What is MIDI and what is its value to musicians/composers?
RESEARCH ESSAY Your second writing assignment is an essay, to be written in formal style, on a topic chosen from a list provided by the instructor. Keep in mind that an objective paper does not utilize first person statements. The essay should demonstrate your ability to research and consolidate material. You are required to consult a minimum of three sources, one of which MUST be The New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, found in the reference section of the Ybor Campus library. You may consult on-line references, but the majority of your research is to be done from the Grove’s. Copy/pasting from websites is easily detectable and will result in a failing grade for both the paper and the course. The paper is to be 4 pages in length (minimum of 1000 words) following the general guidelines given below. Topics from which to choose: 1. What is MIDI and what is its value to musicians/composers? 2. Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier”: What is it and what lead him to compose it? 3. Beethoven’s Hair? Summarize the current research into the mysteries of Beethoven’s deafness. 4. Mozart’s piano: what was it like and how has it evolved into today’s instrument. Who were the key players in its evolution? 5. The use of Masonic symbolism in Mozart’s opera, “The Magic Flute” 6. Schumann’s battle for sanity. Describe his mental illness and the impact it had on his music and his professional/domestic life. 7. Clara Schumann: Wonder-Woman! 8. The Jüdische Kulturbund: The life and survival (if only temporary) of Jewish musicians in Nazi Germany. 9. Ragtime: How Scott Joplin became the “Father” of this genre. 10. “Romeo and Juliet” to “Westside Story”: How this theme has been treated in music. 11. The rise of the Music Conservatory in America. 12. Strictly Instrumental: Choose and instrument of interest to you and chronicle its development and primary contributors to its repertoire. 13. String instruments of the 1700’s and why they are still regarded as better (or are they?) than modern versions. 14. The effect of wars on music or music genres. 15. Folk music and oral tradition; how they have influenced the great composers. 16. The changing role of women in music during the romantic period. 17. Composers and debilitating diseases; did they hinder or help the compositions?
