Multicultural/Valuing - Music Performance

General Education Capstone Course

Event/Experience Details and Guideline Form

Gen. Ed. Category Event should be listed under: Multicultural Valuing

SCC Competency addressed by event:  Students should be able to identify, analyze and articulate their own values as well as those of others and recognize how these values affect opinions, decisions, and behaviors.

Event experience Title: Music Performance

Anticipated Learning Outcome.

Successful completion of this project will allow students to experience the music of our Western tradition and gain insight into how cultural perspectives are embedded in musical expression. Recognizing that cultures use different patterns of musical rhetoric, students will find appreciation not only in other cultures, but their own. In addition, students will be able to make connections to their own culture and positive comparisons with others.

Guidelines for accomplishment of event

Attend a professional musical performance. After attending the event, write a one to two page journal entry, using the following questions as a guideline. (Be sure to attach the program booklet and ticket stub to the last page of your entry).

• How would you briefly describe the performance?
• What was your general reaction to the event? Did you enjoy it?
• Referring to specific pieces performed, how did each composition correspond to the stylistic period in which it was composed—baroque, classical, etc.? What was the genre of the piece—symphony, concerto, tone poem, string quartet, étude, etc.? What musical forms were employed? Was the composition program music—that is, was it inspired by a text, story, or place? If so, how did the music reflect the program? What features of the piece were most memorable—for example, did you tend to remember slower, lyrical sections; or triumphant parts; or fast, exciting parts? Were there any striking melodies and rhythms? Were there any unusual vocal, instrumental, or electronic effects? Were there several contrasting sections or themes within a movement? Did you recognize variations of particular themes or reappearances of musical ideas in different sections or movements?
• Referring to more subjective observations, did you think that the soloists or group succeeded in projecting the emotional meaning of the work? Did the dynamics seem to have enough variety and flexibility? What tempos were used? Did you think that the melodic lines were projected with a feeling of forward motion, lyricism, continuity, and climax? Did you enjoy the give-and-take among various instrumental families (in an orchestra), voice parts (in a chorus), or soloists (in a chamber group)? In a concerto, did the soloist and orchestra seem well coordinated? Did you get the impression that the conductor had the ensemble under control? Did the conducting gestures and motions seem to be conveying the feeling of the music? Did the performers seem to have a firm technical command of the music? Did they consistently play or sing in tune?

Provide at least one the following: 

Event Contact website URL: http://www.stlouis.missouri.org/ae/index.html

SCC Event Creator: John Walker / Gene Ditch

Estimated Time for full completion (include: making contact/appointment; attending activity; travel; and journal consideration and entry) 2 – 4 hours