why don’t you think he mentions any particular pieces of music?
Please select ONE of the following prompts to respond to in 300–500 words. These responses will be graded as excellent (5)/good (4)/proficient (3)/incomplete (0). They will be considered incomplete if they are not completed in time or show no engagement with the material for the week.
Note that for each of these topics, you are not being asking to summarize the material in question, but to analyze it. This means you describe an aspect of the song or reading only in service of saying something about it or how it works, not just that it happens. Imagine if, for each observation you might make, I asked you, “So what?” Answering that question can help you move beyond summarization and toward analysis.
Reread the assigned excerpt from Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. What does he mean when he says “Many men are [made] melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth”? And, although he says that music is a remedy for melancholy, why don’t you think he mentions any particular pieces of music?
OR
Listen again to the two versions of “Hurt.” Describe some changes the song undergoes in the remake by Johnny Cash, pointing to at least three specific spots, and remarking on the effect that these changes produce (i.e. what does it do to your interpretation of the song?). You could talk about timbre, instrumentation, rhythm, melody, and text. For the purposes of this assignment, focus on the sound, not the video.
OR
Write a short vida for a musician active today. In a separate paragraph, comment on how historians 800 years from now might use this vita as evidence concerning this musician’s life and music. In what ways would it be informative, and how would it be misleading?
OR
Listen again to the two recordings of “Can vei la lauzeta.” How are they the same, and how are they different? You might talk about pitch/melody, rhythm, instrumentation, and text setting. Do you prefer one recording? Why or why not?