ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the strategies used for Writing about Music. The strategies encompass informal in-class writing, short essays, analysis, writing for exams, editing, and term papers, each requiring a different level of refinement and intensity of professorial intervention. Instructors who have taught a large lecture class are keenly aware that many will sit through the hour without taking a single note. In one of his pleas for "serious music criticism—academic music criticism", Joseph Kerman has commented on the historical links between the musicologist and the music critic, citing Virgil Thomson, Andrew Porter, and others as examples of this affinity. The psychological aspects of music history make a vivid impression on students. The most direct way to incorporate writing on music history into the students' work is via the "mystery" listening question on the quiz or exam. Students' must show their reasoning process by describing a variety of factors in precise language most likely to be understood by professional musicians.
