Please construct a presentation that includes the following information. The presentations should be about 10–15 minutes, including playing brief audio excerpts from your piece. You should not play the whole piece since doing so could take most of your presentation time, but you should choose a few representative sections to play that are relevant to the three adjectives you will choose.
- Name of composer
- Title of piece and the particular movement/section you will present (if applicable)
- Approximate date of this composition (or exact date if that information is available)
- Summarize the basic organization of the piece (there may not be a specific form, so at least give us an overview of how it is organized based on what you can hear)
- Three adjectives to describe the character of the piece
Cite specific passages in the music to support your choice of adjectives. Use specific musical terms to describe these passages (the baseball card template may help you in this case). This should be based only on what you can hear in listening to the piece. You should not refer to sheet music or notated score and only use information contained within the sources listed below.
For this assignment, I will provide each group with a short reading (below) on the assigned piece. If you would like to research additional information about the composer, you should use Oxford Reference or Grove Music Online as sources. Please do not do any other research except through these sources. While Wikipedia may be a useful source for basic factual information about your piece, do not rely on it for musical analysis, as it may contain either errors or discussion of the music which is at a level beyond this class.
Please see below for the assigned pieces. You will have the opportunity to work in your groups during class time.
You do not need any visual aids (such as slides), but you can use them if you would like. The only requirement for presentation materials is to play brief excerpts of the audio of your piece. If you do choose to use slides, do not put a lot of text on the slides and simply reading from the slide in your presentation. Any slides you use should focus on visual images, basic information about the piece and/or important terms and concepts with minimal text.
The rubric for your grade is below. In order to do well on this assignment, you should include each required piece of information (see above), provide audio excerpts during your presentation, speak clearly, and engage with the class while sticking to the 10–15 minute time limit. In addition, all of the members of your team must speak during the presentation. If you would like to encourage participation from the rest of the class, you are welcome to do so (for instance, by asking questions about what we hear in your audio examples). However, this is not required and should not take up too much time in your presentation, as your group’s speaking is the most important part.
Grading Rubric:
Presentation content*: (each item worth 3 points, 12 total in this section)
composer name and title/date of work
three adjectives
accuracy of information
use of audio excerpts
Presentation style*: (each item worth 3 points, 12 total in this section)
organized effectively/easy to follow
spoke clearly
eye contact with audience
time limit
*Scale: 3 = excellent, 2 = good, 1 = OK, 0 = needs work or missing
Total Points: 24
Here are the pieces for each group including composer name, title, and approximate dates, as well as the list of forces. Please use the recordings provided here in your presentation (note: there are two opera examples with links to the Met Opera video instead of recordings provided).
Group 1: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Gesang der Jünglinge (1955–56)
Forces: boy soprano, electronic tape
Group 2: Györgi Ligeti, Lux Aeterna (1966)
Forces: large choir
Group 3: Arvo Pärt, Spiegel im Spiegel (1978)
Forces: piano and violin (sometimes viola or cello instead of violin)
Group 4: Unsuk Chin, Piano Concerto, Movement 2 (1996)
Forces: solo piano and orchestra
Group 5: John Adams, Doctor Atomic, Aria, “Batter my heart, three-personed God” (2005)
Forces: orchestra, chorus, vocal soloists
Recording (track 20- 3:30 through end of track 21)
Group 6: Kaija Saariaho- L’Amour de Loin, Act 2: Deuxième tableaux (2000)
Forces: orchestra, chorus, vocal soloists
