University of Missouri–St. Louis



Sarah OwensJennafer Alexander, Instructor Honors 1100: First?Year Composition 28 October 2015 Analysis Paper Final Draft All writing is different, especially when it comes to the world of academia. Writing for a newspaper or a novel is not the same as writing for a textbook. Textbook authors write primarily to educate an audience or explain a topic in greater detail, while writers of fiction and philosophy write to entertain an audience or perhaps to evaluate a matter of political debate. The difference in purpose of writing leads to other differences: a writer must consider his audience and source information, and then construct the most engaging and informative way to convey his point to his readers. For instance, a scientist, dealing with different information and a different audience than a psychiatrist, will use different rhetorical moves to communicate his topic and ideas than would a psychiatrist. Thus, even within the field of academia itself, not all writing is the same. When it comes to writing, one particular field of academia has a very unique challenge: the field of music. Writers of music textbooks often have a difficult time communicating their ideas because the readers cannot hear the music that the author is discussing, as author Trevor Herbert noted in his book ?Music in Words: A Guide to Researching and Writing About Music (13). This becomes doubly hard when an author is talking not only about music ? something you must hear to understand ? but also about using computer programs to compose music ? something you must see to understand. Such is the case with music composer Paul Gilreath’s textbook ?The Guide to Midi Orchestration?. In this book, Gilreath is explaining how to compose, orchestrate, and “record” music on a computer. Again, Gilreath faces a difficult challenge because the readers can neither see the computer program in the book (apart from a few screenshots) nor hear the music exploding off the noiseless pages of the book. But Gilreath still manages to find a way to educate his audience in the field of composing computer music. Skillfully adapting his presentation according his audience and subject matter, Gilreath’s writing is a strong example of the writing strategies used within the field of music. In chapter one of this book, which will be the primary example we look to of Gilreath’s writing, we see Gilreath immediately utilize a strategy of that is common among authors in several different academic fields: making the details into a story. Gilreath’s objective with this chapter is to introduce his audience (aspiring orchestrators) to the tool with which they will be working: the orchestra, a body of about 90?100 musicians who will work together to create a great symphonic sound. Gilreath introduces the orchestra to his readers by spending about 10 paragraphs discussing its evolution over the last several hundred years. Though the history lesson isn’t necessary to teach his audience how to actually orchestrate music, Gilreath gives this information for a reason: he is creating an introduction to the book? though it is always important to have a good introduction in writing, it is ?especially? important in a text such as Gilreath’s. The book is 25 chapters and 700 pages of technical jargon about music theory, software, and tonal ranges of instruments. If Gilreath immediate started chapter one by going through this information, it is likely that his audience ? most of whom do not yet know how to compose ? would become overwhelmed and discouraged and never make it past the first chapter. Thus, Gilreath follows a cardinal rule when slushing through details an audience might not find immediately interesting: turn your details into a narrative or story. By starting off the discussion of the orchestra with a narrative history lesson, Gilreath raises the interest level of the audience. After crafting and interesting introduction, Gilreath gives his main point, essentially his thesis, of the book: listen. (He uses the word no less than twenty times in chapter one.) As he says, “You must understand what you are trying to emulate…. The only way to truly understand orchestration is to listen to and study orchestration” (Gilreath 3). Gilreath knows that he can give his audience all of the technical information in the world concerning how to orchestrate using computers, but if his audience doesn’t know ?how? the orchestra sounds, than they will never be able to emulate the sound of the orchestra using computers. And then to drive home the point, Gilreath spends the rest of the chapter telling his audience how to listen, what listen to, and what to listen for. Gilreath is then kind enough to give his readers examples of ?who? to listen to, using lists and examples to give the names of many composers to his readers. Among the strategies Gilreath uses, lists and examples as a form of presentation is probably the most common writing strategy among music authors. It is very common to find short written examples of music in a book about music, for much the same reason that Gilreath lists composers in this format ? it keeps the information more organized and allows readers to easily understand and re?access the information later. Gilreath is processing a lot of information: he lists and gives a short biography for each of the composers well known in classical music? he takes a trip through each major era in history, listing major composers from each one of those time spans, and he then follows with a similar list of significant modern film score composers, and granting many of them a short biography and list of major works... If this information had been in paragraph format, the audience would have a much harder time understanding what Gilreath was saying, as there would be too much unrelated information and unnecessary detais presented in one paragraph. Gilreath improves the accessibility and clarity of his information, as well as the comprehension of his readers, by using a common music writing tactic ? putting the information into bullet points, examples and lists. Interestingly enough, the fact that Gilreath presents information in a bullet point list at this time actually prevents him ? and often prevents many other music authors ? from making his language more colorful and interesting. In the book ?They Say, I Say?, authors Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstien note, “Many successful writers blend academic, professional language, with popular expressions and sayings” (122). However, as is the case with many music authors, Gilreath is unable to mix colloquialisms and popular sayings with his text because his text is already organized in bullet points. Bullet points are used to present the information as the bare facts, and mixing these bare facts with colloquialisms would only serve to make the information more confusing. Thus, due to the technical nature of their subject matter, music authors must often neglect to make their language more colorful, presenting only the bare facts to maximize clarity of the subject matter. Gilreath’s book, and specifically chapter one, is a very good example of writing within the field of music? as music authors must often do, Gilreath presents his information in a very dry, details?driven presentations, featuring lists, bullet points, and examples to communicate his very technically challenging message to his audience. But my favorite move that he makes in his text actually comes halfway through the chapter. Gilreath throws a bone to his audience of aspiring young orchestrators and gives them hope that, contrary to popular opinion, there is perhaps a way that make a living in the highly competitive field of music composition and orchestration: Gilreath says, “The new group of composers seems to be getting younger and younger…. From my experience in L.A. I can tell you that age does not really matter. [My bosses cared] about only two things?—I was a good composer and orchestrator and I could write fast and come in on or under budget” (8). For me, as an aspiring orchestrator, this is the most important thing I learned from Gilreath ? that I, as a freshman music student interested in composition, and regardless of my age or experience, could take the education given to me in ?The Guide to MIDI Orchestration ?and use that knowledge to write award?winning music compositions and orchestrations ? that’s the kind of writing I want to do. Beckmann 6 Works Cited Gilreath, Paul, and Jim Aikin. ?The Guide to MIDI Orchestration?. Marietta, GA: MusicWorks Atlanta, 2004. Print. Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. ?They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing.? New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print. Herbert, Trevor. ?Music in Words: A Guide to Researching and Writing about Music?. New York: Oxford UP, 2009. Print. ................
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