Europe Straining Under a Pension System Burden

Introduction Globally, workforce management is becoming a challenge with time owing to the increasing burden of pension systems. Different countries across the world have devised diverse pension systems, which are unique to their needs.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Europe Straining Under a Pension System Burden specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For example, in Europe, the pension system has become an economic liability because people retire at an early age of 55 or 65 when they are still productive. Moreover, the aging population of Europe has led to a decline in gross domestic product. Vance and Paik describe the pension system of Europe as a burden because it is economically unsustainable (352). Factors that make the pension system burdensome to the government include the declining value of pension schemes in stock markets owing to intermittent financial crises, loss of workforce through aging population and early retirement, and increased spending on pension systems. Therefore, this essay explains how companies can adjust the mix of retirement benefits, recommends possible incentives that could reverse the trend of a burdening compensation system, and eventually examines implications for human resource planning. Adjustment of Compensation Packages To fit the current needs of compensation packages in Western Europe, companies should adjust benefits according to the amount of earnings, the number of credits earned, and the age of retirement. The benefits should be commensurate with one’s earnings to prevent retirees from earning more than what they contributed to the social security, as in the case of the compensation benefits in the United States.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The adjustment of benefits according to earnings is appropriate because it would relieve Weste rn Europe of the pension system burden, which is increasing with time. According to Social Security Administration, employees should earn at least 40 credits, which is equivalent to at least 10 years of work to become eligible for retirement benefits (4). The adjustment of benefits according to the credits earned or the number of years worked fits the compensation needs of Western Europe because employees are yearning to reach retirement age in spite of their retirement savings. The most crucial adjustment of benefits is increasing the age of retirement and changing benefits system. In the United States, the early eligibility age for retirement is 62, wherein employees can claim retirement benefits early at the age of 62 or delay until full retirement age of 67 (Knoll and Olsen 22). The amount of retirement benefits claimed progressively increases from the early eligibility age of 62 to full retirement age of 67. Hence, increasing the retirement age in Western Europe and distributin g the retirement benefits according to the time of a claim would significantly discourage the culture of early retirement among Europeans. Compensation Package Incentives The possible compensation package incentives, which would reverse the trend of early retirement, change the cultural expectation that is in Western Europe, and promote retention of employees, are the provision of monthly bonus, allowance of flexible working schedules, provision of long-term care insurance, and increment of retirement benefits.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Europe Straining Under a Pension System Burden specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In addition to earnings, potential retirees require monthly bonus as incentives for the period that they work after reaching their eligible retirement age. Given that potential retirees are productive, the provision of flexible working schedules as benefits would encourage them to continue worki ng despite reaching their retirement age. Additional benefits such as long-term care insurance would entice employees not to retire early lest they lose the benefits. The increment of retirement benefits according to retirement age is an effective compensation package incentive. Knoll and Olsen argue that the increment of retirement benefits delays claiming and discourages early retirement (21). In this case, employees in Europe would change their cultural expectation of retiring at the age of 60 because they will earn minimal retirement benefits. Implications for Human Resource Planning The loss of experienced employees at the age of 60 when they are still productive is a great loss to organizations, companies, and governments. Given that it is expensive to recruit, train, and retain employees, early retirement of employees causes a great loss of human resources. To avert the loss of human resources through early retirement, long-term human resource planning is essential. In essenc e, the human resource management should recruit, train, and retain the young employees, but not the old employees, because they have many years to make immense contributions before they reach their retirement age. Moreover, early retirement can discourage employees from working in Europe and cause brain drain. Employees can migrate to countries with a higher retirement age and better employment benefits than European countries. Conclusion The increasing burden of the pension system in Europe is becoming an economic liability because it is unsustainable. Reforms are necessary to adjust compensation benefits to be in line with those of the United States.