Lesson 20 (Nov. 8)

Lesson 20: How to write a programme note about your pieces

• As it is getting close to the recital, you should be preparing your programme note, which is a guide for your audience to read before and/or during your performance. Most of the time, it includes some background information about the composer and the characteristics of the piece itself, and places that you would like your audience to listen to. But that means, you need to explain them in words! How this can be done, is to use different musical elements. Those are the guides to describe how music sounds in written format, which will be important when you have to describe the music that you would like to explore on on your own.

Sample program notes from famous orchestras:

• Sunday 10 October (Barbican): Boulanger, Prokofiev, Dvořák & Debussy (London Symphony Orchestra)

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Allegro con brio from String Quartet in F minor, Opus 95, Serioso (San Francisco Symphony)