Can anyone give me a sort of broad overview of what is expected from LTCL programme notes?
I have lots of ideas for things to write but it's chaotic and it's turning into an academic and analytical essay!!

Probably not the right approach then

If you go to concerts and have programmes to hand, take a look through and get a feel for the level that they are pitched at. Assuming a knowledgeable audience is probably OK, so technical terms are alright as long as it doesn't turn into a dry thesis!

Here is an extract from my LTCL (Organ, Recital) programme notes of 2005. I can't claim that it is a good example, but it shows the level I pitched it at:

No advice but just wondered what your programme is? I'm also planning for LTCL violin, had hoped for this summer but family commitments (& lack of money!) have ruled it out, so am now going for Christmas.

Confutatis - thanks very much for sharing that
It was a helpful read, and I think your advice to read concert programmes is fab! I think my problem is that I'm writing it in the style of an A Level essay and possibly delving a bit too deep. If only my name was Aurora Concise...

Jessy - I think my name is a bit misleading While I do play and adore the violin (and wish I could play anywhere near this level...sadly I'm still eking out student concerti ) I'm going for flute LTCL.

and an extract from the pre-programme note stage of writing mine:

Pete Rose Medieval Nights
Narrative piece, describing four nights
based on 14th century dance tune, Belicha
four movements Rough Session at the Round Table uses one of the Belicha themes. Belicha is an estampie, and you can hear the stamping beat, which then becomes almost expressionless and like an automaton.
Meditation reminiscent of monkish singing, low hum, recorder and voice, in and out of phase.
Dozing off While Reading a Book lurching between two ideas as if drifting, then hauling self back, finally becoming an apparently randomly repeated pair of notes, ending in a snore.
Wild Party! more stamping, from a distance, coming closer and more and more raucous and exuberant, finishing with a limping romp; as this subsides, the meditative chant is heard once again, dying away in the distance.


Quantz
Sarabande and 4 doubles
Theme slow, late baroque sarabande, no longer the racy Spanish dance which so shocked the authorities when it was first developed. First variation melody sits an octave above the harmonic accompaniment, the second is a dancing arpeggiated double, in the third the rhythm changes to triplets, and in the final movement Quantz turns the whole idea upside down, making the melody into an accompanying part to the counter-melody coming in off the beat.


Shinohara Fragmente rich in avant garde techniques, the piece breaks free from the confinement of rhythmic and melodic considerations, focusing instead on texture and free expression, even giving the player a choice in ordering the fourteen different fragments. Textures vary from sustained legato quartertone shifts around a relatively narrow range through tone bends and glissandi, to twittering leaps of challenging intervals, the use of chords, and agitated vibrato and use of random chittering playing. *

*ie, 'orrible piece which makes a lot of noise and no sense, hehe....


there were a couple of other pieces too, but this material provided the basis for what I did. For some reason Trinity awarded me the LGSMD instead of LTCL, but it comes to the same thing . I was told off for programming these three pieces in a row, as it happens, because they were all unaccompanied - my two accompanied ones sandwiched these. Good luck .

Thanks anacrusis
It's really great to read extracts - helps me to impose some sort of structure on my current mess of notes / ideas/ favourited youtube videos / markings on copies of my scores and blah...

I'm quite excited by the whole process!

(also, I might have to just write an academic essay as well to satisfy my craving to do something academic in my gap year )

Aw! Best of luck anyway!

Hi Aurora,

I have been trying to register on this forum for days, just so I could reply to your post! Alas, it proved to be quite a struggle...

I did my associate diploma in Flute, and more recently a licentiate in Piano, and in both cases got full marks for my program notes. I can't say whether I followed a specific format, but rather, just made sure that I addressed all the aspects as required by the syllabus, and had it carefully proofread to make sure there were no mistakes. If you would like to see them, here is a link:

http://www.neuroblogs.com/alogia/2011/dipl...-program-notes/

Alternatively, if you want the original MS Publisher document, I can email it to you. This will give you an idea of the layout I used, for what its worth!

Smallbird, thanks very much for sharing that. I read the website and your programme notes are great - congrats on getting full marks!

Agreed!

The only thing that surprised me was the precise nature of your timings

e.g.

