Baroque Analysis paper of 2 Handel Da Capo arias
Guidelines for paper – ALL papers need to have a proper introduction that culminates in some kind of thesis. You might think about going through the “three moves” of an introduction – 1. Explain the topic of your paper (here the topic is this piece) 2. Identify a few important questions you want to explore in your paper, and 3. Tell your readers what you feel is the importance of these questions, and then follow with some kind of thesis statement. – An appropriate thesis for this paper might be “this movement (arias) maintains a good balance between the conventional set of expectations for this kind of work such as …. and unique characteristics of…..” Feel free to play around with your thesis. You may email me or ask me if you want a second opinion! – Analysis papers need to walk a fine line between providing background information about the piece and offering a broad overview of the general characteristic of the piece AND focusing on a few questions that you want to explore in depth in your paper. You can NOT cover everything in your paper. – Your paper should definitely not move measure by measure through the piece, describing everything that you hear and/or see. You need to present an ARGUMENT supporting your ideas about the questions you have asked. – Your paper should first give a very broad description of the piece – its form, basic melodic and harmonic character, illustration of the characteristics of the genre, etc. You might also BRIEFLY tell us about who composed it, where it was composed, when it was composed, and any other interesting background or historical information. – The remainder of your paper should focus on the question or questions that you have identified and the answers you have come up with after analyzing the piece. – Your paper MUST provide examples, either through incorporating marked up excerpts from the score or specific measure numbers. – You MAY use secondary sources to help you – it is not required. BUT if you do, you must cite these sources, using Chicago-style footnotes o If you do not cite your sources, you will be guilty of plagiarism, which, as you know, is a very big deal! o For information on Chicago-style citation format, this is a good site for help: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/03/ Guidelines for the Da Capo Aria – You MUST diagram and explain (with measure numbers) the form of both of these particular arias. – You must describe the melodic, harmonic, and or rhythmic features found in the various sections of these arias – You must compare and contrast this movement to the “typical” da capo aria – feel free to mention other arias you know to help with your compare/contrast. – You MUST discuss the text of the arias. What are the images, ideas, and emotions presented in the text? Then discuss how the arias project those images, ideas, emotions, etc.

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