This assignment was my final paper for my MUS 219: Music in Vienna course with Dr. David Levy. This was easily the most work intensive course I took while studying abroad in the Flow House in Vienna, Austria. This difficulty was compounded by my complete lack of familiarity with classical music and its history. This paper was our final assignment for this class and it came without many instructions. Dr. Levy directed us only to write a four to six page account of some facet of Gustav Mahler’s life and work. He avoided advising us on the target audience, the required research, or any stylistic choices. Dr. Levy even neglected to give us a written prompt or assignment sheet for this assignment.

Personally, I despise this type of assignment. It was paper writing without argumentation. I was not expected to get anywhere or prove anything. Instead, I was to do my best to regurgitate Wikipedia articles and textbook chapters without crossing the line of plagiarism. It was an uncreative task that required minimal brain power. I simply wrote a chronological account of the composition process for Mahler’s Tenth Symphony. I repeated the same stories of marriage woes and health issues that had been discussed during our lectures. It was easy to succeed with this type of writing because grading would likely be based upon the thoroughness of the account rather than the accuracy of an argument. I struggle to think of adjustments I would make to this assignment for this reason. Perhaps I would have adjusted my motivational structure. I remember this paper being extremely difficult to get myself to write because of its dryness and because I was expected to complete it during my last two weeks of studying abroad in Vienna. I wonder if I should have taken it upon myself to add an argumentative or creative spin to this paper in order to cultivate my motivation. However, I do think that this would have jeopardized my grade. This piece taught me more about the role that prompting plays in writing. A paper is only as transformative as its prompt allows.