Description:

Watch two videos featuring the performance of a twentieth century music composition. Your choices must be from the twentieth or twenty-first century classical tradition, such as solo, orchestral or chamber music performances, not pop, rock, or jazz. Please note that this assignment is not a 20th or 21st century performance of music from the Classical era – students should watch videos of music that was composed in the twentieth or twenty-first century. The music chosen for this assignment needs to have been written in the twentieth or twenty-first century, so it is important to not choose music that was composed before the twentieth century. You can either choose two compositions written by the same composer or a composition from two different twentieth or twenty-first century composers. If you are not sure if your choices fit the requirements, be sure to ask in the Questions thread or by sending a personal message to your instructor. The following is a list of possible choices for composers for this assignment. You are not required to choose a composer from this list as long as your choices are composers from the twentieth or twenty-first century.

Jeanne Demessieux
Harry T. Burleigh
William Grant Still
Arnold Bax
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Gustav Holst
Arvo Prt
Henry Balfour Gardiner
Gerald Finzi
Nadia Boulanger
Lili Boulanger
Benjamin Britten
Marcel Dupr
Charles Ives
Manuel de Falla
Claude Debussy
Maurice Ravel
Augusta Read Thomas
Bela Bartok
Leonard Bernstein
Aaron Copland
Igor Stravinsky
Arnold Schoenberg
John Adams
Dorothy Rudd Moore
Philip Glass
Morton Feldman
Dmitri Shostakovich
Ruth Crawford Seeger (Ruth Porter Crawford)
Pierre Boulez
Terry Riley

For each of the two videos, discuss how each composition reflects the six basics of melody, harmony, texture, rhythm, timbre, and form. You can refer to Tools in the course text, particularly in chapter one, for detailed information about each of these musical terms. Please also address how the composer’s music reflects the culture and/or time period in which he or she lived. This aspect of the assignment should include information from academic sources about the musical style of your chosen composer/s that is cited. The videos should be cited in the body of the text and in a reference page.

There is no specific word count requirement for this assignment – just be sure you are addressing all of the required elements. This paper should be written in paragraph form using complete sentences with a clear introduction and conclusion. In addition to these elements, please be sure to fulfill the Requirements for Writing Assignments (see below), including citing all sources (including the performances) both in the body of the text and in a reference page. Please note that MLA is the standard citation style in the humanities. Here are some good sources of information for Evaluating Online Resources, Citing Sources, and Writing & Grammar Resources. Papers will be evaluated according to the following Short Paper grading iRubric. Please review and utilize this grading rubric in order to maximize points earned on this assignment.