MUS 8000

Paper Component 1

Research Paper Proposal

Due Sunday 9/20
Purpose: Define your research topic/question and create an appropriate set of steps
and a realistic timeline to complete your research

Task: Use the template below to propose a paper topic focused on an interpretive
question and provide a proposed methodology to complete your project.

Your proposal must include…

1) Prospective Title
Effective titles give a sense of the interpretive content and critical thinking that
informs or will inform the paper. Effective titles hone in on a specific work or set of
works AND a specific element or idea that connects them.

For example: “The Evolution of Minimalism from Reich’s ‘Drumming’ to his ‘City
Life.’” [exemplary] vs. “Minimalism in the Percussion Works of Reich” [fair] vs. “The
Percussion Music of Steve Reich” [inadequate]

2) Question
Effective Questions, like good titles, specify something about the musical content of
the proposed topic and its connection to the bigger picture/context of the work or
phenomenon. The question should have a (potential) objective answer and be
researchable—“How” is nearly always a better starting point than “Why.”

For example: “Why did Monteverdi dedicate his Vespers of 1610 to Pope Paul V”
could be answered simply by noting that Monteverdi wished to curry favor with the
pope and get a job in Rome. But “How did the dedication of the Vespers of 1610
effect the reception of that work?” is a researchable question—though a very
complicated one that I wouldn’t advise you to undertake at this stage! A better option
might be “How did Monteverdi’s pairing of an innovative Vespers setting with a
conservative Mass setting in the 1610 publication address Pope Paul V’s reputation
and reforms in the early 17th century?” which you could potentially answer with
musical interpretation as well as research from musicology and history.

3) Methodology
Effective Methodologies will include a series of active tasks that answer relevant
questions about your work/phenomenon. They should indicate that you’re using the
knowledge you gained from your preliminary research to follow up on questions
prompted by your initial reading/listening/analysis (preliminary research).

See the sample below for examples of active-verb statements prompted by some
information about, in this case, knowledge about Brahms’s Rinaldo based on
information available in preliminary sources on the work….
Marie Sumner Lott
Music 8000, 2017
Paper Proposal

Title:
Romantic Medievalism in Brahms’s Cantata Rinaldo (1863/8)

Question:
How did Brahms use musical gestures and plot elements to evoke the Middle Ages in his cantata
Rinaldo, and how do these “medievalisms” reflect contemporaneous trends in Romantic arts and
literature?

Methodology:
• read and describe Goethe’s text (how did he manipulate Tasso’s story to emphasize Romantic
ideals? How did Brahms modify Goethe’s text to fit his cantata? Who wrote the libretto and
what was that collaboration like?)

• analyze and diagram the music (how is the piece organized and what are its main features?
Which sections/movements sound the most “Medieval” or treat Medievalism in an interesting or
unusual way?)

• gather analytical observations from previous scholarship (Brahms biographies and articles
about this work, articles and books about Brahms’s vocal/choral music) and compare them to my
own

• gather biographical/historical context about Brahms’s life in the 1860s, performances of this
work AND about Tasso’s story in music and in the other arts at this time (Who else wrote
musical works based on this story? Did they use Goethe’s version or a different one? How did
Romantic artists/musicians treat this story?)

• analyze what elements of the Middle Ages might have appealed to Brahms or his audience in
the mid-19th century (what other artists or composers included medieval topics in their works?
How have scholars interpreted them? How do they connect to other trends in culture, politics,
history, etc.?)

• evaluate previous scholars’ approaches and synthesize them with my own (what did they say
that I think is helpful or unhelpful? Are they wrong about something? Did they miss something I
think is important?)

• construct a unified interpretation of Rinaldo that considers the text and music in the context of
Romanticism

** Note the timeline this methodology implies: TEXT (because it’s necessary to
understand the work at all), MUSIC, then READING. After that, there’s putting it all
together with critical thinking skills: compare and contrast, evaluate, synthesize, etc.