that was. For example, was the tempo fast, slow? Did it change unpredictably? Use your ears to tell you what to write. Be descriptive. Provide specific times in the videos for reference. For example, “At 5:20 (five minutes and twenty seconds, there was a sudden flourish of trumpets, increasing the dynamics to a loud level.”)
4) Conclude with your general comments: Did you enjoy the concert? Why or why not? What were your impressions of the concert overall? What did you notice about the musicians?

5) Use all musical terms correctly. For example, a “song” describes something that has sung lyrics. If the music is purely instrumental and has no singing, then that would be a “piece.”
6) Please proofread for spelling and grammar. Make paragraph breaks – please do not write one really long paragraph.
Include the URL (web address) of the concert you watch on Youtube in your paper. I will verify each one as I grade your work. If there is no URL included, then your grade will be lowered. Your work will be analyzed by TurnItIn.

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