Week 1 Assignment!

Shaping Individual Interpretation: Squeeze Out Your Creative Juices!

Assignment 1: The Composer’s Blueprint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCB4PbLOj5w

Pick a piece within your range to learn in a week—ideally, something you haven’t heard before. Don’t listen to recordings yet! Instead, focus on discovering the piece for yourself:

• Structure – How is it built? Are there clear sections, contrasts, repetitions?
• Harmony – What stands out? Are there unexpected shifts or progressions?
• Context & Historical Framework – What was happening when this piece was composed? How might that influence its character?
• What is given by the composer:
  • Directly: Notes, rhythm, articulations, dynamics.
  • Indirectly: Things shaped by performance practice (e.g., rubato in Romanticism, how slurs function in Classicism, timing and shaping in Baroque).

Your goal: Prepare the piece so you can play it through, following all the composer’s indications. Treat this as your baseline—your starting point before interpretation takes flight.

Share all of your answers to these questions above, and questions of your own below!