For Tuesday, Nov. 19, 8am, investigate your assigned topic for “Die liebe Farbe” and update the Google Doc. Write 2–3 sentences max.

For Wednesday’s class, read through your colleagues’ insights on that Google Doc, and come ready to discuss in class.

Before Friday, Nov. 15, 8am, please do the following:

• Read Jonathan Sircy’s resource on Analyzing poetry.
• Read Brooklyn College’s Introduction to Romanticism.
• Read Vanier College’s resource on Poetry’s language.
• Read Vanier College’s resource on Poetry’s structure and form.
• Take the (short) pre-quiz on Learning Catalytics that references these resources and the poems we’ve studied so far (session ID: 944779).
• Update your self-evaluation under professionalism and liberal-arts values (in the new report at the top). Be sure to update your comments and provide a (new) letter grade in light of where you are at in recent weeks.

Before Monday, Nov. 18, 9am:

• Read my resource on Modulation.

Before 9am on Tuesday, Nov. 12, please do the following:

• Complete the thoroughbass reduction of “Die liebe Farbe” from Die schöne Müllerin begun in class on Monday. (You can do this with a group.)
• Complete your uninterpreted functional bass analysis (no parentheses or brackets) and label all cadences. (You can do this with a group.)
• Attempt an interpreted analysis for the rest of the song. (You can do this with a group.)
• Read the text and translation of the song.
• Log into Learning Catalytics and take the (very brief) quiz with session ID 524182. It will simply ask you some basic questions about your reduction/analysis and the text of the song, so I can make sure everyone is on the right track before Wednesday’s class. (Do this as individuals.)

The Ian Bostridge recording of the whole cycle can be found here (Spotify URI: spotify:user:kris.shaffer:playlist:1SaXv4tlZlW931nZ9a8q1o).

Most of you can articulate the basic concepts of voice-leading verbally. However, many of you are still working on the ability to demonstrate mastery in the application of those principles musically. As a result, a number of groups have not performed to the standard that I would have liked, and that I think you need, on the Unit I species counterpoint portfolios. With that in mind, I would like to give you one last opportunity to shore up these skills. (Which translates into one more opportunity to raise your grade.) For those of you who did well, I have assigned a grade of A or B already in your new assessment report (forthcoming). If you are content with your level of mastery and that grade, you don’t have to do anything more for species counterpoint. If there is no grade provided, or if you want another chance to improve your skills and grade, avail yourself of the following re-assessment opportunity.

• Choose four cantus firmi: two in major, two in minor.
• Compose a flawless third-species counterpoint above one of the major cantus.
• Compose a flawless third-species counterpoint below one of the minor cantus.
• Compose a flawless fourth-species counterpoint above one of the minor cantus.
• Compose a flawless fourth-species counterpoint below one of the major cantus.
• Typeset all in music notation software, saving each exercise as its own PDF file.
• Create a folder in Google Drive lableled “LASTNAME Voice-leading Portfolio”.
• Upload all PDFs to folder and share folder with instructor.

This assignment will be performed individually and due Friday, Nov. 22, 8am. You can use any resources other than other people to complete this assignment. In other words, you can use an instrument (you are encouraged to use an instrument), class resources, other textbooks, etc., but you cannot consult another person besides the instructor or TA in composing these exercises. Because it will be done individually and outside of class, it will only be accepted if you re-affirm the CU honor code on the assignment as follows:

I herby reaffirm the CU honor code.
[sign or type name]

or simply:

IHRTCUHC
[sign or type name]

You will be assessed on this assignment according to the mastery you demonstrate on the following conceptual areas:

• Integrity/independence of melodic lines
• Treatment of imperfect and perfect consonances
• Treatment of weak-beat (e.g., passing and neighbor) dissonances
• Treatment of strong-beat (suspension) dissonances
• Performability
• Motion towards a goal

Mastery of five of these concepts (or mastery of four with borderline performance of two) will constitute an A; mastery of four a B; three a C; one or two a D; and none an F. Your grade on this final attempt will be the main contributor to your two-part strict voice-leading grade.

N.B.: You have all received feedback from our TA and/or myself on the species exercises and composed revisions based on that feedback. If you have still not demonstrated mastery over those species (and are, therefore, doing this assignment), you are strongly encouraged to seek in-person help from instructor or TA before submitting this. Schedule those meetings as early as you can to ensure that they can take place.

Good luck! Remember that we are here to help you with this project.

A number of you are still having difficulty with the self-assessment process. While that is an important skill to learn, it is starting to detract from some of the music that needs to be at the center of our work. Thus, I am making some changes to the assessment system for this class, in order to focus our efforts on those things that are most important, and hopefully to give you what you need most to succeed on those things.

You will receive (or have received) an update to your assessment report in Google Drive. Below that, under “Old Report,” you can still see all of your reflection and our discussion about it from earlier in the semester. On that new report, you should see just six categories (updated on the syllabus, as well):

• Strict voice-leading (two part)
• Strict keyboard-style voice-leading
• Harmony
• Text-music relationships
• Professionalism
• Liberal-arts values

(I have dropped three categories relating to German art song in order to focus our efforts more intently, leaving only harmony and text-music relationships.)

We will retain self-assessment for the professionalism and liberal arts values categories. You will continue to reflect on your progress and assign yourself a letter grade for those categories as we go, and I will respond to your comments and “negotiate” the grade (if necessary).

For the categories besides professionalism and liberal arts values, grades will be assigned to you by me (based in part on feedback from our TA). In each case, when a final grade is assigned, you will have the opportunity to respond and “negotiate” if you deem it appropriate. I will take your responses to heart, and I am willing to adjust the grade if you make a strong case. However, you will not be producing grades from scratch for these categories.

Final grades for the semester will still be calculated in the same way.

I hope that will clear things up for some of you, allowing me to give you more specific guidance where you need it, to assess you fairly, and also giving you a more targeted area in which to develop your self-assessment skills. Please let me know if you have any questions about this updated arrangement.