CONCERT REPORT FORMAT

You may choose to attend concerts that appeal to you within these guidelines:

1. You must attend the entire concert. You need to report on most works, up to six or seven movements or compositions.  If there are more than that the first and last pieces should be reported on along with four or five others. Choose contrasting works.
2. Concerts may be solo vocal or instrumental, small groups, or large groups. You are encouraged to attend a variety of events to broaden your own horizons, but I will not keep track of this.  If you just love band music, you can attend three band concerts, and so on.
3. Concerts need to be performances of art music. One jazz concert, one world music, or one Broadway style concert or show are acceptable (but not required) per semester.  Rap, hip-hop, country, contemporary Christian, or rock concerts or club gigs do not fit the parameters of this class.  If you have questions about a concert, ASK ME BEFORE YOU ATTEND!
4. You are encouraged to attend events performed by Augustana campus groups or professional groups like the South Dakota Symphony but this is not required. You may go to educational concerts as in other colleges, high schools or even younger.  You may report on the concert of a group you belong to – but you must report on all the works on that concert, including those of other groups performing at the same event.  This concert must take place during the semester time frame of our class.  You may not report on a concert you performed in before September 1, 2016.

Concert reports should be in a prose format.  Complete sentences, correct spelling, and good syntax are important. Creativity is encouraged.  Legibility is vital – if I can’t read it, I will reject it.  Electronic format or printed format is strongly encouraged. You may submit your concert report through Moodle or via e-mail or hand it to me in printed format.  Within the concert report you need to include the following information:

As a heading:

1. Your name
2. Date and time of the concert
3. Location of the concert
4. Title of and type of performance group(s)

(choir, orchestra, band, soloist, etc.)

For each selection you choose to report of those performed, work into your prose:

1. Title
2. Composer and period of musical history
3. Genre (symphony, concerto, madrigal, etc.)
4. Important musical elements of the selection and recognition of those which are not as important
5. Your own personal reaction to the work, including whether you think this performance reflects what the composer intended.

Lists are NOT acceptable.  This is a prose format, and should read comfortably.  Think of it as a magazine or newspaper article, but not as a review of the concert.

ATTACH A COPY OF THE PROGRAM TO YOUR REPORT!

(You may scan the program or hand it to me in class if you submit your report electronically.  In the case of multi-page programs only the pages listing performed works are necessary.)

Concert reports should be examples of your high standards of scholarship and your writing skills, and will be graded accordingly.  Succinctness is valued over verbosity!  Use academic rather than colloquial style.  Usual reports are 2-4 pages, but that is not required.