Hi

I am desperately seeking advice from those who have successfully done LRSM programme notes.

I'm trying to get my draft into final form but I'm really struggling with an information overload and deciding what to put in or leave out.

In particular in respect of the composers lives and bios. Composers are Chopin, Ravel, Bach + Kabelesky so with the possible exception of the last all well known.

I am doing reasonably well with the piece analysis but really unsure about the % of the words (I've about 450 for each one) that should be on that and the more general information. For my DipABRSM I got the comment
" a bit short on biographical details" so don't want to make the same mistake BUT for a composer like Bach you could use 4500 words on bio alone.

I'm heading into panic mode so any advice on how you tackled this would be very welcome.

thanks in advance

Have you read the very useful information the AB has on the website? It's here.

In general terms you don't need biographical information at LRSM except where it relates to the piece in question. So, for example, it's relevant to know that composer X wrote piece Y just after his wife died, or that composer P intended piece Q as a wedding present for his future bride. You don't have to go into the full details of the composer's life otherwise.

It isn't necessary to divide your words equally between the pieces, by the way. You may need to take more words to describe a sonata than a single piece.

Remember that you are writing for a musically-literate audience (albeit an imaginary one!) who will want to be told something they don't know rather than general information they already do.

Good luck!