Duration: 20 minutes, 15 seconds

Did you find you really were able to reproduce your pieces to that exact duration? In my experience, an exam does strange things to timings, even as much as +/- 10%. How did you manage to exert such exact control? I would always fudge the issue by specifying c.20mins or something...

That is true. The only reason I did it was based on feedback for my Performer's Certificate exam, which I did in Piano a number of years ago. I can go fish out the report to get the exact wording, but the examiner said something like "timings provided only in minutes, not seconds...". For that exam it was marked out of 5 and i only got 3. Whether it was partly due to that or not I am not sure.

I don't know how closely each piece would have approximated those timings, but it was probably off by, as you say, up to 10% in some places. Perhaps it would be wiser to be vague, as you say!

What I do know is that both my diplomas were timed, and that one should be pretty sure the entire exam falls into the allowed time. Failing this you may lose a mark or two somewhere along the line. I don't think an examiner will check the timing of individual pieces - that would be missing the point in my opinion - but who knows!

One of my examiners sat there turning over an egg-timer! Luckily I managed not to let it distract me, though perhaps that was part of the exam...!

I think what confutatis prooves here is the need to be succinct and stick to the brief. These are Programme notes, the nature of the audience is stated, you are not writing an argumentative essay, nor are you writing a novella or short story. Stick to facts, use appropriate adjectives where they enhance your writing but keep it short and too the point. You may have read enough information for an undergraduate dissertation, but your words total will not allow this. Be ruthless with your editing, and if you know that there is a really juicy discussion opener, save it for your Viva.

In my daughter's ATCL report the examiner has remarked that her timing for the last piece was underestimated (she put 14.00 mins and took 14.40 ish) but that the others were accurate so it does seem to matter to be accurate and precise. It didn't make any difference overall and she scored 8/10 for the section on programme notes/presentation and stagecraft but it's a good idea I think to be accurate as one of my other candidates last summer was told in no uncertain terms that more precise timings (he had put c.12.00 mins etc) needed to be included.

Thanks, it's good to know others have shared my experience.

That said - it really is very strange, isn't it? I can't imagine why they would think it is
important!

Except that musicians plan concerts, and need to have a reasonable idea of how long they're going to detain their audiences for. Okay, so maybe not to the second, but seconds tend to be cumulative, and part of demonstrating learning of one's music is showing a real sense of the pace at which one intends to perform it. Forty seconds here or there might not sound that much - until you try holding your breath for that length of time . For woodwind and brass players, such pacing is vital if they want to breathe in the right places without expiring intermittently, or, equally badly, hyperinflating their chests to bursting....To get timings I did run through my music three times, and took the average of those, but the interesting thing also about doing this was that in fact that once my playing is secure, the pace I go at tends to be reasonably steady. Admittedly this is baroque music, in the main. The modern horror comprised fourteen chunks of disparate sound effects, some of which had discretionary timings marked, and there is no doubt that nerves made me shorten those somewhat .

we had timed them several times also, it had never been that long and it didn't sound like she was playing the concerto any slower than usual so on reflection I don't think it was 40 seconds or so - more like 20 tops I'd guess

This is the first time I've heard of the significance of accurate timings in Programme Notes. I think if I ever manage to do another dip, I will stick to my tried-and-tested approach of doing approximations like c.11'. If it works for the BBC Proms Guide, it works for me.

Is fair enough, confutatis - though I also did get a comment about timings for my LGSMD. I think it's one of those things which is not of huge moment, unless one is scrabbling around for enough marks to pass - and I don't know what you think about that side of things, but I'll certainly admit to having been happier about good marks for playing than for those I got for sparkly bits on my skirt .

Daughter certainly didn't need to scrabble around for marks as she was just under a distinction so it wasn't that in this case, nor in the case of my other student. Only passing on what was written as I thought it might be helpful to the OP

My attitude has always been a pass is a pass is a pass, so I am as likely to be happy about good marks than getting exactly the passmark. I make no 'distinction' between the two really - pass, get the postnominals, move on to the next challenge.

As for sparkly skirts, I keep those for Friday nights.

Hi smallbird, what was your program for flute and do you still have the program notes?? I would love to read the notes as I am preparing to do my dipabrsm in November! While I am researching for the pieces that I am playing I would love to get the opportunity to read the notes of any one who has already completed their diploma!
I would appreciate any advice,regards Philip