Concert Report: String Studio Recital & Eastman Organists' Day

This report will consist of a discussion of two concerts of rock music which you will attendduring the period beginning February 8 and continuing until the due date. Your choice of concerts is fairlyfree, although you are expected to check first with me as to the appropriateness of the choice, in cases ofconcerts outside of the usual definitions of the rock genre.

The report should be approximately 3 double-spaced pages in length (Total length, includingboth concerts in a single document). You are to consider the music you hear from the standpoint of thecontinuing development of rock music, as we have been discussing in class. Thus, it will be relevant toaddress such issues as genre, live performance style, and musical form. Be sure to use the vocabulary ofmusic to describe what you hear in as much detail as possible, given the limitation on length.

For each concert, you should identify a significant musical antecedent and discuss theperformance you attended in terms of the parameters/stylistic elements established by earliermusicians. Thus, you should find a particular artist/band who was an influence on the musician(s) youwitness and comment specifically on aspects of continuity, reaction, and change in the latter’s work. Placeemphasis on how changes may be seen to reflect larger trends in the evolution of rock, or how the musicgains new meaning through continuity in the face of changed conditions.

Although you must give priority to musical considerations, you should also devote space inyour report to a discussion of the concerts as public events, including the type of venue, audience,interaction between the performers and listeners, and any other information that will bring the concertto life for your reader(s).

If you attend a concert outside the rock field, you should look for connections between thestyle of music you witness and what you might expect from a “typical” rock concert, as well as contrastswith rock style, including stage behavior, audience interaction, etc.. In considering the question ofinfluences, it will be more useful to try to identify rock trends or performers that reveal the influence of thestyle of music you experienced, rather than to delve into the history of another style of music in an attemptto find internal connections. For example, if you’ve been to hear a folk performer, you’ll want consider theinfluence folk has had on certain rock styles (“Folk rock” is the obvious choice!), rather than trying to tracethe folk lineage of your performer.

The papers should be well written, with attention to style and the rules of standard English. Ifyou make use of ideas from the written sources, you must include footnotes. Primarily, however, I aminterested in your ideas, rather than in your rehashing someone else’s (Don’t steal from CD/record-jacketnotes/band websites!). I suggest that you take detailed notes on the first concert and wait until the secondbefore making the final version of the first part of the report. At the very least, allow new information you receive in class to influence your thinking about the earlier performance, and make revisions as you see fit.