Guero for piano (1970)
Gran Torso for string quartet (1971/76/88)

Listening to the Unusual: Advanced Concert Music from 1950 to Present
Your task is to choose one piece music from the list below and listen to it (a lot), read about its composer and their style, and write a report about your experience. Please follow the methodology below closely, taking notes for each step as you go, and write your report (after) in clear, correct prose.
Methodology (Follow These Steps):
1.
Preliminary Survey: Listen to the first of the two pieces listed for each of the eight composers given below. Listen
closely and choose a piece that sounds interesting to you—not something you like, necessarily, but something
intriguing, something you’d like to learn more about through multiple listenings—this will be your chosen piece for the
report.
2.
“Blind” Listening(s): Listen (again) to your chosen piece without doing any background research. I recommend
listening to your piece all the way through to experience the whole, and then listening again in order to take notes of
interesting things or moments you hear. (Many of these works are long, so focus on only the first five minutes or so.)
There is no limit to how often you listen to your piece, but I’d say as much as you feel is necessary to get “inside”
the work. Once you’ve made a number of concrete observations and collected a number of thoughts about it, organize
your thoughts and notes into a couple paragraphs of written prose: give an overview of your experience, trying to
be as specific as possible. This will be your first impression of the piece, which will deepen and change as you go
through the following steps and continue your experience.
3.
Historical-Stylistic Context of the Composer: Next, do some research on the composer and his/her background. Read
the composer’s entry in the Oxford Music Online Encyclopedia (login with your Lehman credentials—the college has a
subscription). The Guardian also has excellent composer profiles of each of the composers listed (and many
others)—find your composer and read their article. Once you’ve assembled your information, write a few paragraphs
that summarize the composer’s artistic interests, methods, philosophy, and/or work as a whole. Do not write a
biography—write about what makes their work interesting, important, and unique. Biographical details are
welcome, but only those that are relevant to the music and would potentially help the listener understand the music’s
significance.
4.
Stylistic Context of the Music (Separate Listening): This is connected to the previous task, but instead requires
“listening research.” Listen to other works by the same composer to get a broader sense of the kind of music they
write. Start by listening to the second link included on the list, but also pull up at least one additional work of
importance on Youtube (perhaps one mentioned in your research). This step will give you more insight into the
composer’s “sound world,” and it will help you hear your chosen work in a different light. The more pieces you
explore, the clearer this sound world will appear to you.
5.
Second Listening(s): Listen to your chosen piece again, once or a number of times. Take notes again. Now having
done some research and listened to other pieces, are you understanding this work differently? Do you hear more?
Pay careful attention to how your thoughts and observations have changed since your “blind” listening now that you
have more knowledge of and experience with the music. Report your new observations and new thoughts in a
paragraph or two.
6.
Description of the Piece: Your previous notes and observations should be of a general nature. Now, try to describe
what “happens” in the piece (within the first five minutes or so). You’ll have to listen to it a bunch of times. The
purpose of this exercise is to get a general picture of the large-scale shape of the work, which is important because we
can often get lost in the moment-to-moment details. Your “description” can be schematic and incomplete, also
non-technical, and as detailed as you feel is necessary to “capture” what happens. Try your best to explain how the
piece moves and changes over time. Write your description using proper terminology.
7.
Final Listening(s): Listen to the piece again, all the way through, without taking notes, without doing anything. Just
listen to it closely and take it all in one final time. Do this with “fresh ears”—after some time away from it (maybe the
next day?). I’ll bet you are pretty familiar with it at this point—do you find yourself listening more deeply, hearing
more intelligently?
8.
Take-Away(s) and Final Thoughts: Lastly, write a couple paragraphs about the work and your experience doing this
listening project. What are the important take-aways about your piece, about the composer, about the style in general,
about the kind of “world” the piece inhabits? What makes this piece interesting, or important, or unique? If you had to
tell someone about this composer, or about this specific work, what would you want them to know before listening? Try
to be as specific as possible. Finally, write about your experience as a listener. Talk about how your initial impressions
of the work changed after spending time doing careful listening, thinking, reading, and writing about it. What did you
learn about this music, about yourself as a listener, about what music “is” or “can be” in general? Read everything
you’ve written over again, then share your final thoughts.

Sample Solution

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