Responsibilities, Fall 2011
 
Grades Calculation
Student grades derive from
  • Class presentations (20%)
  • Weekly written précis (20%)
  • Beatlemore Skidmania (30%)
  • Team report on Beatlemore Skidmania (10%)
  • Presentation and written version of your research project (20%)
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    Weekly Seminar Responsibilities
    Students are responsible for leading class discussions. I will moderate and set the seminar's direction and parameters.
    1. We will divide the seminar into three teams. Every seminar meeting will have presentations by the groups.
    2. Presentations will critically evaluate (a) what the readings and videos say about specific assigned examples from the lives and musical activities of the Beatles or (b) musical examples.
    3. The class will work through a list of topics and music. (Note that we will not cover everything the Beatles did this semester, and we may not cover all of the topics and songs listed on the study outline.)
    4. I will base your presentation grade on your preparedness.
    5. I will base you participation grade on the quality of your contributions to class discussion.
    Evaluating an Issue. Almost every class will have several historical events or issues related to the careers of the Beatles. Over the semester, each study group will evaluate a number of these events/issues by consulting the various sources available (i.e., Davies, Norman, Spitz, etc.). The seminar presentation should be about 20-25 minutes long and compare both the content and style of historical and cultural representation. How does Davies describe an event as compared to the version in the Beatles Anthology (or any other source for that matter)? If those representations are different, how and why are they different? Is the event absent from any of the sources? How reliable is the author on this subject? What are the author's sources?
    Biweekly Essays
    Every other week, students will submit a 500-word essay (no shorter than 450, no longer than 550 words) via the class web site no later than 4 PM on scheduled Saturdays.(See class schedule.)
    The essays will summarize some aspect of the previous two weeks' readings, analyses, and discussion of the Beatles.
    I will average your essay grades.
     
    Evaluating a musical example. Almost every class will examine several musical recordings by the Beatles. Over the semester, each study group will do a thick description of a number of these performances.
    1. The presentations will be about 20-25 minutes long and include (a) an analysis of the music (What is the harmonic structure?, How is the melody shaped? What is the relationship between the bass and the drums? etc.), (b) the text (What is the rhyme scheme? What is the role of metaphor? etc.), and (c) the historical and cultural contexts of the song's creation, recording, and reception.
    2. Sources for analysis include the transcriptions of Beatles recordings by Fujita, et al., Walter Everett's two volumes of The Beatles as Musicians, and Internet sources such as Alan Pollack's "Notes on..." series (see rec.music.beatles).
    3. Sources for the latter include the biographies studied in class; however, Dowlding's song-by-song description and McDonald's evaluation of the opus are valuable tools.
    Beatlemore Skidmania
    This semeseter, members of the seminar will help to recruit and audition performers, advertise and market, and operate our annual Beatles concert. You will be involved in discussions and decisions about how to manage the event.
    1. You will need to recruit and audition the musicians for this event and decide on a program. What are your criteria? How do you make the process transparent and objective?
    2. How do we go about getting an audience and keeping them happy? How will we know they're happy? Who is that audience? What are the best ways to attract these audiences?
    3. How do we communicate with performers? How do we ensure that the concert runs smoothly? How do we know that the performers feel respected? How do we enable them to give the best performance they can.
    4. Your teams will prepare and present 20-minute reports on these aspects of the Beatlemore Skidmania. Each team will provide a written version of their report for distribution to the seminar on report day (1 December).
    Semester Research Project
    Each student will choose a focused research project in consultation with the instructor.
    1. The topic may be biographical, cultural, and/or musical.
    2. Seminar presentation of the research will take no longer than 20 minutes and will involve both the reading a written version of the paper and the presentation of any musical examples.
    3. The submitted written version will be a minimum of 2,000 words. Inclusion of notations and will be taken into consideration.
    4. All papers are due by December 17th, 9 PM. Submit papers electronically as an attachment.

    Department of Music     Skidmore College
    Saratoga Springs, New York
    Gordon Thompson
    22 October, 2011