Music Student Handbook

Recital Requirements

Description
Faculty Approval Jury
Time requirements

Preparation for the Recital

Planning the Recital Date
Planning the Program
Dates for the Faculty Approval Jury

The Program

The Program Cover
Example of Cover
Inside Front Cover (Program Page)
Example of Program
Inside Back Cover (Program Notes)
Example of Notes
The Back Cover

Printing the Program
Recording

Description

The senior recital is the culmination of a course of study demonstrating a certain level of musical proficiency. The public performance of this recital is the final examination in the sequence of applied study which is fundamental to the Bachelor of Music Education degree, the General Music degree and all contract Music degrees at Troy University. In the normal four-year course of study, the senior recital, MUS 4499, is usually given in the semester preceding internship, that is, the first semester of the senior year. In order to qualify for consideration for the senior recital each student must successfully complete two semesters each at the 22xx, 33xx, and 44xx levels. Each student will register for MUS 4499 with his/her principal teacher, and will receive a recital grade as determined by that teacher.

Faculty Approval Jury

A Faculty Approval Jury before the entire School of Music faculty determines a student's readiness for a public recital performance. The Faculty Approval Jury must take place no later than three weeks and no earlier than the preceding semester before a student's scheduled recital. This means the Faculty Approval Jury will occur either at the end of the previous semester or in the first eight weeks of the semester in which the recital will be given. Failure to perform the public recital (MUS 4499) within one semester after approval by the faculty will nullify recital permission and the process must be repeated. If for some reason a student has passed the Faculty Jury and will not be able to perform the public recital, that student should drop MUS 4499 or apply for an extension with a grade of “Incomplete”.

Time Requirements

The senior recital must contain at least 25 minutes of music from three of the four different historical periods: Renaissance/Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, and be of a degree of difficulty published in your applied syllabus. In some cases transcriptions of earlier periods may be required, e.g., a transcription of a classical bassoon sonata for trombone. These, too, must be the appropriate degree of difficulty. Students having successfully completed two semesters at the 44xx level should have no trouble programming a recital.

Preparation for the Recital

1. Plan a tentative recital place and approximate date.

• Check with your accompanist, your family and your teacher.
• Decide on two or three possible dates.
• Contact the Student Services office in the Adams Center to see if the facility you want to use is available. (H-A-L Hall and Sorrell Chapel are the two favorite venues for senior recitals.)
• Once you decide on the date and the place, fill out a Space Reservation form http://troy.troy.edu/publicservices/reservationform.html They will send you a confirmation form.
• Be sure to include times to practice in the hall on the Space Reservation form.

2. Plan your program. This is probably something you and your teacher have been talking about for a while, but now is the time to settle on a probable program.

• Be sure your planned recital has the right amount of music (minimum 25 minutes) and contains material from at least three stylistic periods (Renaissance/Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern.)
• Begin researching your program notes. (Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Baker's Biographical Dictionary, Grove's Dictionary of American Music and Musicians and any CD liner notes you might have are a great place to start.)
• Check the old recordings that are in the library - you never know, there may be an LP with one of your pieces on it with some juicy liner notes.
• If you are a singer, begin gathering translations for all of your non-English songs.

3. Faculty Approval Jury

• Every studio teacher has a copy of the Recital/Studio Class schedule. The Faculty Approval Jury is usually mid-October in the Fall Semester and mid-March in the Spring Semester. The sign-up sheet is on the main bulletin board on the first floor of Smith Hall.
• The Faculty Approval Jury will typically take place during the Wednesday recital hour but occasionally the following Friday or Fridays will be used as jury times. Sign-up times are first come-first served.
• Program notes must be approved before playing the Faculty Approval Jury. Program notes are submitted to the applied teacher no later than two weeks before the first Faculty Approval Jury date. These notes are then corrected, according to the instructions of the applied teacher, and then submitted to Dr. Allard for possible revision and final approval. The schedule will be posted on the main bulletin board in Smith Hall along with the sign-up sheet.
• A copy of your program, with timings for each piece, and the program notes you have written should be provided for each faculty member at the jury.
• The Faculty Jury must be completed no later than 3 weeks before the scheduled recital date. You can't play a jury on Wednesday and give the recital the next day.
• A majority of the faculty must approve the recital before it can be presented in public.

The Program

The program is your official document that you have prepared and completed the course of study in applied music. As such, it follows a certain prescribed format.

1. The Cover

(click the graphic to download)

presents

This is an official record that the faculty of the School of Music approves your recital. Right click on it and select “copy” from the menu. You can then paste it into your document where it can be resized to fit your program.

