Watch two videos featuring the performance of a twentieth century music composition. Your choices must be from the twentieth century classical tradition, such as solo, orchestral or chamber music performances, not pop, rock, or jazz. Please note that this assignment is not a 20th century performance of music from the Classical era – students should watch videos of music that was composed in the twentieth century. The music chosen for this assignment needs to have been written in the twentieth century, so it is important to not choose music that was composed before the twentieth century. You can either choose two compositions written by the same composer or a composition from two different twentieth century composers. If you are not sure if your choices fit the requirements, be sure to ask in the Questions thread or by sending a personal message to your instructor. The following is a list of possible choices for composers for this assignment. You are not required to choose a composer from this list as long as your choices are composers from the twentieth century.

Charles Ives
Claude Debussy
Maurice Ravel
Eric Satie
Bela Bartok
Leonard Bernstein
Aaron Copland
Igor Stravinsky
Arnold Schoenberg
John Adams
John Cage
Philip Glass
Morton Feldman
Steve Reich
Iannis Xenakis
Pierre Boulez
Terry Riley

For each of the two videos discuss how each of your chosen compositions reflect the six basics of melody, harmony, texture, rhythm, timbre, and form. You can refer to “Tools” in the course text for detailed information about each of these musical terms. Please also address how the composer’s music reflects the culture and/or time period in which he or she lived. Be sure to include links to the videos in your response. The videos should be cited in the body of the text and in a reference page.

There is no specific word count requirement for this assignment – just be sure you are addressing all of the required elements. In addition to these elements, please be sure to fulfill the Requirements for Writing Assignments, including citing all sources (including the performances) both in the body of the text and in a reference page. Please note that MLA is the standard citation style in the humanities. Here are some good sources of information for Evaluating Online Resources, Citing Sources, and Writing & Grammar Resources. Papers will be evaluated according to the following Short Paper grading rubric. Please review and utilize this grading rubric in order to maximize points earned on this assignment.

This assignment is due by Sunday of Week 5 at 11:59pm (Eastern time). Please note that late submissions will be automatically downgraded.

Please double check that your attachment is in .doc, .docx or .rtf format as explained in Requirements for Written Assignments (see above link).

DISCLAIMER: Originality of attachments will be verified by Turnitin. Both you and your instructor will receive the results.

I am looking forward to reading your performance analysis! Let me know if you have any questions about this assignment. I am happy to help in any way I can!