researching and writing about music

[pianistimo]

dear all,

it came to my attention - once my beethoven paper was written, that i had inadvertently broken most of the rules for writing thesis and such.  so, inevitably , i had to write the whole durn thing over again.  to save some of you the trouble - i am writing down a few tips that i learned.  one of which was not adhered to in the first copy - which i have put into the thread about beethoven.  in that copy - i referred to myself as I.  a first person narrative.  very much a no no.  and telling things that i felt, or believed.

so - in the second copy (which i can't find) i eliminated all this garbage and lo and behold my paper sounded much more 'madam professor pianistimo.' 

ok.  here it goes:

NEVER USE -
contractions (such as don't)
abbreviations (such as etc.)
titles (such as Dr.)
italicizing or underlining for intensification
exclaimation points
first person (I, me, my, mine, we, our, us)

there's more.  next message.

[thalbergmad]

That is really helpfull, coz i am writing a Beethoven paper at the moment.

Thanks

Thal

[pianistimo]

hope that one of my prof's won't get angry - but his 'researching and writing about music' handbook (that he hands out to all students doing graduate work) was exceptionally helpful and i am paraphrazing and hopefully not plagarizing.

he says (professor sterling e. murray) to use a dictionary.  do not guess at a word and hope it will not be discovered.  chances are that it will.

in indicating centuries, use a hyphen when employed as an adjective, but not as a noun: "in the eighteenth century," but "eighteenth-century music."

avoid personification of objects or compositions; do not write "the Beethoven symphony" or "the Mozart letter."

try not to break long words at the end of the line, but if this is not possible, make certain that you break the word at a syllable.

use the active rather than passive voice whenever possible.

try to avoid the overuse of weak verbs (such as "to be" or "to have") in favor of stronger and more precise verbs - even if this requires rewording the sentence.

guard agains the overemployment of the verb "to use"

never adopt a casual and chit-chatty tone.

be careful that you are always identifying to what or to whom you are referring.  thus, when using pronouns like 'he' or 'she,' or words like 'this' or 'that' make certain that what you are referring to is clear.

seldom is there a need to use intensifiers such as 'very' or 'much.'  after you have finished writing, go through and eliminate those that are not needed.

(more to come)

[pianistimo]

seriously, thal, you live in scholarly country (ie Oxford) and i do not doubt the veracity of your statement.  now, which aspect of Beethoven's life or person are you studying?  do not be the millionth person to try to figure out 'the immortal beloved.'  she doesn't exist.  she was a figment of his imagination - or perhaps at the most - a one night stand.  but, how could beethoven cover it up so well?  maybe it happened in broad daylight when noone was looking and perhaps it was even during a lesson.  but, i kind of doubt it.  he wasn't particularly good looking.  but, then again - he played the piano.  and, he had nice hands.  perhaps his hair wasn't as messy as people make it out to be?  it always looked brown to me.  why do people say it was black?

i want to know more about the grosse fugue.  do you think you could write something about how stravinsky knew about it?  and, also, can you explain why beethoven thought it necessary to change it from a string quartet to piano for four hands.  where was he going to perform this?  and how can i get a copy of this.  are there copies that southeby's made before auctioning it off.  hmmm. 

[thalbergmad]

 

[pianistimo]

keep adverbs close to your verbs, but do not split a verb form with an adverb.  thus, do not write, "he has frequently said" rather "frequently he has said" or "he has said frequently."

be careful when copying a foreign language passage that you include all the diacritical markings (umlats, accents) these marking are part of foreign terms and cannot be ommitted.  if they do not exist on your keyboard, write them in by hand.  remember that in German, all nouns are capitalized --no matter where they occur in the sentence.

upon first reference in the text always include the full name of a person.  however, when referring to this person later in the narriative, only the last name should be used.  never use a title, such as Dr. or Prof. It is also wise to include life dates upon first reference.

sometimes too much information is packed into a single sentence; be on guard for this, and when you find this situation in your own writing be willing to separate long and complex thoughts among different sentences.

[pianistimo]

how much trouble do i dare get into with professor sterling murray.  his words are so helpful.  it is the rare student that has time to go into the library and do more than study the topic.  i shall risk beheading and go on:

always leave two spaces after a period or colon and one space after a comma or semi-colon.

do not waste time telling the reader what you are going to do ('this paper will'); if you paper is well written it will be clear what you are doing.

do not overuse a single word in a single paragraph.  this produces sophmoric prose.  the best way to check is to read aloud.

many times mistakes are made with words that are similar to one another, but have distinct meanings.

some of the more obvious problems with incorrect word useage include the following:
making nouns into verbs (crescendoing)
unique (means one of a kind); some cannot be ALMOST or SOMEWHAT unique
reoccur (no such word; the word is recur)
'feel' to mean 'believe' (to feel means to physically touch something)
confusing 'which' and 'that' (the former does not limit its antecedent and the latter does)
analyzation to mean analysis
irregardless (no such word; the word is regardless)
'in such cases' to mean 'in such instances' (case is a handbag or a briefcase)