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Adjustment of the compensation benefits to reflect the amount of earnings, the number of credits earned, and the age of retirement fits the needs of Western Europe. To discourage early retirement, change cultural expectations, and improve the retention of employees, the provision of monthly bonus, flexible working schedules, long-term care insurance, and better retirement benefits are the possible incentives. Overall, the implication of this case for long-term human resource planning is that it promotes recruitment, training, and retention of young employees and prevents brain drain in Europe. Works Cited Knoll, Melissa, and Anya Olsen. â€Å"Incentivizing delayed claiming of social security  benefit before reaching the full retirement age.† Social Security Bulletin 74.4 (2014): 21-43. Print. Social Security Administration. Retirement benefits. 2015. Web. https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10035.pdf Vance, Charles, and Yongsun Paik. Managing a Global Workforce: Challenges and  Opportunities in International Human Resource Management. New York: Routledge, 2014. Print. 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Resume Format Guide What Your Resume Should Look Like in 2019

Resume Format Guide What Your Resume Should Look Like in 2019 At the end of the year, there’s often a lot going ons)How to Write a Legal Secretary Resume (with Examples)How to Write a Medical Assistant Resume (with Examples)How to Write a Perfect Administrative Assistant Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Barista Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Caregiver Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Cosmetology Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Customer Service Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Customer Service Resume (with Examples)How to Write a Perfect Human Resources Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Occupational Therapist ResumeHow to Write a Perfect Retail Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Sales Associate Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Social Worker Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Teaching Resume (Examples Included)How to Write a Perfect Truck Driver Resume  (Examples Included)How to Write a Retail Mana ger Resume (with Examples)How to Write a Strong Home Health Aide Resume (Examples Included)At this point, we hope you have everything you need to get started with your A+ resume revamp. Once you’ve gone through the process and have your resume in sparkling shape, we also have some handy checklists for you to do one final pass before sending your resume out into the world.Your 5-Question Resume ChecklistThe Ultimate Resume Checklist [PDF]Does Your Resume Pass This Key Checklist?In addition to all of this, you can also utilize free resume templates to help get you started on forming a great foundation.Again, we know this is a busy time of year, but if you put in some work now, 2019 You will thank 2018 You!

MGMT 3010 Managing People For A Competitive Advantage Essay

MGMT 3010 Managing People For A Competitive Advantage - Essay Example Human resource personnel play a major role in the management of people throughout the organization. The human resource department is responsible for recruiting and selecting new employees. Once an employee is selected the job of the human resource professional does not end because HR personnel help in the development of employees by providing training and educational opportunities. The HR department also serves as a protection barrier due to the fact that their job involves ensuring companies complies with the pertinent labor laws of the state. Whenever there are problems with employees the human resource department steps in to take disciplinary actions. They also step in to solve any employee disputes among co-workers. The first line managers of organizations have the critical job of overseeing the work of a group of subordinate workers for which they are responsible. A supervisor is a person that is responsible for the day to day performance of a small group of people (Reh). The su pervisor is supposed to establish close relationships with his crew of workers in order to be able to motivate them to achieve higher levels of performance. The supervisor is responsible for solving the day to day problems employees face at work. The position of a supervisor is considered a lower level management position. Companies depend on the efforts of the supervisor to ensure workers are doing their job well. Whenever an employee has a concern he or she must first contact the supervisor about the problem since the supervisor is the immediate managerial resource the workers have available to them. The person that is responsible for ensuring all HR practices are implemented within the organization is the human resource manager. The human resource manager is considered a part of the upper management of an organization. The typical educational and work experience of a human resource manager includes an MBA in human resources and 5-10 years of professional experience. The job of th e human resource manager presents challenges to tactically handle the human resource tools and help the firm attract talented people (Buzzle). The HR resource manager must continually study the new labor laws in order to stay on top of any changes that may affect the employees. The person that is responsible for the entire performance of the employees within an organization is the general manager or the chief executive officer. The general manager has to ensure that the organization is operating at its maximum capacity. It is very important for general managers to keep everyone motivated. Moral problems among the staff can cause operating inefficiencies. General Managers depend on the efforts of other managers to get their job done. They must keep close communication with first line supervisors in order to know if there are any problems with the floor employees. Larger corporations have a chief executive officer in charge of the operation. Human resources are a very important functi on that can add a lot of value to an organization. In the 21st century companies differentiate themselves by the quality of their human capital. Organizations such as Starbucks Cafe have been able to maintain a competitive advantage due to their good

