MUS 222 Final Project Guide

All written materials are to be submitted via D2L by: Thursday, March 15, 2023, 11:30PM CT

This project consists of 2 parts (detailed below)

PART I Written Materials: Analytical paper – OR– Composition project
PART II Brief presentation of Part I work
Students will present part II, during the class meetings on 3/7/2023 and 3/9/2023.
A presentation schedule will be posted on D2L after the midterm exam.
_____________
Part I, Analysis
1 Choose a piece of music written between 1910 and 1950, which you are, have recently been, or would like to
learn for performance, or that you would like to learn more about. If it is a long piece, select only one
movement or a part of the whole. Please submit your ideas to me in writing (via e-mail) as soon as you have
them or by February 24 at the latest.

2 Make a brief (1 page, maximum) summary of the work’s historical context. Consider basic questions: When?
Where? Why? How does the piece fit into the composer’s oeuvre, is it an early work, the quintessential example
of its genre, the only one of its kind the composer wrote? etc. Provide a bibliography, being careful to cite
sources within the text. Do not employ published analyses of the work for the following parts: your analysis
should be your own.

3 Analyze the work with several aspects in mind, providing a complete summary of important parameters,
concepts and techniques within the music (e.g., isorhythm, a pitch or rhythm series, chromatic solos over
repeating harmonic patters, texture manipulation, etc.).
Provide an analysis to facilitate an overall discussion of structure and formal architecture within the work.
Although you should not analyze every verticality, you are responsible for understanding the important
structures and patterns within the work.

4 Identify those points in the work which are most characteristic (some examples: Does the work approach
timbre in a unique manner? Does the work innovate in terms of form? Is texture used in a novel way? etc.).
Discuss essential aspects of the work, giving examples. [This will be the main part of your brief presentation in
part II.]

5 Briefly summarize your findings. Is there one thing on which the work seems to pivot? What makes this work
unique? How can this knowledge of the work inform your presentation of it as a performer?

Length: 5 pages, plus examples, an attached score (if applicable) and bibliography. Be sure to consult Oxford
Music Online as you organize your research. NB: many living composers have web-sites and many recently-
deceased composers have online archives.

–OR–



Part I, Composition Project
1 Choose a piece of music that you wish to model in your own composition: it should be written between 1910
and 1950 (and in one of the aesthetic frameworks considered in Music Theory 222), which you are, have
recently been, or would like to learn for performance, or that you would like to learn more about. If it is a long
piece, select a 2-3 minute excerpt. Please submit your ideas to me in writing (via e-mail) as soon as you have
them or by February 24 at the latest.

2 Write a ca. 2’00 piece that explores similar harmonic, melodic, rhythmic or textural issues to those in your
model work that you can perform. Submit the notated materials as part of your written project.

3 Perform and record the work.

4 Write a short explanation of your compositional process (you may include any sketches, relevant diagrams,
etc.). Provide a brief analysis of the form and techniques you used to create the work and discuss its relation to
the model work. Consider questions like: Are there aspects you discovered doing this work that have not
occurred to you when doing more overtly analytical work? Was it harder or easier than you thought? Did you
enjoy it? If you had to write another version of this piece, what would you change? [This will be the main part
of your brief presentation in part II.]

NB: the composition project will be graded on the thoroughness of you effort and your fulfillment of these
criteria. Since the goal of this creative work is deepen understanding of historical styles, your will not be graded
on its “originality” per se.

Part II: Presentation

Due to time constraints, the presentation will be brief: 5 minutes, maximum. Please plan accordingly: projects
that go past t minutes will have to be interrupted, and there will be no time for students to ask questions.

This presentation is for the class: it will be a chance for you to introduce us to your model work or new
composition. Your main goal in this presentation is to succinctly and clearly tell us what your research and
analysis revealed about the work/style/composer you explored.

RE: time management and audio examples

Please plan accordingly, realizing that it is simply not possible, or the goal of the presentation, to tell us
everything that is in your written materials. If you wish to play a short example as part of your presentation,
please send the a streaming link to me in an email, before class. In the email, please indicate timings of any
excerpts you would like to sample; I will cue and play in order to save time.