KMMC 102/202 Research Project

Getting started: compiling a Bibliography

 Just like musical performance, the interpretation of music history is creative, subjective and
constantly changing. It is important for you to develop your own critical opinion about each
topic, and the best way to do this is by reading widely.
 Essay planning depends on your research: consulting a wide range of sources will help you to
establish your topic in more detail, and as your essay plan develops this will in turn help to
narrow down your search for further sources.
 In the early stages of your research you may only have a general idea of your topic. To begin
with you should consult general music history texts and sources which contain a bibliography
or further reading list. As your research develops you should enhance this general
understanding with more specialist books and journal articles to add depth to your project.

Books

Browse the web and the collections in KM Library and Anna Centenary Library for books
relevant to your topic. There are two types of academic book: single-author texts
(monographs), and multiple-author texts containing several chapters by different authors:

Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music, 5 vols. (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Julie Anne Sadie (ed.), Companion to Baroque Music (University of California Press, 1990)

Journal articles

Journals are topic-specific collections of shorter articles, issued several times per year. Most
journals are now available in electronic form, and there are several ways to access them
online. There are hundreds of specialist music journals; some useful titles for KMMC102 are:

Music & Letters; Journal of Musicology; Journal of the Royal Musical Association; The
Musical Quarterly; The Musical Times; Journal of the American Musicological Society

A journal article citation should follow the following format: Author, ‘Article Title’, Journal
Title, issue no, (date), page numbers.

e.g. Alexander H. Shapiro, ‘‘Drama of an infinitely superior nature’: Handel’s Early

English Oratorios and the Religious Sublime’, Music & Letters 74 (1993), 215–245.

Using the Web

The internet can be a useful method of locating academic book and journal content, but it
requires care and patience. Many academic texts are available for full or partial online access.

 JSTOR: database archive of journals from the humanities and social sciences
 DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals): links to free access music journals
 Google Books [books.google.co.in] and Google Scholar: [scholar.google.co.in]

These are useful portals to browse for reference material, but have limited access to full text.
You can find references here and then use JSTOR to locate the full text.
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Using sources
Take notes as you read to summarise key points and useful quotations. The note-taking stage
is crucial for understanding what you read and absorbing a range of ideas into your work.
Make sure you include the details of the source and the page number for future reference.

There are several ways that you can incorporate this material into your essay. The main thing
to remember is that the dominant narrative voice in the essay should be yours: references and
quotations are for supporting the ideas that you have developed from your reading.

 Summarising research to demonstrate knowledge of the topic

‘Handel’s music has been studied from a variety of angles, including sources,
performance practice and historical context, for example in the essays collected in The
Cambridge Companion to Handel (Burrows 1997). This essay will focus on...’

 Citing a specific fact or detail

‘Handel’s Israel in Egypt was premiered at the King’s Theatre, London, on 4th April
1739 (Lang 1966, p.310).

 Citing an argument or opinion

Strohm has argued that we should assess Handel’s London operas against the composer’s
attitudes and preferences towards the conventions of Italian opera (Strohm 1985, p.35).

 Using paraphrase or quotation to support your argument

Example of paraphrase:
C. Steven La Rue has argued that the emphasis on vocal virtuosity in the da capo aria has
contributed to its neglect as a serious dramatic art form. (LaRue 1997, p.111).

Example of direct quotation:

Part of the reason behind criticism of Handel’s operas may be the da capo aria, as C.
Steven LaRue suggests: ‘the da capo aria has often been seen as a vehicle for vocal
improvisation and a shameless showcase for brilliant virtuoso singing rather than as a
form suitable for musical or dramatic expression’ (LaRue 1997, p.111).
KMMC 102/202 Research Project

Referencing guidelines
There are two essential elements of referencing in your essay:

1. In-text citations: these relate the content of your essay to your sources.
2. Bibliography: this provides a complete list of all reference material.

1. In-text citations

There are two options for in-text citations: the author-date system and footnotes. The
difference is in the way that the information is communicated to the reader: the former is
simpler, whilst the latter is more flexible and allows for greater precision. Whichever method
you choose, be consistent: do not mix the two formats in the same piece of work.

Author-date

Place the following information in parentheses at the end of the relevant sentence (after the
full stop): 1. the author’s surname, 2. the date of publication and 3. the page number/s of
quotations or paraphrases. For example:

The structural problems in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas have been discussed by Roger
Savage and Andrew Tilmouth, in an article that addresses several of the practical
issues involved in staging a Baroque opera. (Savage & Tilmouth 1976)

Janet Schmalfeldt describes this ambiguity as follows: ‘With no indication whatsoever

in the libretto that Dido now holds a sword or a knife, we are left to imagine that she
is simply about to die of a broken heart’. (Schmaleldt 2001, 611)

Footnotes

Using footnotes allows more details and further text to be included. The first time a source is
cited full details are given, in exactly the same way as it would appear in the bibliography,
with relevant page numbers for quotations and paraphrases. Subsequent citations of the same
source are shortened to the author’s surname, abbreviated title and page numbers.

