BAY STATE COLLEGE

DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL STUDES / MUSIC

AMERICAN MUSIC IN THE 20TH CENTURY

FORMAT FOR LISTENING JOURNALS I and II

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Welcome to the American Music in the 20th Century course at Bay State College. A major component of this course is to submit a cumulative listening journal. Each week, you will be assigned pieces for listening. You the songs from the “Media Resources” section of each unit/week (online units) to include in your listening journal. The genres are assigned for each entry, though. Please find below the format for this assignment. All entries are to be typed.

See the sample journal entry at the end of this assignment for a journal entry that received an “A”

DUE DATES

Listening Journal I (1890-1950) will be due on - SEE SYLLABUS

Listening Journal II(1950-present) will be due on - SEE SYLLABUS

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For each song, your entry should resemble the following format and include ALL six headings:

(This table was created in Microsoft Word)

Song information / Journal Notes
General information:
Name of song (in quotes)
Performer and/or Songwriter
Year written
Genre of this music: (ex. blues, jazz, art rock, punk rock, rap, etc.) / Musical characteristics
In this section, discuss the music. List form is OK. You may list the instrumentation (instruments and vocals heard), the tempo, the dynamics, the tonality, any unique musical characteristics you think are important to the interpretation of this song.
Lyrics Analysis
In this section, summarize the song’s meaning, based on the lyrics. Include quotes to back up your points. You might also consider discussing “coded words/phrases” and/or implied meanings.
Historical significance
In this section, discuss any important notes about the song that you have not yet referenced. This might be notes from class or from the reading. Notable history about the song, stories about the performer, etc. In other words, explain why this song was/is important. You MUST include at least one historical fact in this section for credit.
Personal Observations
Your opinion of this piece of music. You might extend your discussion to include your opinion of the genre itself. You might answer the following questions here : Did you like the song? Why or why not? Do you agree that it is an important work in the history of American music? Why or why not? What did you already know about this song or its genre? What did you learn? Would you listen to this music in the future?

MUS 102

# of SONGS FOR LISTENING JOURNAL

(See the “Media Resources” sections online to find songs)

FIRST JOURNAL (1890 – 1950)

1 ragtime

1 march

1 TPA

1 blues

1 country/western/hillbilly

1 jazz/swing

1 jump blues / rhythm and blues

SECOND JOURNAL (1950-2000)

1 early rock and roll

1 early 1960s pop style - Spector / Motown/Doo-wop/ TSOP/surf

1 folk rock (1960s)

1 psychedelic rock / late 1960s pop style

1 1970s pop style – soft rock, glam/glitter rock, soul, metal, hard rock, disco

1 from following – punk, postpunk or new wave

1 from 1980s

1 from rap

MUS 102 SAMPLE LISTENING JOURNAL ENTERY:

(This is an actual student’s journal entry – this would be considered receiving a grade of “A”)

(This student used list form for the “musical characteristics” – you may choose to put this section in paragraph form which is fine. Ideally, there should be a short paragraph’s worth of info for each section.)

Song information / Journal Notes
General information:
“The Washington Post”
Written By: John Philip Sousa
Year written: 1889
Genre of this music:
March band music / Musical characteristics
Instrumentation – The instruments used are those from the typical march band – brass, woodwinds, percussion – basically a full concert band. In class, we learned that the American march band was just like the European symphony orchestra but without the strings section (violin, viola, cello, bass).
General Characteristics – Like all marches, this piece has a very steady rhythm.
Tempo - The tempo is moderate (not too fast, not too slow), which makes sense if you think about it, because people march to this music!
Melody - Overall, I’d say the melody of the piece is very clear – I can sing it back – I would say the instruments that primarily carry the melody in this piece are the woodwinds. The clarinet is particularly audible.
Tonality – This is a very happy-sounding song, so I believe that it is in a major key.
Dynamics - The dynamic remains at a mezzo-forte until the 1:06 minute mark. At that point, the dynamic changes to mezzo-piano. The dynamics change again at the 1:35 minute mark with a sudden change to a forte dynamic!
Form – I did not outline the form myself, although with this piece, it would have been easy. I found an outline of the form on Wikipedia. The article said the form was AABBCCDCDC.
(Source:
After listening to the piece again, I agree that this is the form of the piece.
Lyrics Analysis
There are no lyrics to this piece.
Historical significance
This song has historical significance in the history of American music because it is representative of march music – which was a very popular form of music in the late 1800s and early 1900s. John Philip Sousa, the composer of this march, was very famous. In fact, he is now known as “The March King.” This song was actually written for a contest put on by The Washington Post newspaper. Sousa was commissioned to write the piece for the awards ceremony, and the song became the official song of the newspaper.
Personal Observations
I enjoyed learning about “The Washington Post” because I had no idea what kind of music was popular in America a century ago. This was very eye-opening to learn about. I also appreciate that this is one of the first “real” genres of American music. While I think the song is “catchy” (I mentioned above that the melody was easy to sing), I would probably not listen to this in my spare time. As for listening to this song in the future, I’ll certainly hear it each Fourth of July!