A formal Business plan about a fictouse landscping company that i Essay

A formal Business plan about a fictouse landscping company that i briefly outline - Essay Example The mission statement of the company will be the basis of the company’s marketing strategy and the creation of the company’s image as a brand. Already the company has a reputation of offering quality services in a timely manner and within budget. The company’s mission statement will therefore be â€Å"JMB Giving Landscaping Holistic touch of Creative Art.† The aspect of imagination will portray the company’s intention to apply creativity innovation and invention towards ensuring that consumers enjoy unique landscaping services because creativity cannot be easily reproduced but requires talent. At JMB our visions will be to turn imagination into reality to ensure that our customers enjoy unique and customized services and that the outcomes have the uniqueness and aesthetics only found in art. In addition we believe in keeping of time and operating within the customer’s budget. Once you give us the contract you will only have to sit back and wait for your finished product. Currently JMB has built reputation among small scale consumers. The company is now targeting contractual agreements with corporate partners to increase on the volume of contracts and to be able to make future projections. The company will depend on its capacity to deliver quality services in a timely manner and to add artistic creativity to landscaping. According to Ingels one of the ways to attain competitive advantage that cannot be easily reproduced by rivals in landscaping business is by applying graphic and design art to landscaping (15). The company will employ the services of reputable graphic designers and computer animators whose work will be to create visual images of designs for display to customers. The graphic designers and computer animators will also be able to turn the imaginations of the consumer into 3D images to allow the consumer to have a taste of what the finished products will

Statement of Purpose Personal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Of Purpose - Personal Statement Example While I took a course in Business Economy in college, I hold the strong opinion that if I combine this credential with accounting, then I would be able to put forth unrivalled competence in the job market. When it comes to my personal experience especially in the field of business and accounting, I feel privileged to report that I have vast experience at various capacities. Essentially, I have about four years of experience in various sectors and categories where I made significant contributions. I spent one year in an insurance company as a sales and service personnel where I oversaw tremendous sales of insurance policies to various clients. Additionally, I spent three years in a beauty salon as a customer service person. In this position, I interacted with various customers hence ensuring their utmost satisfactions throughout my time of stay at the company. As far as responsibilities carried are concerned, I evaluated the needs of the customers in addition to providing them with the best available products and services. Furthermore, I handled the daily book keeping duties of the store before reporting the results to the headquarters. I have to confess that these responsibilities were taxing despite their enormous benefits to my career path. Furthermore, I managed to learn the English language when my husband and I decided to move to the United States for purposes of work and study. In brief, I have had to overcome a myriad of challenges over the last seven years ranging from cultural adaptation to learning a foreign language. While in the United States, I managed to take several courses in accounting in community college and take all the necessary classes to satisfy the language classes in colleges and universities. I have also taken courses in bookkeeping and taxes advising in order to gain more insight into the world of accounting an d to enable me to become a competent consultant in future. Last but equally

Perseverative errors during piagets a not b task

