music essay HELP!!!!

The Lively Arts, Fall 2019 Jazz Ensemble Write-up Prompt

Required Performance: Jazz Ensemble concert, 7:30, Bowker Auditorium

This is one of the Music Department’s big jazz showcase concerts, which they put on several times a year. You’re going to see fellow UMass students—both undergrads and grad students— performing at this show. In a few weeks, we’re also going to attend another jazz concert (Melissa Aldana), one that will be very different from this one not only because it will be a performance of professional musicians (not students) but also because the styles of jazz featured in these two concerts are going to be very, very different. Please keep this in mind as you experience this show —remember that in a few weeks you’re going to be attending a different show, but I’m going to ask you to compare it a bit to this one. Take good notes! You will be amazed how quickly details fade from your memory. Either take notes during the concert (no laptops or phones are allowed in the concert hall, so use a notebook), or jot down all your impressions and observations right after the show. Otherwise, your write-up will be vague and awkward.

Before you go to the show, revisit your notes and the readings from our classes on music and jazz. Refresh your brain regarding some of the specific vocab words, musical concepts, things to listen for, etc., that we have talked about in class. Also, revisit the TLA Guide to Thinking About Art that is posted on Moodle and that we’ve been talking about a lot this semester; you’re going to need to pay attention to all three levels of artistic encounter as you write up this event.

Requirements: This is NOT meant to be a “five paragraph essay” of the type you have no doubt learned to hate by now. I definitely think it is important to learn about the craft of writing—about how to design compelling structures and organize a coherent flow of ideas—rather than just dumping your thoughts out into a big blobby jumble—and this is what the five paragraph essay attempts to teach you to do. BUT there are many ways to write about stuff that aren’t the five paragraph essay format, and thus I encourage you to be creative with the assignment. You may write up this assignment in any way you like, so long as it follows the rules below. You could write it as though it were a short story—you could create a character and tell a story about them that entails them attending this concert. Or, you could write a review of the concert as though you are a newspaper critic. You could write from the point of view of one of the musicians onstage, and try to inhabit their consciousness as they perform. You could pretend to be an alien from an- other planet who attends this concert in order to learn something about humanity. You could write in the form of a dialogue or screenplay. Feel free to explore the concert in writing however you like, so long as your paper adheres to the following standards:

- It needs to spend some time actually describing music, using specific language. Don’t be vague! Don’t just say “the concert was nice” or “the instruments blended well togeth- er.” What do you mean when you say these things? Which instruments? What does “blend well together” mean? Who cares? Be specific!

- Related to the previous rule: your paper needs to somehow spend time on each of the three modes of encountering art that are explained in the TLA Guide. You need to de- scribe what you saw and heard (Perception), explore your own reactions to what you saw/heard (Response), and come up with some “bigger picture” things to say about those reactions (Evaluation), using clear, specific language.

o Evaluation can be the hardest category to try to speak to, when it comes to a mu- sical concert—there probably feels like there are not that many concrete things to “interpret,” because it’s just a bunch of music. You can start by asking yourself questions like “So what?” and “Who cares?” So you’ve described the concert and some of your responses to it—now think about what’s interesting ABOUT those reactions.

Other required nuts-and-bolts: - at least four pages long, 12 pt. font, double spaced

- spell-checked and read for errors and clarity - Give this piece of writing a title. Remember not to just call it “paper #2” or “Jazz En-

semble.” What is your write-up really about? What’s your theme or point? What’s a cre- ative title that can encompass the stuff you say in your paper?

Here are some questions that might help you think about your paper. Read them before you go to the concert; they may also give you some stuff to think about while you’re sitting there. You DO NOT have to answer them; they are just intended to be thought-provoking:

1. How did this concert compare with what you heard in our jazz lecture? Were you able to hear any of the elements of jazz? If not, why do you think that was the case? Did the per- formers at this event play jazz in a style that was similar to the style you heard in class? How, specifically, are these two jazz performances similar/different?

2. On a related note, did anything surprise you about the concert, after hearing the jazz lec- ture? Did you notice anything you would not have noticed, before hearing this lecture?

3. Think about the relationships you saw onstage; how do the different band members relate to one another? Did you notice moments of communication pass between them, at any point? What do you think each of them is thinking about, while playing?

4. Think about each instrument! How would you describe the timbre of each instrument? What kind of role does each instrument play, in the texture of the whole group?

5. What kinds of bigger-picture interpretations can you make, of this performance? Pick a specific song, or moment from a song, that seemed meaningful or interesting to you, and try to “read” it metaphorically—what was it “about?” (This is Evaluation)

6. What was the crowd like, at this show? What did other audience members seem to react to, in the music?

7. Pay attention to your own Reactions as you watch the show. When do you find yourself zoning out or bored? When do you find your attention grabbed and focused? What exact- ly causes these reactions—why do you get bored or get interested in a given moment?

8. Do you feel like the different instruments represented onstage have different sorts of characters? If they were people, what kind of people would they be?