A GUIDE TO WRITING CONCERT PROGRAM NOTES

As part of their recital examinations, all MMus and DMA students are required to write and design
their own concert programs. These need to be submitted for approval in their final form within 10
days of the program being approved, which means well in advance of the recital. Examiners take
them into consideration in determining a recital grade. This Guide has been prepared to indicate the
style and standards the Faculty expects in its concert programs, but it should assist not just
performers but musicologists with writing concert program or CD liner notes for other organisations
as well.

THE AIM: INFORMING THE AUDIENCE

Program Notes are read in a half-darkened hall, by concertgoers whose attention is principally on
the live music they are hearing. A printed program therefore is not usually the place for an expansive
scholarly study peppered with footnotes or an in-depth analysis laced with musical examples. Nor
should it be designed with a typeface so small and dense as to be illegible in a dimly-lit hall.
Fundamentally the program needs to announce the sequence of the items presented and to convey
any necessary instructions for the good order of the concert; but it can also be used to concisely
inform listeners about the music they are hearing and to assist them in its direct appreciation.

Program Notes originated in the 19th century: once its location had shifted from the private salon to
the public concert hall, the concert audience developed an appetite for printed explanations and
instructions. Today, music festivals and some major orchestral subscription series are accompanied
by lavish programs with expansive essays intended to be read independently of their concerts. But in
most concerts Program Notes on a piece should take no longer to read than the piece does to play --
and ideally much less. A 2,000-word analysis of a 4-minute prelude will be left half half-read when
the piece itself has finished, having done little more than divided the listeners' attention and
frustrated their enjoyment of the concert.

EXTERNAL ELEMENTS

Cover page

On the cover page of a concert program, the heading should list the presenting organisation, the
series title (and series number if appropriate), the name of the performing group and the solo
artists. Below the concert heading should be the time, date (including the year), and place of the
concert. Remember that a printed program is often kept as a memento of the event, so full details of
this kind are valuable.

An example of a cover page follows:

Faculty of Music

Presents

2005 Master of Music Recital Series

JOHN SMITH, clarinet

with

JANE DOE, piano

1.15pm

29 June 2005

MELBA HALL

Contents Page

The second page of the program will normally contain a summary of the order of the music. This
page reads like a table of contents: it should list in order the pieces the listeners can expect, and
convey any instructions they will need, such as the length of the interval, or a request to refrain from
taking photographs or save applause till the end of a work.

For each work you should list the formal title, with key unabbreviated ("F-sharp Major" not "F# maj")
and index number (BWV, Hob., Op., K. etc) and the composer's name; then as a subheading list the
movement titles or tempos. If the composer's full name and dates are listed later in the Notes, then
the surname is sufficient here, and often makes for a less cluttered page.

It is best to consult the score when compiling this page: where there are several tempos in a
movement list each major tempo change, and separate these by a semicolon ("Allegretto; Adagio;
Presto"). If a movement has both a title and a tempo, separate these by a colon ("The Farewell:
Allegro"). All foreign words and descriptive titles are italicized ("Sonata in E Major," but "Spring
Sonata in F Major"; "Prelude and Fugue" but "Humoresque") . Find in your software program and
use all foreign language diacriticals ("Fauré" not "Faure").
If your performance is a premiere, this fact should be listed in brackets below the title: this records
an important event.

You should also list your accompanist here, and list any soloists here under the works in which they
are appearing. If you have an ensemble, list just its title here: the full roster of players is best given at
the rear of the program (see Back Page below).

An example of a contents page follows:

PROGRAM

Sonata Pathétique for Piano in C Minor Op.13 Beethoven

Grave: Allegro molto e con brio

Adagio cantabile

Rondo: Allegro

Partita in A Minor BWV Bach

INTERVAL (10 minutes)

Waldszenen Op 82 Schumann

Eintritt: Nicht zu schnell

Jäger auf der Lauer: Höchst lebhaft

To avoid discomfort to yourself and others, please switch off your mobile telephone for the whole of
the performance

Back Page
On the back page (or inside the cover) give the name of any ensemble appearing, with the full roster
of its members, each listed under heading of the instrument played -- sometimes two columns
makes this more concise. Below this list any official with a special role in the concert -- a technician
or house manager if you used one, and acknowledge any copyright or other special permissions you
had to obtain. Finally (if you must), make your personal thanks to anyone who has had a special role
in your project. Keep this last brief: gushing outpourings of affection for a close friend's private
support may embarrass the friend and the audience alike.

An example of a back page follows:

Parkville Quartet

Shelly Peach -- Violin I

Jonathan Exeter -- Violin II

Joan Exeter -- Viola

Matt Ching -- Violoncello

Technical Assistance -- David Collins

Text of Shallow Brown reproduced by kind permission of the Grainger Museum, University of
Melbourne.

Special thanks to my mother, for her enduring patience.

PREPARING AND PRESENTING THE NOTES

5.1 Researching the Notes

Use the musicologist's search tools and resources when researching the Notes. The Music Library is
your starting point; you may search the catalogue from home via the on-line catalogue, and many
standard musicological references are now available online through the Music Library's website. For
more detailed assistance, consult the Faculty's website "Researching Music" or talk to the Music
Librarian.