Perseverative errors during piagets a not b task Jean Piaget was the first to note infants younger than 8 months engaging in perseverative reaching during the A-not-B task (Bornstein and Lamb, 1999). In this task, an experimenter hides a toy under box A, within reach of the infant. The infant then searches for the toy under box A. This sequence of events is repeated several times. Finally, in the experimental trial, the experimenter hides the toy under box B. After a short delay, the infant is allowed to reach for the box with the toy. Although the infant has seen the experimenter hide the toy under box B, and box B is within reach, the infant will continue to search for the toy under box A. In Piagets theory of cognitive development, stage IV is critical. During stage IV of development, the infant appears to have some sense of object permanence, since she does initially search for the hidden toy. The object concept, however, has a limitation; to the child, the object is bound to its location (Gratch and Landers, 1971). Piaget asserted that this error (stage IV error, perseverative error, or A-not-B error) reveals an incomplete schema of object permanence. Recent researchers, however, found that the perseverative error can indicate deficits in other cognitive abilities, as well (Marcovitch and Zelazo, 1999). In this paper, I will discuss the full range of interpretations that can be derived from various results of Piagets A-not-B task, many of which have little, if anything, to do with object permanence. I will end with a study proposal to examine a newer version of the A-not-B task. THE PROBLEM OF OBJECT PERMANENCE In his work on the sensorimotor development of infants, Piaget asserted that infants at ages 8-10 months show a perseverative error during search tasks due to incomplete object permanence, and that the error indicates a failure to assimilate the new hiding place into the infants object concept (Marcovitch and Zelazo, 1999). When other researchers examined Piagets hypothesis, their studies yielded mixed results. Wellman, Cross and Bartsch (1986) conducted a meta-analysis on all studies conducted on the perseverative error before 1986 and found that infants ages 8-10 months show significant perseveration, reaching for location A much more often than they reached for location B. Length of delay, childs age, and number of locations all had significant effects, while the number of trials reinforcing location A was unrelated to infants performance (Wellman, Cross and Bartsch, 1986). Among the studies examined in the meta-analysis, Gratch, Appel, Evans, LeCompte and Wright (1974) offered some opposition to Piagets hypothesis. After testing 9-month-old infants with the A-not-B task at delay intervals of 0, 1, 3, and 7 seconds, the researchers found that infants showed the perseverative error in all interval conditions except the 0-second condition (i.e. no delay), with children just as likely to show the error at 1, 3, and 7 seconds of delay. These results contradict Piagets hypothesis of failure to assimilate the new hiding place; had this been the case, the infants should have shown the perseverative error even with no delay before search (Gratch et al., 1974). The researchers suggest that after the infants gaze is drawn to B, and without a delay to search, the infant is guided to the correct location (B) by virtue of already looking in that direction. With any amount of delay, however, infants revert back to their original scheme of the toy existing at location A (Gratch et al., 1974). Even incorporating the results, this theory is compatible with Piagets hypothesis of incomplete object permanence and lack of assimilation of the new hiding place into the infants schema. Harris (1973) initially argued that the 10-month-old infants in his study presented the perseverative error due to proactive interference, evident by errors that increased when length of delay is increased. In a follow-up study, Harris (1974) discounts his prior ideas, asserting that a memory problem is not the likely culprit behind the perseverative error. In this study, Harris notes that 1-year-old infants, well beyond Piagets stage IV of sensorimotor development, approach both locations A and B when an object moves; that is, the infants do not treat object locations as mutually exclusive. In the A-not-B task, infants search behind both occluders to find the object (Harris, 1974). If infants are searching both locations, it is unlikely that proactive interference is the reason behind the perseverative error (Harris, 1974). By 1975, researchers had still not found a satisfying cause of the perseverative error. Butterworth (1977), in an attempt to test Piagets hypothesis of incomplete object permanence, found that hiding the object is not a necessary condition for the perseverative error. In testing infants, Butterworth found that infants would sometimes look away from B before searching, usually indicating that proactive interference was a possibility; however, infants showed the perseverative error even while continuously looking at B, or continuously tracking the object (Butterworth, 1977). As a post-hoc theory, Butterworth suggests that the problem may not be that of incomplete object permanence, but that infants during stage IV simply have not acquired the skill to identify and retrieve objects in a coordinated manner. THE SPATIAL LOCALIZATION HYPOTHESIS Butterworth (1975) examined the perseverative error from a different point of view: does the location of the object change the rate of error? Under various conditions, errors were, indeed, found to be a function of the objects location. Results from this study show that infants made the error when the object was moved away from the midline (Butterworth, 1975). Butterworth hypothesizes that errors were produced due to prior experience of the object at the midline (A), which made it difficult to assimilate the object at a location away from the midline (B). In this experiment, it is especially clear that infants are not simply repeating previously successful responses; that is, they make errors after a change in the relationship between locations, without prompting from the experimenter (Butterworth, 1975). In a similar study, Bremner and Bryant (1977) set out to differentiate between Piagets egocentric response perseveration hypothesis, and, as an alternate