[pianistimo]

use a comma before the word 'and' when connecting two complete sentences, but no comma is needed when the two parts are each dependent clauses.  use a semi-colon to separate two complete sentences without using 'and' and a comma.  the two thoughts connected by a semi-colon must be closely associated.

a dash and a hyphen are not the same thing.  a dash is made with two hyphens without spaces, as in the following example:  It was the end of the year--the time limit was past.   some word processors have an option that changes this automatically.

the following sets of words are often confused with one another:

ability/capacity
adversary/opponent
allude/elude
complement/compliment
council/counsel
imply/infer
prescribe/proscribe
that/which
accede/concede
affect/effect
between/among
comprise/constitute
deduction/induction
less/few
precede/proceed
principal/principle
virtual/actual

try not to end a sentence with a preposition.  "we are carrying out a survey 'among' men and women..."  not "men and women are being surveyed 'among.'"

[pianistimo]

common abbreviations with which you should be familiar:

ante=before
post=after
infra=below
supra=above
q.v. = quad vide = which are
et. al. = et alii = and others
f or ff = and the following page (s)
v. = vide = see
p or pp = page (s)
viz. = namely
passim = here and there
c.f. = compare
i.e. = id est = that is
e.g. = exempli gratia = for example
N.B. = nota bene = please note or note well
sic. = thus (to show an obvious error in the exact reproduction of the original)
id. = idem = the same as before

[pianistimo]

writing style can be helped by purchasing a very valuable little book:  William Shrunk and E B White.  The Elements of Style.  New York:  Macmilan, 1959.

Some special style problems in writing about music:

a. titles consisting of only generic terms, such as 'sonata' or 'symphony,' are capitalized, but not underlined or put in quotation marks.

Beethoven's Sonata in C-sharp minor for piano
Chopin's Waltz in D major

b. individual movements from larger works identified by tempo should be capitalized and placed in quotation marks:

"Andante"  from Mozart's Symphony in G minor

c. individual movements from larger works indentified by generic terms should be capitalized, but not underlined or placed in quotation marks:

Scherzo from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony

d. pieces with specific titles should be capitalized and put in italics:

e. individual movements from larger compositions when such movements are referred to by title, are placed in quotation marks:

"Contradanse" from Schumann's Scenes from Childhood

f. in textual discussions of musical form, do not capitalize 'sonata form,' 'exposition,' 'development,' 'rondo,' 'couplet, ' etc.

[pianistimo]

in referring to keys, please write out sharp and flat and use a capital for the key letter, but a small-case letter for major or minor, which should be written out in full with a lower-case 'm.' :  C-sharp minor, G major, B-flat minor.  Do not use capital letters for major keys and lower case letters for minor keys.

when referring to a specific pitch, use lower-case letters: The G major scale has only one f-sharp. 

[pianistimo]

4. when referring to chord spellings, use lower case letters, in italics and single-spaced; accidentals may be written in with ink (do not use b and # on the keyboard of the typewriter)

example:  The supertonic chord is d f a

5. meter signatures are indicated as 4/4, 6/8, etc.  in the terminology expressing rhythmic values, a hyphen is used, as in sixteenth-note and thirty-second-note-rest.

6. to refer to a specific octave use the 'helmholtz system':

Two octaves below middle C (Contra C) = C1
One octave below middle C (Great C) = C
Middle C= c
one-line C= c1
two-line C=c2

[thalbergmad]

Unfortunatley, it would be quicker to write my paper than read your posts.

Thanks anyway.

Thal

[pianistimo]

ok.  find out as much as you can about the grosse fugue.  i will be anxiously awaiting.  i don't care if the spelling is backwards.  just a bit about stravinsky and how he got his dirty fingers on it.  (or clean fingers).

and, don't forget to go to sotheby's for me and ask who might have a facimile of the 'grosse fugue.'   some spell it 'fuge.'  You can spell it 'fudge.'  for 'grosse' you can substitute 'hunka.'

[thalbergmad]

ok.  find out as much as you can about the grosse fugue.  i will be anxiously awaiting.  i don't care if the spelling is backwards.  just a bit about stravinsky and how he got his dirty fingers on it.  (or clean fingers).

and, don't forget to go to sotheby's for me and ask who might have a facimile of the 'grosse fugue.'   some spell it 'fuge.'  You can spell it 'fudge.'  for 'grosse' you can substitute 'hunka.'

Eh

[pianistimo]

one last thing.  can you find out why beethoven wrote 'it must be' at the end of the fugue? 

this to me is a very ponderous thing.  maybe he meant we should all accept our positions in life.  sort of like the 'four hands, two pianos' play.  they start out wanting to be concert pianists.  after a while, the dream fades and after a longer while - they stop believing the dream.  and soon afterwards, they die. 

no teacher can tell me i haven't got what it takes.  i've had the delusion long enough to know i can still hang on to it with a semblance of normalcy to all except piano teachers and pianist friends.

