Music Resources for Graduate Students: RCR Class Exercises

Exercise #1: Evaluating Scores

• How do these scores differ from one another?
• What are the editorial practices and principles of each score?
• Can you tell who edited the score and what their qualifications are?
• What is the intended audience or purpose of each edition?

• How would you assess the copyright or fair use factors?
• Where might you look for other editions or sources?

Exercise #2: Working with secondary sources

Using a variety of research guides, annotated bibliographies, and online gateways to research, find resources that would be helpful for studying the topic assigned to each breakout group:

Breakout Room 1:  The string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven

Breakout Room 2:  The piano music of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

Breakout Room 3:  The musicals and operas of Leonard Bernstein

• How would you describe each resource?  Consider some of the following aspects: ease of navigation and use, organization, comprehensiveness, authority, etc.  What problems did you encounter?
• How would you evaluate these resources in comparison to one another?
• How might you use these tools to identify resources for your students and to help them become responsible researchers?

Exercise #3: Evaluate a Digital Project

• Consider such aspects as accessibility, purpose, audience, scope, and authority.
• Is it effective as a digital project, i.e. should it have been a digital project?
• What have you learned from this that you feel would be instructive in creating your own digital project?

Breakout Room 1: Opening the Geese Book

Breakout Room 2:  Musical Festivals Database

Breakout Room 3: The Sonic Dictionary