Music

http://ucsd.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?cid=NA018CD
For this assignment, write as complete a description of this music as you can manage. Think of wall text in a museum describing a work of art that you are looking at, or the inside jacket text on a work of literature which guides the prospective reader in discovering what sort of book they have in their hands. Of course, your text will be much longer than these examples, and you will want to fill the reader in with a sort of synopsis of the music. This is not simple, as the music is extremely repetitive and lulling, and you will have to determine how much detail you want to offer, and how to present it.

 

So the objective is to give a reader a valid account of this remarkable piece of music, so that after reading your essay, they have a pretty good sense of what awaits them. Pay special attention to the following elements: what sorts of syllables or sounds the singers are uttering; the degree of coordination between the voices; similarities or differences between the voices; where the voices sit in the stereo field; what sorts of expressive devices the singers use; what kinds of singers these seem to be (classical, opera, pop, etc.); what kinds of harmony are achieved by this music.

 

Without biasing the reader, without presenting an opinion or an endorsement or a condemnation, try to give a sense of how this music affects a listener. Think about the expressive qualities that it presents, the kind of demands it makes on a listener, and what the composer seems to be doing. These thoughts should be worked into the general description that you are writing. Your essay should be readable and understandable, a kind of presentation of an unfamiliar sort of music to a curious reader.

 

Please omit any extra information you are able to find from outside sources; naturally you are welcome to read whatever you wish about the composer and this piece, but extra information is not of interest here. Just deal with your listening experience and capture as much as you can from the act of listening and writing.