[thalbergmad]

If you spent as much time on the piano as you do in here, you would probably be the greatest of all time.

Thal

[pianistimo]

yeah.  that's what they all say.

i had one particular 'follower,' as we call them, back in lancaster.  i'd practice and she'd be sitting outside the door doing her homework.  i thought it was coincidence at first - so i'd say hello and generally just find out what she was up to.  she said she liked to do her homework there.  so, i switched sides of the music building.  sure enough.  she ends up on the other side.  so i switch again.  pretty soon.  i'm being pleasantly stalked by ONE singular person.  well, i had another - but he would boldly come into the room and take over and start playing ragtime and chopin.  then, i'd have to leave and go into the next room to practice.  but, usually wasn't that rude - and waited out the ragtime to hear the chopin.  actually, he was very apt to start into a story of some kind and i would listen in wonderment as to how i had the fortune to meet someone as crazy as myself.  sometimes he would try to get me in a corner...but i'd hold up my books as defense and ask him to please sit down and play again.  whenever i would play he would watch my face instead of my hands.  therefore, i had to always be careful as to what i did with it.  my children tell me i make all sorts of funny faces at the computer.  no telling what i do at the piano.

that one girl enormously boosted my ego.  she was so sweet!  i think i should have paid her more attention and not been so worried about practicing. 

[leucippus]

I'ma reelie good righter.  ive ritten many tecknikle books.  i no howl to right and i doant kneed to be edjewkated by ewe.

Sow their!   

[leahcim]

seriously, thal, you live in scholarly country (ie Oxford)

A few of us are going down there later to reclaim it for Her Majesty..the splitters!

Anyway, why are you re-writing when the majority of your rules are something a word processor could fix in a few seconds?

[leahcim]

I'ma reelie good righter.  ive ritten many tecknikle books.  i no howl to right and i doant kneed to be edjewkated by ewe.

Sow their!   

Hugh said speech two text wood nut catch on quest shun mark no back space. It sir my crow soft prod duct. No no back space Dee litre. My call what dew ewe want four yore tee? Shut up I yam using the compute her and what ewe are say in is appear ring oh dam how dew eye switch it off ...no donut say post gaah it's two late ...

[pianistimo]

 

[musik_man]

I've never understood the hostility to passive voice.  Some people might overuse it but it shouldn't be ignored.  It helps move the emphasis to the object being acted upon.  It also avoids confusion if the person/thing that performed the action is unclear.

My roomate told me a while back that now it's standard practice to use one space instead of two between sentences.  I of course ignored this.  They can take my extra space when they pry it from my cold dead MS Word.

BTW cliches also need to be avoided in any serious writing.

[pianistimo]

i suppose you are right.  just read that in scientific writing it is quite common to use passive voice.  i think in musical writing, defining who the subject is - is very important.  for most scholars, they want to know who said what instead of only discuss the topic.  maybe that is the difference?

my husband agrees with your roommate and is up-to-date on what is standard practice, too.  and, many people rely on the computer to automatically fix things.  but, if you are writing a paper in class - you can't unless they offer you a computer.  or, if you are in the library and trying to establish a sort of 'skeleton' of ideas - you have to set about writing on the index cards pretty much as you would like to copy onto your paper.  i thought many tips really improved my dexterity to perform this thesis task much quicker.  i tend to like to do things by hand, and i also like the two spaces idea between sentences on computer. 

yes.  cliches are stupid.  but, hey, when you first start writing - you just want to fill up the page.  when i heard 5,000 word research paper - i started coughing.  but, now i realize it's just a lot of library time and basically learning what's available to peruse.  a stack of ten books is good for about three hours of index card writing.  and, of course - don't forget to write the correct bibliography format on the back of the card.  it just speeds up the process.  now, i don't rush everything - but realize that taking just a little time here and there saves hours of trying to read scribble.  of course, xeroxing as much as you can also helps.  and, if you think to enlarge - you'll save your eyes.

oh.  and don't be scared of periodicals.  just get someone to help you narrow down the focus and type in the correct words to get what you are looking for.  sometimes people who have done research (librarian) know better 'catch phrases' for obtaining the material. 

[leahcim]

Many people rely on the computer to automatically fix things.  but, if you are writing a paper in class - you can't unless they offer you a computer.

Nah you misunderstood. Using a computer to fix, say, your rule "do not capitalize 'sonata form,' 'exposition,' 'development,' 'rondo,' 'couplet, ' etc." would neither be automatic nor would it be something that you'd need to re-write.

Torvalds points out when people start sending in spelling fixes to him he knows the next version of the linux kernel is nearly ready.

Similary, IMHO your list of rules, which are basically formatting and spelling rules suggest to me that you've either got nothing  to worry about the paper [and certainly don't need to re-write it] or that you've missed the plot completely and are hoping the right number of spaces between words or whether you put Dr. Doctor or clever git matters, in which case there'd probably not be much point handing it in - but you be the judge of that
.
It reminds me of the CV writing thread in that respect.