The structural ambiguities in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas have been discussed by
Roger Savage and Andrew Tilmouth, in an article that addresses several of the
practical issues involved in staging a Baroque opera.1
... The physical presence of the chorus members in Dido and Aeneas also presents
particular problems for staging several scenes in the opera.2

Janet Schmalfeldt has described this ambiguity as follows: ‘With no indication

whatsoever in the libretto that Dido now holds a sword or a knife, we are left to
imagine that she is simply about to die of a broken heart’.3

1
Roger Savage and Michael Tilmouth, ‘Producing "Dido and Aeneas": An Investigation into Sixteen Problems
with a Suggestion to Conductors in the Form of a Newly-Composed Finale to the Grove Scene’, Early Music, 4
(1976), 393-406.
2
For example during Dido’s lament. See Savage and Tilmouth, ‘Producing "Dido and Aeneas"’, 401-2.
3
Janet Schmalfeldt, ‘In Search of Dido’, The Journal of Musicology, 18 (2001), 584-615, 611.
KMMC 102/202 Research Project

2. Bibliography

The information in the Bibliography is the same for different types of source, but there are
different scholarly conventions for how this information is presented (commas, italicised
font, inverted commas, parentheses and so on). Follow these examples as guidelines:

 Single-author book: Author, Title (Place of publication: Publisher, year of publication)

e.g. Charles Rosen, The Classical Style (New York: Norton, 1971)

 Multiple author book: Editor/s, Title (Place of publication: Publisher, year of publication)
e.g. Simon P. Keefe (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Mozart (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003)

 Chapter in a multiple author book: Author, ‘Chapter Title’, in Editor/s, Title (Place
of publication: Publisher, year of publication), page nos.
e.g. Dorothea Link, ‘Mozart in Vienna’, in Simon P. Keefe (ed.), The Cambridge
Companion to Mozart (Cambridge University Press, 2003), 22‒34.

 Journal article: Author/s, ‘Article Title’, Journal Title issue no. (Year), page nos.
e.g. William Forde Thompson, E. Glenn Schellenberg and Gabriela Husain, ‘Arousal,
Mood and the Mozart Effect’, Psychological Science 12 (2001), 248‒51.

 Music editions: Composer, Title, Editor and publication details as above

e.g. Mozart, Requiem, ed. Friedrich Blume (London: Eulenberg, n.d.*) *n.d. = no date.

 Web sources: Author and title, short form of the url, date you accessed the page.
e.g. ‘Mozart’s Thematic Catalogue’, British Library website, www.bl.uk/onlinegallery,
Accessed 20 Feb 2012.

You do not need to cite the url for a source that exists in print, such as a journal article
accessed via JSTOR, or a book accessed via Google Books. Remember these websites are
simply the database or portal through which you have accessed the source, not the source
itself.

Note on ‘Inverted commas’ and Italics

The relation of ‘chapters’ and ‘articles’ to titles of Books and Journals is the same as that
between ‘movements’ in Musical Works. For example, we refer to the ‘Dies Irae’ movement
in Mozart’s Requiem, or the aria ‘Se vuol ballare’ in Le Nozze de Figaro.
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Guidelines for research project alternative formats (websites,

documentaries, blogs etc)
If you are interested in creating an alternative format project to the traditional written essay,
please follow these guidelines. To assist your planning, you should create either a written
description or a visual storyboard and submit this with the project at the end of the year.

Written description (max. 1000 words)

• A written description of the project provides a focus for your work and serves as a
guideline for planning and research; it also explains and legitimizes the project to others.
• The description should be organised around your chosen assignment question.
• Introductory paragraph: Explain your main topic and ideas: include the assignment
question and several related ‘focus’ questions that point to your particular angle.
• Central section: Describe how the information will be presented. Indicate how the story
will be told. List the segments/scenes to be included. Describe what you want the
audience to see, think and feel at each point. Include details of your research sources.
• Conclusion: describe why your project is important. Who is the intended audience?
Suggest what you hope the audience will learn.

Storyboard
• A storyboard charts the course of the project: you could format it as a flowchart, a
‘cartoon’ image sequence, or use software such as Powerpoint or Prezi.
• Each section of the storyboard should effectively sequence the story being told.
• The assignment question and your approach to it should be obvious in the first few
sections. The middle sections add evidence and support, and the final sections organize a
conclusion that reinforces the central question.
• Add brief notes to indicate details such as pace (timings), transitions, music, voiceovers,
effects, credits and titles etc.

Planning
• Decide on your content by answering this question: ‘what video, image, or audio file will
best represent the answers to my research questions?’
• Record video or audio interviews; gather images, video or audio from the internet,
scanner, or digital camera; create captions/titles.
• Consider your materials through the audience’s eyes: ‘how will the audience interpret the
imagery/audio that is being presented?’.

Making the project

• Choose a medium that will offer the most effective telling of your research results.
• Arrange graphic, video, and audio elements according to the sequence described in the
• description/storyboard.
• Carefully edit the length of clips and images. Be ruthless with the final cut: if it helps to
tell the story and is of good quality, it stays, if not, cut it out.
• Be aware of your audience: think about where they will look; what they will hear; what
they will feel; what they will think.
• Add credits and references to cite others’ work (take care with material from the web).
• Keep to a reasonable length: 5-10 minutes is sufficient for most documentary movies.
• Allow extra time for technological problems, and back everything up continuously!