Writing Program Notes by Satoko. H

Writing program notes – difference from technical writing in music

As a music major, I had the opportunity of writing program notes for my own piano recital the other day. It was an interesting experience for me – As a performer, I always try to express lots of things just by playing my instrument (in my case, it is piano), without using any words. Having a recital is one way to have a place to express music by playing music. However, writing program notes is different from expressing music. It is a guide for the audience to what to listen to in the music, and to help them understand the music more, by giving them background information.

Technical writing in music could be biographical/historical studies of music, musical style studies, analysis of music, performance study, organological study, etc. These are academic and professional writings in music, in other words, they have lots of musical terminologies, that need to be explained when used for program notes. The audience one writes these program notes for is usually considered an audience of non-musicians who are interested in music (they are sometimes knowledgeable, but sometimes not).

In general, program notes include the components below:

•a brief introduction to the composer
•a section about the work’s historical context and the circumstances surrounding its composition
•a description of the work itself

You will need a good amount of research on the music, and time to analyze and interpret the music, sometimes using your knowledge of music theories.
In order to help the audience appreciate the music in the concert, however, you should not use too much technical language or too much poetic descriptions. The balance between the two is very important to make the information on the notes relevant and interesting.


Reference:
http://www.abrsm.org/resources/writingProgNotesApr05.pdf
http://www.uiowa.edu/~writingc/writers/handouts/WritingAboutMusic.shtml