hypothesis, perseveration to a certain location in space. There is a clear distinction between the hypotheses, perhaps best characterized by relative and absolute location. For example, if a child reaches for an object to her left, but changes the way she reaches if she is moved to the opposite side, then she is perseverating to a certain location in space. If the child continues to reach to her left even if she is moved to the opposite side, then she is showing egocentric response perseveration. Both hypotheses predict different results and different reasons for the perseveration error. Interestingly, Bremner and Bryant (1977) were able to confirm Piagets hypothesis, finding that infants were repeating past successful actions, even when they were re-located and facing a new direction. Perseveration does seem to be of responses, not places. To explain why infants persist in their responses in spite of location changes, the researchers hypothesize that stage IV infants, unlikely to be crawling yet, may ignore visual information when an object needs to be relocated. After initially finding an object (at location A), the infant, in most cases, simply needs to repeat the motion to find the object again (Bremner and Bryant, 1977). In another study, Schuberth, Werner and Lipsitt (1978) created a condition in which half of the infants found a new toy at location B rather than the same toy they saw at location A. These infants were less likely to show the perseverative error than their same-toy counter-group, theoretically because they mapped the location as part of the toys scheme, consistent with Piagets object concept hypothesis. However, the researchers found that although most infants in the toy-change condition showed less perseveration, one-third of them continued to err and search at location A. It is possible that these infants failed to identify the new toy as different from the old toy, but other than this speculation, the researchers have no explanation for the contrasting behaviour. Their results support Piagets hypothesis over the spatial localization hypothesis: it appears that infants during stage IV do not differentiate between concept of object and concept of place (Schuberth et al., 1978). MEANS-ENDS ABILITIES After researchers failed to come up with tested alternative explanations for the stage IV error, they began to test infants object permanence itself, perhaps to reaffirm Piagets original hypothesis. In an infamous study by Baillargeon, Spelke and Wasserman (1985), five-month-old infants were habituated to a clear-screened drawbridge, moving from an upright position to a flat position. Infants were then exposed to a possible event and an impossible event: in the possible event, the screen stops when it reaches an occluding box; in the impossible event, the screen goes straight through the box. The results showed that infants looked significantly longer at the impossible event, indicating that the infants expected the screen to stop when it hit the box, and were surprised when it did not. This experiment served two purposes: (1) it disproves Piagets original claims, showing that five-month-old infants appear to have a schema of object permanence; and, (2) as object permanence is an ins eparable aspect of how objects behave in time and space (Baillargeon et al., 1985, p. 206), the results raise even more questions about the perseverative error. If five-month-old infants understand the permanence of objects, their ability to exist when occluded, and that objects move on undeviating paths, why do 8- to 11-month-old infants commit the perseverative error during the A-not-B task? Baillargeon, Graber, Devos and Black (1990) claim that infants do poorly on the A-not-B task because it requires them to produce means-ends sequences. Their general hypothesis is that these younger infants have trouble planning such sequences due to limited problem-solving ability. The researchers believe that the infants representations of the initial and goal states are unlikely to be the problem. Instead, it is likely that the infants are unable to reason about the actions required to transform the initial state to the goal state (Baillargeon et al., 1990). In this study, the researchers showed that infants do understand whether certain actions are sufficient to retrieve the object; consequently, the researchers hypothesize that infants are unable to select and sequence these actions adequately, even when they understand the actions. It seems, then, that it is a problem with planning. Matthews, Ellis and Nelson (1996) partially agree with Baillargeon et al.s (1990) hypothesis. After examining infants engage in a means-ends task several times during the longitudinal study, the researchers found the ratio of means-ends errors to total means-ends trials within a session to be non-significant. Means-ends errors dropped for infants across testing sessions, but no group differences between ages were found. Despite these results, infants continued to perseverate during the A-not-B task, leading the researchers to question what might be behind the perseverative error. They concede that despite the results of the means-ends portion of the study, the performance during the A-not-B tasks may, indeed, be due to some limitation of means-ends problem-solving ability. However, Matthews et al. (1996) also note that the function that mediates performance on the A-not-B task may be memory-related rather than one of perseveration. Similarly, Munakata, McClelland and Johnson (1997) found that 7-month-old infants who were trained on means-ends behaviours still showed different behaviours