Your name
instrument or voice type

Your accompanist's name
Piano

Usually your name and instrument are in much larger type size than your accompanist's. Do not use the word "accompanist" - accompany is what the person will do, not what he/she plays.

in Senior Recital

Date
ie. Wednesday, May 16, 2006

Place (optional)
ie: Sorrell Chapel

Time (optional)
ie: 6:00 pm

Cover Example:

2. Inside the Front Cover - This is where the program selections are listed.

Your name, instrument/voice part
Your accompanist's name, piano

The actual word: PROGRAM

The program is then listed in the order in which it is to be performed with complete information about each work contained in the section. The work, any smaller subdivisions of the work, the composer and his/her dates of birth and death are included. If a piece is a transcription or arrangement, the transcriber's name needs to be included on the same line as the composer's, but his/her dates aren't necessary. In cases where the piece is an arrangement of something with an unknown composer (usually a song) the arranger's dates are included, if known.

or

or

Composer’s dates are usually pretty easy to find on the internet. Sometimes a living composer won’t include a birth date in a biography. In that case you can try sending that person or the publisher of the piece an email. They’re usually pretty happy to provide information. If you’ve tried everything you can think of and still can’t find a date see Dr. Allard.

At the bottom of the program page goes your official notification that you are completing a requirement for your degree and that you have studied with a member of the John M. Long School of Music faculty:

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of (Music Education)(Arts)(Arts and Sciences) degree. Mr/Ms.(your name) is a student of ....(Current teacher).

If you’ve studied with more than one teacher you may add and has also studied with….

Sample Program:

3. Opposite the Program Page (Inside the Back Cover)

This is the page for the program notes. A note is just that - something concise yet informative about the composer and your piece. It should not be a regurgitation of everything you've read about the composer, but a little bit about his life and background and something that relates to the piece you're doing. If, for example, you are playing a transcription of a Handel bassoon sonata for trombone you would not include a list of all the Handel operas and oratorios. Say something about the transcriber, if you can. Find something to describe about the piece - "After opening with a haunting melody in c minor, a second, more lively theme emerges. The movement reaches a climax with the first theme reasserting itself in a triumphant C major."

If it's a transcription of a song or an aria from an opera, that, too, must be included. "Originally the concluding section of Mozart's Exultate Jubilate, Alleluia has been transcribed by Anthony Adverse for tuba solo. It is a fine test of the tuba's flexibility."

The program notes should be printed in the order you are going to play the pieces. Here are the actual program notes from some student recital programs. Use these as a model. The first note refers to Concerto for Oboe by Benedetto Marcello, the second to Sonata in B für Klarinette und Klavier by Paul Hindemith.

An Italian composer, writer and theorist, Benedetto Marcello's varied style is characterized by imagination, originality, and sparkling technique. The concerto is one of the most well-known pieces for oboe, though the work first received attention in the form of an embellished transcription for keyboard by J. S. Bach. It is also believed that the real composer was actually Marcello's older brother, Allessando.

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) combined the contrapuntal techniques of Johann Sebastian Bach with the “new tonality” of the twentieth century to forge a unique musical language that was revolutionary but sometimes difficult to understand. Sonate in B für Klarinette und Klavier (Sonata in B flat for clarinet and piano) reflects the mood of the time in which it was composed. Hindemith was vehemently opposed to the Nazi regime in his native Germany and illustrated this in his music. His works were denounced by the Nazi regime and in 1937, Hindemith’s music was banned and he himself was branded as a degenerate artist. The first two movements are uneven in tempo with melodic tension between notes that reflect the political uncertainties, while the third movement incorporates a slow and strict military-style tempo that resembles the march of a war machine. This effect creates a sense of doom and uncertainty for the listener. The fourth movement is more cheerful and creates a sense of escape and joyousness that is in high contrast with the dark mood of the third, perhaps a conscious decision on the part of the composer for he completed this work while on tour in the United States.

Many foreign words have diacritical marks, such as accents or umlauts. Most word processing programs support these marks. Here are some shortcuts in the Microsoft Office Word.

é (e with a forward accent) - Press “Control” and the apostrophe ‘ together
Then type your letter –Fauré

backward accent – “Control, back-hyphen”, then the letter. (The back-hyphen is located on the top left of the number row.) ie. Après un Rêve

circumflex ^ - “Control, Shift, ^ ”, then the letter. (The ^ is with the 6 on the number ow.) ie. Aprés un Rêve

umlaut – “Control, Shift, colon”, then the letter. ie. Saint-Saëns, Müller

4. The Back Cover

This is usually left blank. If, however, you are a singer, you may choose to use the back cover for translations of your foreign language songs. Print the name of the song in its original language with the translation of the title below. Then, print only the English translation of the song in poetic layout. List the songs in program order down the page. Usually small print is used and two columns of songs can be gotten onto a page.

In some instances there will not be enough room for all the translations and program notes. In that case a program insert will be necessary.

Printing the Program

Students may choose either to have the University's Creative Services create a program or do it themselves on a PC. Printing charges are quite nominal at Quick Copy.

A minimum of 50 copies of the program should be printed. Five should be filed with the applied major teacher and five with the School of Music office.

Recording

Each student is responsible for arranging to record his/her own recital. Contact Mr. Ray Smith, Mr. Ford, or Dr. Jinright to inquire about possible audio or video equipment that may be available.