For this assignment you are to provide program annotations for a single pseudo-concert (works given below).

You are to use the following materials:

• Jonathan Bellman, A Short Guide to Writing About Music 2nd ed., pp. 57-65. [On reserve in the UCF Library]
• The various sample notes by Warfield sent to you via email as WORD attachments.
• The website of J. Michael Allsen, a well respected musicologist and program annotator,and especially his Writing Concert Program Notes.
• Any books, scores, recordings or other relevant resources that you can locate in the UCF Library, the NGD, or elsewhere that you can identify with the research skills that you have to date.

Before writing, you should do the following:

• Read Bellman (book) and Allsen (web) on the art of writing program notes
• Study a few of Allsen's and my annotations as examples of possible stylistic approaches to your assignments.
• Research the individual pieces on the assigned program(s). Looking at scores and/or listening to the works is also standard practice. Realize, however, that you need not do extensive research, since you will write only a few hundred words on each piece for a non-specialist audience.

In writing your annotations, you should attempt to do the following:

• Provide a brief, general introduction to each work as a separate entity, i.e., do not write one continuous essay for the whole program. Rather, you should treat each piece as a separate writing assignment. Aim for a length of about 200-600 words for any individual piece, keeping the total word limit for the entire program in mind.
• Avoid simplistic descriptions of the composer or the work as the "greatest" ever or other excessive praise. A brief quote from a famous critic, if available, might be acceptable, but do not go overboard with praise.
• Avoid highly technical language and/or analytical jargon. Remember, many in the audience will have no training in music. Providing a simple listening cue or two is acceptable, if the event is easily identified and heard.
• Maintain a relaxed tone, but use a formal writing style. Avoid all contractions, slang, shortcuts in spelling ("tonite" instead of "tonight"), etc.

As a practical aid and to give you some experience in reading the prose of another writer, you are allowed to proofread and edit the notes of a classmate and to have your own notes proofed and edited by a classmate, but only under the following terms:

• You may pair up with one other person, or form a group of three members of MUH 6916. No larger groups are acceptable. NB. You need not live near one another, so long as you are in electronic contact.
• You may submit only the final draft of your notes to your classmate/editor.
• Within a group of three, you are simply to give your notes "around the group," i.e., A to B to C to A. Under no circumstances are you to act as a multiple editor or have multiple editors for your work.
• Editor are to comment primarily for the purpose of correcting any spelling, grammar, and other writing errors, as well as identifying prose that may be unclear, not well-suited to a general audience, or otherwise problematic. Comments and corrections are best made using the "comment/review" functions in WORD.
• Under no circumstances are editors to suggest changes or corrections in factual content or critical opinions about the work under discussion.
• After you have received the commented version of your work, you should fix all obvious errors in spelling, grammar, and writing style. Should you disagree over a point of usage, discuss it with your editor, but remember that you as author are responsible for your own prose. You are not obligated to accept any suggestions of your editor/proofreader.
• You may ask your partner to repeat the editorial process, if you wish, but no one is required to edit more than once.
• The final version of the notes submitted to me must be cleared of all editorial work, i.e., remove all comments, but you should keep copies of all editorial exchanges and marked files, in case there are questions of responsibility when I grade. Use the "save as" function to create copies of your working drafts.

Submit your work to me as a WORD document attached to an email, by the deadline listed below, with the following points in mind:

• Provide a header to each item and double space your work. (You do not need to format your work in any special way beyond the double spacing.)
• For each submission, the grade is split equally between the quality of the writing (grammar, spelling, other technical aspects) and the content (factual accuracy, clarity of expression, elegant use of language, etc.).
• The total grade counts for 10% of your overall course grade.
• NB. Your Program Annotation for this "concert" should be roughly 2,000 words, not counting the headers for the individual works.
• Because "word count" is an approximation, you will be allowed to submit notes that total between 1900 and 2100 words, with no penalties. Annotations that are much shorter or excessively longer than the assigned length may be penalized. (Again, do not include headers in your word count.)
• You may distribute the word count as you see fit, but you are advised to make your notes reflect the length and weight of the individual works on the program.
• Deadline to me for the Finished Draft: Tuesday, 25 October 2011 at 5:00 pm.
• NB. Because real-world annotating has genuine publication deadlines, late items (to me) will be penalized when they are 24 hours late.

Pseudo-Program (5 November 2011) - No-Name Orchestra

(representing an arbitrary program intended to be performed by a full professional orchestra on a normal subscription concert)

• Jennifer Higdon : Blue Cathedral
• W.A. Mozart : Concerto No. 23 in A for Piano and Orchestra, K. 488
• Aaron Copland : El salón México
• Joseph Haydn : Symphony No. 103 in E-flat, Hob. I: 103