A short guide to writing about music / Jonathan D. Bellman.
| Author/creator | Bellman, Jonathan, 1957- |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | Second edition. |
| Publication Info | New York : Pearson Longman, ©2007. |
| Description | xiv, 193 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | The short guide series Short guide series. |
| Contents | Preface -- 1: Writing About Music -- Words about music: why? -- Choosing an audience -- Kinds of writing -- History and biography -- Style study -- Analysis -- Performance study -- Organological, archival, and source studies -- Criticism -- Marxist criticism -- Soviet pseudo-Marxist criticism -- Cultural criticism -- Gender studies in music -- Postcolonial criticism -- Author's opinion: clarity and restraint -- 2: Writing About Music By, And For, Those Who Cannot (Necessarily) Read It -- What you can and cannot do -- Concert review -- Reporting on a news event -- Artistic evaluation -- Promoting community interest in music -- Popular and world musics -- Crossing the cultural divide -- 3: Writing Music Analysis -- Analysis and its uses -- Analytical content vs play-by-play -- Analysis without musical examples -- Technical terminology -- Two analytical excerpts with commentary -- Organizing analytical writing -- 4: Three Kinds Of Practical Writing -- Program and liner notes -- Biographical background -- Cultural context -- Style and affect -- Summaries and abstracts -- Summary -- Abstract -- Press release -- 5: Belief Into Words: Opinion And The Writing Of An Effective Essay -- Presentation and tone -- Organization -- Confrontational writing -- Stylistic excess -- Writing process: from outline to final draft -- Benefits of the Suzuki Method / Jessica Mosier -- Skryabin's mystical beliefs and the holographic model / Jeff Simpson -- Hints on beginning -- 6: Research In Music -- Purposes of research -- Choice of topic -- Locating sources -- Kinds of written sources -- Non-English sources -- Reference sources -- Books -- Journal and magazine articles -- Other Web-based sources -- Recording liner notes -- Musical scores -- Use of sources -- Optimizing research time -- Don't believe everything you read! -- Scholarly vs textbook sources -- Relative age of sources -- Authorial perspective -- Dependability of the source itself -- Special difficulties in using musical sources -- Citing your sources -- To quote or to paraphrase? -- Turning research into writing -- Foundations of your research -- On being derivative -- Whose ideas? -- Choice of sources -- Opening paragraph -- Conclusions -- 7: Sample Research Paper In Music -- Gershwin's French Connection / Amie Margoles -- Commentary on the Margoles Paper -- 8: Style In Writing -- Meaning of "Style" -- Academic style traits -- Complex sentence structure -- Obscure words -- First person plural -- Passive voice -- Traditional academic organization -- Fashioning clear sentences -- Taste -- Gender-neutral wording and the pronoun problem -- Transitions -- Variety -- Punctuation -- Colon, semicolon, and comma -- Note on hyphens and centuries -- Specifically musical uses of punctuation -- Accuracy in wording -- Ill-advised upgrades -- Beat, meter, rhythm -- That and which -- Accuracy in spelling and punctuation -- Aggregate titles -- Awkward wording -- Toward a personal style -- 9: Final Manuscript -- General format -- Binding, paper, duplication -- Word processing -- Copies -- Title page -- Spacing and margins -- Block quotations -- Bibliography -- Abbreviations -- Latin abbreviations and terminology -- Musical abbreviations --Titles of musical works -- Musical examples and captions -- Production of examples -- Captions -- Citation process -- Footnotes or endnotes -- Parenthetical citation format -- Incomplete citations -- Abbreviated citation form -- Sample citations -- Explanatory footnotes -- Musical scores -- Last-minute corrections -- Index. |
| Abstract | This book correlates the skills acquired in music composition, playing, and studying to the skills needed for successful writing -- commitment, practice, revision, balance, and control. This writing guide offers clear instruction and a wide range of writing tasks -- from reaction papers and concert reviews, to program notes and abstracts, to persuasive essays and research papers. Many student and professional writing samples are included to illustrate these assignments, with accompanying commentary and suggestions for students. Highlights of the second edition: New research paper and opinion paper examples provide fresh models of successful writing; A new subsection on postcolonial criticism broadens the scope of music analysis and interpretation; Treatment of rock, pop, and world music coverage has been expanded; An expanded section on citation formats provides readers with more examples of how to properly cite sources from a variety of genres (and countries/languages). |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 2005058681 |
| ISBN | 0321187911 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 9780321187918 (paperback) |
| Standard identifier# | 99813274407 |