ameliaj

I hope so! I was a performance major in undergrad, so I never wrote a thesis (2 recitals instead). I was planning on submiting 2 samples- One is an analysis paper from a graduate seminar on Mahler (which I am giving a major overhaul), and one is more of a history paper but includes a detailed analysis on Bernstein's first symphony. The second one was submitted by the professor for publication in an archive for outstanding original student research (yay!) so I am more confident about it than the first one. I recently started to worry a lot, however, because neither paper is directly related to the research goals that I planned to give in my Statement of Purpose. My primary area of interest is late romantic german opera and lied, and I was hoping to focus either on Wagner's Operas (I am interested in sketch and genesis studies and performance practice, particulary the earlier ones) or Brahms Lieder (text-music relationship). I am currently working toward a Masters in German, so that I can do a project with a heavy german language component. Are these papers related enough? Do you think I should emphasize my interest in Lieder because that is closer to what I wrote about in the Mahler paper? Also, as a side note, how specific should one be in a statement of purpose? Is it okay to identify a variety of interests, or should one focus on proposing a specific project? Sorry for all of the questions!