In the following essay, Cathy Callis describes how a professor can help tailor a syllabus to help students find inspiration for assignments.

In the words of the great pianist, conductor and author Daniel Barenboim, “the person who wants to listen actively will get more out of the music than the person who just sits there waiting to be inspired.” (1)

Such, in part, was a premise for the design of the course Music Performance in New York, offered during the Fall 2008 semester. With the entire concert world of the City of New York serving as a potential listening laboratory, class members (the majority being non-music majors) acquired a base of musical experience in the classroom, and then ventured forth. Not only did we hear a variety of concerts in a number of different venues, we reviewed and critiqued them, sharing our thoughts and honing our critical skills.

For those whose passion is listening to music, and for those who are interested in writing as a way of connecting more deeply to music, the following experiences, observations, and checklists, as well as quotes from class members, may be of interest.

I. Experiences in Comparative Listening: Sharpening the Ear.

An early classroom project, comparative listening to two performances of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-flat, K. 450, developed aural skills and introduced basic music vocabulary necessary to evaluate and understand both the music - the structure, the style, the composer - and its interpretations. Class members then attended a live performance of the same piece at Juilliard on September 21.

“Michael Brown, the first competitor on the program, played with a free and expansive personality…He floated with the notes like a ballet dancer…The third competitor, Liza Stepanova, my absolute favorite of the three competitors, played with robustness. Yet there was a gracefulness about her. By the way, she won first place!” Jennie Blackwell

Boone Gorges, "Lefrak Auditorium, Queens College"

II. In One’s Own Words: Refining the Writing Process.

The initial writing exercises were simple - one- or two-word responses describing moods, feelings, and character evoked or observations made upon first hearing and subsequent repetitions. Musical terms were written about with precision; essays, blogs, and class discussions centered on topics such as: “In this age of technology, is there a need for live performance?” “How does the structure of a piece support the music?” “How does the aesthetic philosophy of saxophonist Antonio Hart influence his performance style?” Ultimately, students read articles, learned terminology, shared views, and became clearer, through writing, about personal philosophies, attitudes, and preferences.

“I finally started to see music as an all encompassing sphere instead of just a flat surface.” Ely Moskowitz (Queens College Concert, Maurice Peress, conductor, 9/24/08)

III. “Critiquing” the Critics: Learning from the Professionals.

A further step in the evolution of our writing was learning from current and historical reviews. We read pieces from master critics such as Olin Downes; heard from the composers themselves as reported in Composers on Music, edited by Joseph Fisk; and surveyed accounts of historical performances included in First Nights: Five Musical Premieres, by Thomas Forrest Kelly. (2) During one of the classes’ favorite experiments, “critiquing” the critic, students broke into small groups or teams, each team consisting of both non-music and music majors. Teams were asked to analyze and “grade” reviews written by the pros (a big hit). The class used basic criteria to evaluate them, including:

1. Clarity, focus, and follow-through from the opening paragraph to the end of the review.
2. The use of historical or relevant background information about the composer, composition, performer, or programming.
3. The quality of the performance and the communicative effectiveness of the performer.
4. Audience response; emotional and critical response of the reviewer.
5. Specifics that might be relevant to the performance about the venue
6. Marketability: Is this review a promotional piece for the artist, concert, or forthcoming musical event of a similar nature? Does it serve the critic?

By “grading” and reporting what worked or didn’t on the part of the professional critic, students gained in confidence and understanding of the reviewing process.

From these activities, the qualities of a good review soon became apparent: those receiving the highest marks from the students were well-crafted, engaging, concise, and informative. It was further determined that a good reviewer be knowledgeable about the subject matter, be a good listener (have a trained ear whenever possible), and be both subjective (by putting his or her emotional responses into the review) and objective (by holding to high standards).

