Your first listening journal assignment is to write a three-to-five-page paper on a musical
work of your choice from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, or Baroque periods. Your
paper should provide a musical analysis of your chosen piece using the
established parameters designated in our course textbook and implemented in our
class discussions. A list of recommended
composers and works are provided in this handout. Please choose a musical work
from the genres indicated on this list, and please do not write about a specific
work that is analyzed in your Todd textbook. If you would like to write
about a work that is not on this list or does not fall into these categories,
please discuss your plans with your instructor.
You have considerable flexibility regarding how you chose to
approach your topic, but please develop an organized analysis that interrogates
the most prominent elements of music and the five questions that provide the
organizational foundation of our class discussions: What is it? How does it
work? What does it mean? What is its history? Where do we go from here? Your paper should be written in standard
academic English language style (double spaced/ 11 font). Please use
appropriate citations if you choose to consult source materials (APA, MLA, or
Chicago style sheets), and keep in mind that all papers will be electronically
checked for plagiarism.