Writing About Music: An Introductory Guide

by Wingell, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780130406033
• ISBN10: 0130406031
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Pearson College Div

Summary

This guidebook provides practical and specific assistance to undergraduate students about writing research papers and other types of projects in the field of music. It also offers practical help in writing effective prose on any topic and ways to improve one's writing style. The Third Edition has been extensively revised and rewritten. The organization of the material has been changed in order to present issues in a more logical order. There are expanded sections on new approaches to musicological research, electronic resources for research, and how to use word processing programs to draft and edit a paper. The section on format issues has been revised and expanded to make the detailed information it offers clearer and more useful. Finally, a new sample student paper has been included in the Appendix, along with discussion questions designed to help students analyze the paper, read more critically, and understand better the process of researching a topic, designing a paper, and arguing a thesis persuasively.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Writing about Music	1	(8)
Why We Write about Music	1	(1)
The Special Challenges of Writing about Music	2	(1)
Inappropriate Ways to Write about Music	3	(4)
Musicological Research and Writing	7	(2)
Analysis and Research	9	(12)
Analysis	9	(1)
Questions to Consider	10	(3)
Examples of Works and Research Directions	13	(8)
Gesualdo: ``Moro, lasso,''	13	(1)
Opening Chorus of Cantata No. 80, Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott	14	(2)
J. S. Bach
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C Minor, K. 491, First Movement	16	(1)
Mozart
Otello, Act, I, Scene 3	17	(1)
Verdi
A Faust Symphony, First Movement	18	(1)
Liszt
The Rite of Spring, Opening Sections	19	(2)
Stravinsky
Getting Started: Research	21	(19)
Choosing a Topic	21	(2)
Kinds of Topics	23	(1)
What Research Means	24	(1)
Gathering Materials	25	(1)
Places to Start: Print Resources	26	(7)
Library Catalogs	26	(1)
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias	26	(2)
Histories of Music	28	(2)
Biographies	30	(1)
Thematic Catalogs	30	(1)
Articles	31	(1)
Dissertations	31	(1)
Scores and Recordings	32	(1)
Places to Start: Electronic Resources	33	(4)
On-line Library Catalogs	33	(1)
Databases on CD-ROM	34	(1)
The Internet	35	(2)
Evaluating Resources	37	(1)
Foreign-Language Resources	38	(1)
When to Stop: How Much Research Is Enough?	38	(2)
Writing a Research Paper	40	(19)
The Outline	40	(3)
Topic and Thesis	40	(1)
Introduction	41	(1)
Body	42	(1)
Conclusion	42	(1)
Revising the Outline	42	(1)
Writing the Draft	43	(7)
Musical Examples	44	(1)
Diagrams, Graphics, and Tables	45	(1)
Footnotes	46	(2)
Bibliography	48	(2)
Revising and Editing the Draft	50	(4)
Computers and Editing	50	(1)
Checking Spelling and Grammar	51	(1)
The Editing Process	52	(2)
Printing	54	(1)
Proofreading	54	(1)
Keep Your File	55	(1)
Plagiarism	55	(2)
Conclusion	57	(2)
Questions of Format	59	(24)
Format for College Papers	59	(3)
Paper	60	(1)
Page Format	60	(1)
Fonts	61	(1)
Spacing	61	(1)
Justification	61	(1)
Page Numbers	62	(1)
Format for Quotations	62	(3)
Short Quotations	63	(1)
Block Quotations	63	(1)
Ellipsis and Editorial Additions	64	(1)
Bibliography and Footnote Form	65	(13)
Books	66	(4)
Dissertations	70	(1)
Articles in Dictionaries and Encyclopedias	70	(2)
Articles in Periodicals	72	(1)
Articles in Collections of Essays	73	(1)
Scores	73	(1)
Sound Recordings	74	(1)
Citing Interviews, Correspondence, and E-Mail	75	(1)
Citing Electronic Resources	75	(3)
Format Issues Related to Writing about Music	78	(4)
Stylistic Periods	78	(1)
Referring to Musical Works	78	(2)
Naming Notes and Keys	80	(1)
Foreign Terms	81	(1)
Musical Examples	82	(1)
Conclusion	82	(1)
Other Kinds of Writing Projects	83	(19)
The Seminar Presentation	83	(5)
Research	84	(1)
Organizing the Presentation	84	(4)
Tone and Approach	88	(1)
Concert Reports	88	(3)
Purpose	89	(1)
Research	89	(1)
Writing the Report	90	(1)
Program Notes	91	(6)
Purpose	91	(1)
Who is the Audience?	91	(1)
Research	92	(1)
Working within Limits	93	(1)
Special Problems	94	(2)
Texts and Translations	96	(1)
Conclusion	97	(1)
Essay Examinations	97	(4)
Purpose	97	(1)
Preparing for Essay Examinations	98	(1)
How to Proceed	98	(1)
Common Errors	99	(2)
Conclusion	101	(1)
Writing Style	102	(20)
Some Basic Ideas about Writing	102	(2)
Kinds of Prose	104	(1)
Tone	105	(1)
The Stance of the Writer	106	(1)
Referring to Yourself	107	(1)
Writing Effective Sentences	108	(10)
Word Choice	108	(3)
Word Combinations	111	(3)
Sentence Structure	114	(4)
Effective Paragraphs	118	(1)
The Effective Essay	119	(2)
Introduction	119	(1)
Translations	120	(1)
Conclusion	120	(1)
Summary	121	(1)
Common Writing Problems	122	(28)
Errors in Basic Grammar and Writing	122	(10)
Incomplete Sentences	122	(1)
Run-on Sentences	123	(1)
Agreement: Subject and Verb	123	(1)
Agreement: Pronoun and Antecedent	124	(2)
Proper Cases of Pronouns	126	(1)
Relative Pronouns	126	(2)
Misplaced Modifiers	128	(3)
The Split Infinitive	131	(1)
Mixed Metaphors	131	(1)
Spelling Issues	132	(4)
Using a Dictionary	132	(1)
Forming Possessives	133	(1)
Plurals of Borrowed Latin and Greek Words	134	(1)
Foreign Words	134	(1)
Medieval and Renaissance Names	135	(1)
Some Troublesome Word Pairs	136	(2)
Its and It's	136	(1)
Your and You're	136	(1)
Whose and Who's	137	(1)
Affect and Effect	137	(1)
Due to and Because of	137	(1)
Discreet and Discrete	137	(1)
Fewer and Less	138	(1)
Principal and Principle	138	(1)
Punctuation	138	(6)
The Period	139	(1)
The Comma	139	(2)
The Semicolon	141	(1)
The Colon	142	(1)
Quotation Marks	142	(1)
The Hyphen	143	(1)
The Dash	143	(1)
Parentheses	144	(1)
Special Problems Involved in Writing about Music	144	(5)
Technical Terms	144	(3)
Describing Musical Events	147	(2)
Summary	149	(1)
Conclusion	150	(2)
Appendix: Sample Paper	152	(15)
Index	167