in tasks that required the same means-ends abilities. For instance, after being trained, infants completed more toy retrievals when the toy was hidden behind a transparent occluder than when the toy was hidden behind an opaque occluder. In terms of means-ends abilities, both the transparent and opaque conditions required the same actions and the same effort. As the infants appeared to have more difficulty in the opaque condition, means-ends deficits were likely not the culprit. In a latter experiment, Munakata et al. (1997) found similar results, with infants showing greater toy retrieval in the transparent occluder condition. The researchers concluded that their difficulties with the opaque occluder could not be attributed to means-ends abilities alone. Essentially, deficits in means-ends abilities seem to not cause problems wh en the goal object is not hidden. PERSPECTIVES FROM NEUROPSYCHOLOGY Neuropsychology views the Piagetian A-not-B task as testing the immaturity of the frontal lobe. At stage IV of sensorimotor development, the frontal lobe, still underdeveloped, is unable to support cognitive skills such as working memory, inhibition, and attention. Bell and Adams (1999) examined 8-month-old infants and their performance on both the looking and the reaching versions of the A-not-B task. From a neuropsychological perspective, the aforementioned cognitive skills are used to search in both looking and reaching tasks. If both versions test the same skills, it is possible that the reaching task is simply more motorically complicated for infants to complete properly. Indeed, Bell and Adams (1999) showed, in a within-subjects design, that there is no difference in performance by infants in either the looking or the reaching version of the A-not-B task. Clearfield, Diedrich, Smith and Thelen (2006) discuss successfully completing the A-not-B task as requiring a combination of two sets of cognitive processes: fast processes tied to the present, and slower processes tied to the past. Very young infants are often able to complete the task without error; Clearfield et al. (2006) attribute this to the use of the fast processes alone. These processes decay quickly, and the researchers argue that the perseverative error is how infants learn how to balance the fast and the slow processes, making it an important developmental milestone. In fact, the results of their experiments show that the infant must achieve some level of stability before perseveration occurs (Clearfield et al., 2006). With eight-month-old infants smooth reaches and five-month-old infants poorly-controlled reaches, the eight-month-olds are more likely to form strong motor memories, possibly leading to perseveration at location A. These motor memories, formed during stage IV, are also only likely to be used during stage IV (Clearfield et al., 2006). Cuevas and Bell (2010) presented results consistent with the neuropsychological view, asserting that the cognitive skills required for looking and for reaching are very similar, and likely determined, in part, by the development of the prefrontal cortex. Infants initially appear to exhibit better performance on the looking version of the A-not-B task; later in age, they exhibit comparable performance on both looking and reaching versions. The researchers assert that this difference is due to differences in brain circuitry: infants show looking responses very early, while reaching responses are not consistently shown until 3-4 months, which still remain poorly-controlled until 8-9 months. Additionally, reaching creates more demands on cognition, requiring memory of the hidden location, planning of a means-ends action sequence, and a reaching response (Cuevas and Bell, 2010, p. 1369). It is possible that infants exhibit the perseverative error due to cognitive overload caused by reachi ng. FUTURE DIRECTIONS STUDY PROPOSAL An interesting way to look at infant cognition during the A-not-B task is to use a gaze-tracking procedure. Once the eight-month-old infant is sitting on her parents lap, the researcher will begin the training trials, during which he will hide a toy under an opaque box (A), and then allow the infant to search for the toy. At this point, the infants gaze should remain on the researcher, the toy, and box A. During the test trials, the researcher will hide the toy under another opaque box (B), and, again, allow the infant to search for it. Before reaching (and presumably reaching for box A), where does the infant look? Does she look at box A immediately, or does her gaze linger on box B? Does she look at the researcher for clues, or does her gaze move back and forth between boxes? As the aforementioned research says that she is likely to perseverate at box A at eight months, when looking measures are unlikely to be used, it would be interesting to see if the infant has a more immediate response to the task before engaging in the reaching behaviour. Because looking develops before reaching, I predict that infants will not engage in perseverative behaviour through eye gaze, even if they ultimately reach for box A; that is, they will look at box B, but reach for box A. CONCLUSION Currently, there are few true answers to the problem of the perseverative error. Although it is a robust and well-researched area of developmental psychology, researchers are still unsure why infants in stage IV of sensorimotor development are unable to reach for the correct location during the A-not-B task. Future directions, as mentioned above, involve finding another way to test infants object concepts in order to circumvent the perseverative error.

