OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this project is to demonstrate that "serious" or "classical" remains an ongoing activity. In fact, it is alive and doing reasonably well in many different places in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, although this kind of serious art music does not attract as much notice and publicity as do other musical styles today.

THE TASK: You are to locate basic biographical and professional information about some "unknown" composer. "Unknown" should be taken to mean a composer who is generally younger and not yet accepted into the canon of "historically important composers," most specifically by inclusion in standard reference works such as the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and similar resources. If your composer is listed in the NGD, it should be a relatively short (about 2-3 paragraphs maximum) entry.

Specifically, you are after the following kinds of information:

• Biography: Facts on the life of the individual, focusing on the musical side as much as possible.
• Current Professional Position: What is this person doing today? Is this person an academic, a performer, a freelance composer, or something else?
• Evidence (and Examples) of the Music: How has any of this person's music been disseminated? Do any publishing houses represent this person? Is the music available somewhere? Is it only in manuscript?
• Evidence of Performance: Where has this person's music been performed publicly? Has it been recorded, and is it commercially available? Are samples (or even whole works) available via streaming or downloadable web links? Is this person associated with a performing ensemble, a particular music festival, or some other venue devoted to serious music (new or otherwise)?
• Evidence of Interest in This Person's Music: Has any of this person's music ever been reviewed or written about in any way? Can you find newspaper reviews of performances, magazine reviews of recordings, feature articles in the popular press or serious articles in scholarly journals?

METHOD: As always, project topics are "first-come, first served," so as soon as you know whom you want to investigate for the project, send the name to me and I will approve (or not) the choice. Because these individuals are supposed to be "obscure," please provide a brief explanation of why you have chosen that person. Beware, however, about picking a name without doing some preliminary checking. NB. You must have your composer choice approved by me in advance of your presentation.

You should approach this task like any other bibliography assignment, but with a few basic reminders. First, these individuals are relatively young and relatively "unknown." You should therefore not necessarily expect to find large amounts of information in one place, and especially not in older, traditional research tools like the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Instead, you may have to glean small bits and use those facts to lead your search into other areas. Among the places you should look are:

• The World Wide Web : Given the power of the web to spread information, most professional composers now maintain personal web sites. Those who hold academic appointments are usually listed on faculty web sites, and publishing houses often feature their composers on web sites.
• Online Databases like OCLC First Search, World Cat, RILM, and the Music Index may lead you to articles and other published items with information about your chosen individual.
• Periodical Indexes like the NY Times Index, Newspaper Abstracts, The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, etc., may lead to articles and information in general publications.
• Newer Encyclopedias: Look especially for music reference works published since about 2000, but do not neglect others that are slightly older. Generally, do not waste your time with sources from more than twenty years ago.
• Commercical sources for recorded music. Among others, you might try: Amazon.com (use the "classical power search" under "music").

PRESENTATION OF YOUR WORK: For this project, the "presentation" of your work will vary slightly, depending upon the course in which you are registered. Please note the following distinctions:

• Undergraduates (MUH 4371): Your findings should be presented in a typewritten format as a combination of a brief essay (minimum of 500 words, but you may write more), followed by a summary of the most important bits of information you found, in some sort of chart, list, or bibliography (or combination of such items) that indicates where you found your information. Your listing of sources, works, performances, reviews, etc., need not be exhaustive, but should be representative.
• Graduate students (MUH 5375): Your work will be presented in two ways:
  • An oral presentation of 5-8 minutes (absolutely not to exceed 10 minutes), which may include brief music examples.
  • A typewritten format similar to one described for MUH 4371 students.

GRADING

The written document will be graded primarily on its content, i.e., how well you "introduce" your chosen composer and his/her music and music-making activities. While this assignment is neither a "program annotation" or analysis project, you should provide both a brief biographical summary of the life and career (to date), and a description of the music in terms of its sound and its ties to historical trends and precedents. Failure to cover both aspects (composer and music) will result in a reduced grade. The actual writing and presentation of the document will only be considered negatively, if sloppiness and errors are noticeable and egregious.

The oral presentation (for Graduate students only) will be judged primarily on its organization and delivery, and secondarily on its contents. Because of the time constraints, you will be expected to move through your presentation efficiently and professionally, and without serious technical problems. Organize your talk with an outline, prepare your musical examples in advance, and do practice the presentation to fit within your time constraints.

Due Dates:

• Undergraduate Written Documents are due on Monday, 29 November 2010 at 5:00 pm (as electronic attachments to email) [Counts for 100% of the assignment grade]
• Oral Presentations will be made during the the latter portion of the final class meeting on 1 December 2010. [Counts for 50% of the assignment grade]
• Graduate Written Documents are due on Monday, 5 December 2010 at 5:00 pm (as electronic attachments to email) [Counts for 50% of the assignment grade]

COMPOSERS FOR THE PROJECT

While you may use any method of your own to find figures of interest, I will suggest that you consider some of the major prize web sites, e.g., the Pulitzer Prize, the Grawemeyer Prize, etc. (see the links on the course home page), as well as New Music Box (also on the course home page) and other webzines that follow new music. Composers who have been chosen as topics are listed below:

• Scott McAllister - Cortes
• Larry Bell - Denham
• Eric Whitacre - Ladd
• Thomas Hyde - Hyder
• Michael Nyman - Sarah Tellier
• Michael Daugherty - Nadia Bangash
• Robert Dick - Felicia Skinner
• Dave Soldier - Russ Tweedle
• Mohammed Fairouz - Tim Dippel
• Karl Jenkins - Ben Rauhala
• Christopher Theofanidis - Kurt Reicken
• Chris Becker - Matt DeKeyzer
• Jennifer Higdon - Jacqueline Fuentes

Updated 30 November 2010 at 5:00 pm