Excerpts

Since its publication in 1990, this writing guide for undergraduate music majors has proved useful in music departments and schools of music in the United States and Canada. It has been used in academic courses by both music majors and nonmajors. A second edition in 1997 attempted to improve on both the content and the tone of the first edition, and updated the listings of resources useful for research and writing. PURPOSE OF THE THIRD EDITION It is now time to publish a third edition of this guide. The information about resources in the second edition is out of date, particularly in view of the appearance of important new print resources, especially the second edition ofThe New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,and the proliferation of Web sites useful for research. In recent years, musicological research has continued to flourish in such areas as cultural and gender studies, areas I deal with more thoroughly in the new section about research. In addition, I am a co-author, with Silvia Herzog, of a new text for beginning graduate students in music,Introduction to Research in Music,published by Prentice Hall in 2001. There is, of course, a certain amount of overlap in content between the two books, but also, working on the graduate-level text clarified my thinking on several issues connected with research and writing and led to clearer ways of presenting certain material. Once the necessary changes were made, these new ideas proved useful in this undergraduate guide as well. There is clearly a greater need than ever for a manual like this. Even though all students now use either their own computers or the sophisticated equipment colleges and universities provide for their use, many students still hand in papers that are actually preliminary drafts in desperate need of revision and proofreading. The irony is that today's word-processing equipment makes revising and editing so much easier than it was in the old days when we used typewriters. I have noticed another strange phenomenon since the advent of personal computers. In all my undergraduate classes in recent years, there have been one or two students with a flair for graphics who hand in papers with marvelous illustrations on the title page; unfortunately, that creativity and skill does not always extend to the papers inside. In fairness, I must point out that in every class there are also some students who have finely honed writing skills, who can argue complex ideas clearly and skillfully, and who produce prose that is a pleasure to read. The expansion in today's college population widens tremendously the gap between the best and the worst students in skills such as critical thinking and persuasive writing. Instructors constantly worry about the difficulty of organizing their courses so that they continue to challenge the best students while still making it possible for less-gifted students to succeed. My hope is that this manual will be of use to all undergraduate students. Students who are already skillful writers can use it as a review, and students who somehow entered college without basic writing skills can also learn some useful things from it. In addition, this guide may continue to be useful for new graduate students who have not had a decent writing course in their undergraduate years or for whom English is a second language. Another reason for producing a third edition is that the language is still under assault all around us. We are bombarded daily by imprecise and careless language. On television broadcasts of football games, coaches babble at half time about their hopes for a better second half--"We made too many mental errors in the first half. We're gonna have to suck it up, find some people who can step up and go out there and make something happen!" The words sound resolute, but what exactly do they mean? Newscasters talk about neighborhoods "decimated" by floods or fires, and observe, "Hopefully, t