The purpose of this post is to gauge interest in playing the set. I am mostly ambivalent as to format—whether this is played as an in-person side event (probably at CO) or virtually, as singles/doubles/shootout, etc.—so I'll use the above poll to judge such things, as well as whether total interest is sufficient to hold a reading at all. Also feel free to let me know if you have suggestions.
Content
There is no strict distribution. I’m very roughly aiming for about a 12/5/5 split between “later musical works,” “earlier musical works,” and more music theory/musicology/music performance/other. The first two categories are divided somewhere around 1810. The extent of any finer-scale distribution is simply that all major genres, styles, and time periods be well represented and reasonably distributed.
Given that the set is written by me, it will to some degree reflect my tastes in music, which include:
- A strong preference towards instrumental Western art music. There will be not much vocal music, even less world music (except as it interacts with the Western tradition), and almost no jazz/popular music.
- Somewhat liberal use of score clues, particularly ones based on melody and harmony as opposed to orchestration or large-scale structure.
- A fondness for wind band music (around one tossup per packet).
- Slightly more of an emphasis on breadth (obscure composers/works) than depth (details about major composers/works).
Difficulty
In short, quite hard. The goal is somewhere around CO difficulty, but with harder early clues and (on average I think) moderately easier giveaways. The intention behind answerline selection is that most every tossup should be in some way canon-expansionary with giveaways either in the canon or from general knowledge. Because of the steep gradation of difficulty, I strive to make early clues largely interesting and, if you have the knowledge, buzzable, even if in practice some might strain convertibility; that said, I do expect that this set will see plenty of powers and some superpowers. Additionally, once per packet, there is a tossup on an exceptionally difficult answerline that is worth 15 points.
As the set nears completion, I plan to post a few sample tossups.