“You could see that he wasn’t simply singing his lines, he was living them!” Alvaro Echegaray (about John Relyea as Mephistopheles, The Damnation of Faust, Metropolitan Opera Production, 11/22/08)

“I loved Mulgrew Miller on the piece ‘Fast Track.’ His piano added a capricious and swingy quality to it, making comprehensible what would have been an indecipherably modern jazz composition. His approach to the piano seemed to be proportionate to his physique: as a big man he could pull off anything from little Mozartian riffs and sequences solely in the right hand to spontaneous lush orchestrations of whatever his mind was attuned to at that very moment.” Joseph Martin (David Holland Sextet, Birdland, 10/11/08)

IV. The Rewrite: Finding One’s Own Voice.

The process of rewriting an essay or article is similar to a performer’s task in the practice room, and the composer’s task in the studio: there is a polishing of ideas, an examination and a seeking out of clarity, intent, form and structure.

Prior to the exercise of “critiquing the critic,” students had attended violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter’s concert at Carnegie Hall in October and written preliminary reviews or reports of their experiences. They now were able to compare their work to the professional reviews critiqued in class after that concert, including a professional review (that was scrutinized in detail) of Ms Mutter’s concert by The New York Times’ critic Vivien Schweitzer. (3)

Thus began the process of the rewrite, or revision. Approximately eight concerts were attended by each class member, with summaries, reviews, and a choice of rewrites of their reviews as a part of their assignments. A personal style began to emerge. Usually, the initial review captured the essence of the concert; the rewrite a further embellishing of the same.

“I just wished to close my eyes and listen to the alien and mechanical sounds and create the foreign worlds in my imagination.” Emily Dinger (Electronic Music Concert, CUNY Graduate Center, 11/08)

In rap style:
“….As the story goes, it basically depicted life From the times of joy, loneliness, and those of strife. The orchestra was small, just a six member ensemble, But brought life to actions, and emotions to sample.”
Alvaro Echegaray (excerpt from rap review, Who Speaks for Wolf, dance and music event, NYU, 11/23/08)

V. A Checklist for Writing and Listening: Pulling it all Together.

The following are suggestions that can help make the most out of listening and writing about music:

1. Develop your ear by listening to all sorts of music.
2. Get in to the mindset of the performer.
3. Notice your emotions and feelings as you listen.
4. Develop a working vocabulary of music.
5. Learn about the composer.
6. Put the music and composer in historical and stylistic context.
7. Consider elements of programming.
8. Immerse yourself in the environment or venue of the performance.
9. Put the performance into a meaningful context.
10. Write from your experience.

“It is hard to say why the music feels more vivid to me now. Perhaps the spark of imagination burst into flames when I saw and understood how music affects everyone. Making music is a passionate act and watching it take place, as we have through live performances, is a little bit like looking through a window into human nature. We can see these deeply rooted feelings and, in them, we see a reflection of ourselves. Yet, none of this is written explicitly into the music; rather it is something I take away from this experience.” Jennifer Louie (on writing about music, 12/08)

In his book, Writing to Learn, William Zinsser makes the point that “ultimately, every critic is an outsider, one step removed from the creative spark.” (4) Yet, as Jennifer Louie infers, it is a creative spark of the imagination that sets us on a path to learning and discovery. In that regard, as the class professor and facilitator, I suspect both Mr. Zinsser and Mr. Barenboim would have been pleased with the initiative and perseverance displayed by the students as they sought to get inside the music, and to discover for themselves the essence of the musical experience.

“There is a lot of music I can’t even begin to imagine out there, and experiencing it will teach me something new, every time I venture out to a concert.” Emily Dinger (on writing about music 12/08)

1 Michael Kimmelman, “A Whirlwind Named Barenboim,” New York Times, November 23, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/arts/music/23kimm.html.

2 see Josiah Fisk, ed. Composers on Music: Eight Centuries of Writing. (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997) and Thomas Forrest Kelly, First Nights: Five Musical Premieres (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).

3 Vivian Schweitzer, “Playing Bach with Nods to Two Centuries,” New York Times , October 14, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/arts/music/15mutt.html.

4 William Zinsser, Writing to Learn (New York: Harper and Row, 1988), 226.