Writing About Music: An Introductory Guide

For classes in Music Writing and Research, as well as a supplement to Music Appreciation and History courses. How do you put into the words the experience of hearing Beethoven’s Ninth or the Hallelujah Chorus? Describe a John Coltrane solo or the Jimi Hendrix’s blazing guitar work? For many students, the task of writing about musical experiences is a daunting one. Writing About Music, 4/e offers practical advice and guidance to help students master the special skills needed to write about this most-elusive of arts. The text serves as a guide for each phase in the process of researching and writing a paper on a musical topic, and preparing for other projects such as seminar presentations, concert reports, program notes and essay examinations. Innovative, comprehensive, and internet-savvy, this step-by-step text will remain on music students’ shelves as a handy reference and resource for years to come.

Features

• Customized Guidance throughout the writing process, starting with choosing a topic, designing an outline, writing the draft, through what research means, incorporating musical examples, revising and proofreading to the completion of a final, quality paper.
• Extensively Updated with several new additions that include important recent works such as Burkholder, Bonds, Wright and Simms, lexicon and multivolume histories revisions, and exciting new links to key internet resources.
• A Flexible and Efficient Approach allows the text to serve as a useful reference tool for instructors and students seeking advice and reference on research and writing issues.
• A Unique Span of Coverage that includes a guide to writing styles and common writing errors, sample papers and questions that help portray the teaching material clearly, and important print and electronic resources for music research.
• Dynamic and User-Friendly Style makes this a market leading text for undergraduate students of music, but useful to all students, including new graduate students, and those enrolled in introductory appreciation and history courses.
• NEW — Invaluable Electronic & Print Resources include the revised one-volume, lexicon and multivolume histories now accessible online. Students are connected to online journals and databases previously available only on CD-ROM, and key resources like Grove Music Online and JSTOR that make current encyclopedia articles, full texts of back issued articles in scholarly journals, and scores readily available online.
• NEW — Resourceful Revisions and Additions on advising how to avoid plagiarism in a digital age, using the new author-date system of citation, formatting for citing electronic resources, updated references to the Chicago Manual of Style, and a list of entertaining educational references to guides like, Eats, Shoots and Leaves for students to learn and enjoy.
• NEW — Scope of Discussion has been expanded to include material on musical works in relation to analytical approaches and broader cultural topics. Works like Stockhausen’s Gesang der Junglinge illustrates ways to approach research related to a modernist work.
• NEW — Critical Thinking Section recognizes the importance of critical thinking in the learning process, and its relevance to research and writing at the undergraduate level.