Music History & Appreciation
Fall Semester
Assignment #1 (Due August 11th via TurnItIn.com): Listen to at least fifteen songs by one of the artists listed below. List the songs you listened to. Choose one song that you liked a lot and one you did not like very much. Explain your reasons why. Tell me someone who you think might like this artist and why (Ex: My father likes a lot of rock and roll with complicated guitar solos, so I think he’d like Jimmy Hendrix)
Artists to choose from for Assignment #1: The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Elton John. This list is not negotiable. Pick one of these five artists.
Assignment #2 (Due September 22nd via TurnItIn.com): Choose one of the composers listed below. Based on the information you received in class, write a one page (250-400 words) essay about why this composer is the greatest composer of all time.
Composers to choose from for Assignment #2: Johann Pachelbel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt. This list is not negotiable. Pick one of these five composers.
Assignment #3 (Due October 28th via TurnItIn.com): Watch a movie-musical. Write a two-page (500-800 words) summary. Write a one-page (250-400 words) reflection essay about why you enjoyed this movie or why you think this was a good story to be told through music. You may choose any movie-musical you’d like EXCEPT for Disney movies. (They’re good movies, but they aren’t what this assignment is about) Please get your choice approved ahead of time. If you write the paper, but the movie doesn’t count as a musical, you will receive a zero.
Assignment #4 (Due November 17th via TurnItIn.com): Ask your parents to list the artists that THEY THINK are the five most important or influential musical artists of the last 75 years. Listen to some music from those five artists and write a paragraph about each one, telling me why you think that artist is considered to be influential or important. You will write about all five artists.
Assignment #5 (Due December 15th via TurnItIn.com): Attend a live music performance at some point during the semester. It must be live, more than one hour long, and primarily music (i.e. – church services that are primarily spoken and partially music would not count). The school musical does not count. Concerts, recitals, musical pageants, ballets, or musical competitions would all be appropriate choices. Write a two-page (500-800 words) reflection and summary of the performance.
Final performance: In class, during the last week of the semester. Scholars will be required to choose a music video or clip to lip-sync to. For the fall semester, this song must be one of the following:
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A song from a Broadway musical
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A song for which an A Capella or Barbershop cover can be found
Your performance should be between two and five minutes long. You will be graded on enthusiasm, interpretation of the material, and accuracy of the lyrics.
Spring Semester
Assignment #1 (Due February 2nd via TurnItIn.com): Choose a performer from the Jazz, Swing, or Early Country Era. They do NOT have to be someone we’ve talked about in class, but they DO have to be someone who performed and recorded or wrote music between 1890 – 1949. They do NOT need to have concluded their career prior to 1949, but they do need to have been an active performer during this time frame.
Write a two-page biography about the performer you chose. Focus on their musical education, their training, and their performance career. You may include interesting information about their personal life, but please focus on the music. Be sure to include what song(s) they are most famous for and any specific accomplishments they achieved during their careers (i.e. - #1 singles, bestselling albums, first person to do something impressive)
Assignment #2 (Due March 9th via TurnItIn.com): Choose three of the songs listed in your lyrics packet (to be handed out in class). Listen to them, watch the videos if your parents give permission. Read the lyrics as you listen. Write a 200-500 word reflection about what the lyrics mean. You can interpret individual lines one-by-one, or you may interpret the entire song as a whole.
Assignment #3 (Due April 27th via TurnItIn.com): Choose one of the artists listed below. Listen to as much of their music as you need to in order to complete this assignment. Identify at least three distinct genres that this artist has recorded, give examples in the form of song titles, and describe why you think that song is in the specific genre you listed.
Artists for Assignment #3: Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Queen, No Doubt, Shakira, Norah Jones, Carlos Santana. This list is not negotiable. Pick one of these seven artists.
Assignment #4 (Due May 6th in class): Make a timeline of music in the 20th century to be presented in class. You must show the start of each decade to help show where everything is. This must be on something larger than 24”X36” (poster-sized).
Use pictures cut out from magazines, newspapers, or printed from the internet to illustrate your timeline.
List AT LEAST eight different genres. Show when they started and when they ended (if applicable).
List AT LEAST five major “moments” in music history. Major performances, career highlights, deaths, turning points in technology.
Pick one artist that we talked about in class and chart their career history. When they started, their big breakout success, major turning points, decline, and death, breakup, or retirement (if applicable).
Assignment #5 (Due May 11th via TurnItIn.com): Attend a live music performance at some point during the semester. It must be live, more than one hour long, and primarily music (i.e. – church services that are primarily spoken and partially music would not count). The school musical does not count. Concerts, recitals, musical plays, musical pageants, ballets, or musical competitions would all be appropriate choices. Write a two-page (500-800 words) reflection and summary of the performance.
Final performance: In class, during the last week of the semester. Scholars will be required to choose a music video or clip to lip-sync to. For the spring semester, this song must be a song that was released prior to the year you were born. Your performance should be between two and five minutes long. You will be graded on enthusiasm, interpretation of the material, and accuracy of the lyrics.