MUS 265: History of Western Music I: Recent Research Report

Recent Research Report: (22%) Each student will research a topic of interest to them in music history up to the later Romantic era; student research projects will begin as an investigation of a composer and work (and its genre if there is not enough research) before 1800 (excluding Beethoven) as an introduction to research in music history.

The graded portions of the research project will consist of:

• Assigned worksheets from the Music Librarian (homework) (5%)
• Preliminary Bibliography: A description of research topic and bibliography with a selection of books, encyclopedias, and articles from scholarly journals; four items, do NOT need to be in proper formats (graded as part of following item)
  • Provide a title (the composer and work) and at least FOUR (4) sources (books, articles, and encyclopedias…) on your research. You do NOT need to provide exact citations annotations for the items. The grade for this will incorporated into the next graded assignment. Late work, poorly done assignments, or incompletes will result in a lower grade on the next graded assignment.
• One Annotation: Annotation of ONE scholarly item from the bibliography (2%)
  • A practice exercise of one annotation including the proper bibliography format, half-page annotation, and one footnote (a quotation from the source). For this assignment use an article, a chapter from a doctoral-level dissertation, or a chapter from a book. Do NOT use a Grove Music Online or other encyclopedia article. There is an example/model on Moodle.
• Annotated Bibliography: A FINAL version of the bibliography as described on the guidelines (7%)
  • Your draft must follow the Recent Research Template we will create in class (an example/model will be posted on Moodle). You should provide:
  • The correct Bibliography citations for at least SIX items of scholarship (a variety of articles, books, and doctoral-level dissertations) including one article from Grove Online.
  • For these you will also provide a one-paragraph, half-page prose description (as practiced in the previous assignment).
  • Each annotation will include a brief quote from the work that helps explain its importance with the proper footnote citation. The works should present the best research you can find on the topic and be evenly divided between biographical sources on the composer and analytical studies on the specific work.
  • In addition to the items of scholarship with annotation you must also provide the bibliography format for a recording and one for a score of the work. These do not need to be annotated (nor do they need a footnote) but should appear in alphabetical order in the bibliography.
• Conference with professor on paper (graded as part of following item)
• A term paper based on the topic and bibliography (8%)

1. Mixing quotation marks. Your word processor will probably use “curved” quotation marks. If you cut and paste materials from the web they are usually "straight." Having both in the paper indicates a lack of careful proofreading.
2. Only use URL or DOI links for items that are ONLY on the web. For things that were physically printed (books, articles, dissertations) give only the print information. This may be a bit different from Turabian’s newest format.
3. Avoid anonymous quotes. All quotes should be clearly linked to the author in the prose of the text—don’t rely on the footnote. Tell the reader who is talking in the paragraph.
4. Punctuation within quotes. “When you have a quotation, the punctuation falls within the quote marks and before the footnote.”
5. Avoid Dangling comparisons. Saying “Bach uses more virtuosity” makes the reader ask “More than…?” Avoid these dangling comparisons.
6. Only one space after a period. You may have been taught that there should be two spaces after a period. That’s only if you’re using a manual typewriter. On computers just use ONE space.
7. Major works of music with specific titles are in Italic, as in Don Giovanni. Works with generic titles are in normal type, as in Symphony No. 41. Parts of works or smaller works are in quotation marks, as in “Là ci darem la mano” from Don Giovanni.