In preparing a Note you will probably need to:

Look for discussions of each work in each composer's biography

Look for first hand opinion of the work in the composer's autobiography or in critical writings of the
time

Check composition dates in the composer's thematic catalogue or in the Works List in the
composer's entry in a music dictionary (e.g., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians)

Look for definitions of terms or an outline of the artistic or social milieu in an appropriate music
history or general encyclopaedia (e.g., Encyclopaedia Britannica)

To locate the best sources to consult, look for your composer or work in a music bibliography or
index (e.g., RILM, or the Music Index)

While the research you have done will be obvious in your writing, it is best not to let your research
apparatus show in a Program Note. It is preferable not to use citations and footnotes to exhibit the
tools you used. If you are using a direct quotation, citation of the source in the narrative is sufficient
rather than a detailed footnote ("Wagner was 'a brilliant sunset,' wrote Debussy, 'mistaken for a
sunrise.' ")

5.2 Adopting a Writing Style

Adopting the right tone is important. On the one hand, you should not employ the technical
vocabulary you would use when addressing fellow musicians; on the other hand, you should not be
condescending, explaining even the most obvious musical matters as if to a child. Assume your
listeners are informed members of the public, who already have sufficient knowledge of music to
have brought them to your audience in the first place. As a rule, you should explain any little-known
term or concept which is essential to listening to the work.

5.3 Sections and Headings

Divide the Notes into a separate section for each work: a continuous essay is very irritating to
navigate in the midst of listening to music. Place your name as author of the Notes once at the end
of the program, not after the section on each piece. In a student examination submission, it makes
little sense to list a copyright notice: use the © sign only if you have been engaged as a commercial
note writer with a fee that did not cover grand rights for repeated use.

At the top of each section give the composer's name, this time in full with dates of birth and death.
For a living composer, give "b.1960" rather than the ominous "1960-". If the work is an arrangement,
has been substantially edited, or is an unfinished work later completed, list the arranger, editor, or
completing author. If it is a vocal work, also list the librettist.

Follow this with the formal title of the work, its index number, and its year of composition.

An example of a section heading follows:

FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT (1797-1828)

"Täuschung," D. 911, No. 18. (1826)

from Die Winterreise by Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827)

5.4 Vocal Works

A Note on any vocal work should include its text in full for the audience to follow (or a translation of
the text if it is in another language). The translator's name should appear beneath the translation. If
you have space without minimizing the typeface too much, printing both the text and the translation
in parallel columns is often a useful format.

If possible, use a literal translation rather than a singing translation which has been copied from
score. Many singing translations have been made principally to fit the rhythms and melodic contours
of the music, and make little sense when read on the page. In looking for literal translations, Philip
Miller, The Ring of Words: An Anthology of Song Texts (New York: Norton, 1963) contains excellent
translations for most of the standard lieder texts, while Robert Hines, Singers Manual of Latin Diction
and Phoenetics (New York, Schirmer, 1975) contains translations for all the standard liturgical Latin
texts.
Where a text or translation is included, the note you write need only be very brief: a short paragraph
at most. Obviously, the listener has little time to do more than follow the text. An example of the
presentation of a vocal text follows:

Täuschung

Ein Licht tantz freundlich von mir her;

Ich folg' ihm nach die Kreuz und Quer.

Ich folg' ihm gern und seh's ihm an,

Daß es verlockt den Wandersmann.

Delusion

A light dances cheerily before me;

I follow it this way and that.

I follow it gladly, knowing all the while,

That it leads the wanderer astray.

--trans. Philip Miller

5.5 Form and Content of the Notes

Avoid bar-by-bar analysis or the inclusion of musical examples; instead, aim to give the audience at
least two pieces of information that will help them understand what they are hearing, and two or
three salient features to listen out for.

Firstly, if there is a descriptive title to the work, explain the title. If it refers to mythology or a sacred
text (eg, The Mass), consult H. S. Robinson et al., Encyclopaedia of Mythology and Legend (London:
Kaye & Ward, 1972), or a Guide to Mass, or Encyclopedia Britannica for your definition.
Similarly, if the work is from an opera, (or is an instrumental paraphrase or set of variations on opera
themes), briefly recount the appropriate moment of the opera plot, to place the audience in the
action of which the work is part or which is its inspiration. For opera plots and their early
performance histories, consult The New Kobbe's Complete Opera Book, ed. and rev. Earl of
Harewood (New York: G.P.Putman's Sons, 1976).

Next illuminate the background of the work, how and when it came to be composed, and for whom
(mention the dedicatee -- whose name will be in the score -- and explain who this was). Perhaps say
a word about the first performance of the piece, when and where it was, and possibly the first
critical reaction it achieved. Lengthy quotation should be avoided, but a pithy clause from the
composer, or an amusing jibe from an early critic is often interesting. If the piece had a long and
arduous road to acceptance, a word about how and where the manuscript survived and when it
finally came to be published might help.

Above all, say something about context of the work: the historical idea, the artistic trend, or the
literary or artistic or philosophical movement which produced it, or the cultural milieu from which it
comes.

Finally, if it is an ensemble work, list the instrumentation, something many concertgoers enjoy
having so they can search for instruments on the stage while they are listening.

SOME MODELS

A number of outstanding writers of program notes past and present have had their work published,
and are well worth consulting as models for style. Some of these are:

Donald Tovey Essays in Musical Analysis, 6 vols.(1938). Reprint, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1978.

Edward O D Downes, New York Philharmonic Guide to the Symphony. New York: Iker, 1976.

Louis Binncolli, The Analytical Concertgoers Guide. New York: Greenwood, 1971.

FURTHER READING
The following style manuals have a chapter on writing program notes:

Richard J. Wingell, Writing About Music: An Introductory Guide, 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 2002.

D. K. Holoman, Writing About Music: A Style Sheet from the Editors of 19th Century Musi.c Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1988

Eugene Helm and Albert Luper, Words and Music: Form and Procedure in Theses, Dissertations,
Research Papers, Book Reports, Programs, Thesis in Composition. Clinton, N.J.: European American
Music Corp, 1971.

Warren Bebbington

2004