Musical Links Investigation

Fred Kim Mr. Gillespie IB Music 12 April, 2011 Musical Links Investigation Music is a form of communication that varies distinctively among different countries just as each country has their own language. However, music does not only vary with region, but also with time period and the neighboring musical cultures. To investigate how two very distinct and different musical cultures can be connected through their musical qualities, I will compare the similarities and differences between romantic period and classical period music of flute.Moreover, I will focus on one instrument, flute, because I have great interest in it, and I have a lot of experience of studying and performing the instrument. In this investigation, I will focus on the compositional features found in the music such as form and structure, tone color, mood, and musical background. One of the most famous classical flute pieces is concerto in G major No. 1 K313 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Although it is widely known that flu te was Mozart’s least favorite instrument, the concerto is very beautifully written in terms of not only variety of texture and structure, but also the subtle changes in mood.The concerto is composed of three movements which each has distinct characteristics. The first movement is Allegro maestoso, second movement is Adagio ma non troppo and the last movement is Rondo: Tempo di Mennuetto. The orchestral part includes orchestral strings, two oboes, and two horns. This small size of orchestra play a significant role in emphasizing the soloist and shifting the mood and tempo of the music before the soloist comes in. The other piece that I will compare to the Concerto in G major by Mozart is Concerto in D op. 283 by Carl Reinecke.It is written in Romantic period and is composed of three movements. The first is Allegro Moderato, the second is Lento e Mesto, and the third movement is Moderato. This concerto was written right before Reinecke died. Therefore, the melody is more sensa tional and insightful compared to the flamboyant and joyful melodies that Mozart had created. The orchestral part includes all instruments with reduced size in each section. The first main similarity that I noticed comparing the two flute concertos from two different time period was their structure. Both concertos are composed of three movements.The first is both allegro, the second is both slow and the last movement is the finale for both concertos and is fast and graceful. Not only from the exterior point of view, when we look at the internal structure of the pieces from each movement, can we find many similarities. Both pieces start with introducing the main theme and melody and expand on it by adding variations from it. Later on, from both pieces, we can see that the melodic structure falls into under a minor chord creating a sad and solemn mood. After a little more variations on the melody and rhythm, both pieces come to a recapitulation.Both again introducing the main theme, d evelops into another set of variations on the melody and rhythm which are generally more complicating and higher in notes. Another interesting factor to compare is the freedom of style, ad-libs, and cadenzas. In general, Classical pieces are considered to be more confined in the way that soloists perform. They are usually rhythmically stricter than Romantic pieces. However, ad-libs, to a certain level, are allowed and are often added by famous players such as James Galway and Jean-Pierre Rampal.They add some grace notes, mordents, or trills that were not written on the score. By doing this, classical pieces provide some freedom in playing to a certain degree. Not only are that, in the Concerto in G by Mozart, there two cadenzas; One in first movement and the other in the third movement. This Cadenza gave performers the chance to reveal their real abilities in both technical and musical aspect. On the other hand, in Romantic Pieces, ad-libs are usually not allowed, which seems to giv e it less freedom.However, Romantic piece usually has more freedom of rhythm. Therefore, performers of the Reinecke Concerto usually express themselves by varying the rhythm. Moreover, in some songs, such as Chaminade Concertino and Mendelsshon Violin Concerto in E minor has cadenzas that are written already but gives the performers freedom to do whatever they want. Therefore, the two periods that I am comparing both give the performers a certain amount of freedom in playing but neither gives full freedom to play how ever they wish.By comparing the two different periods of western music, Classical and Romantic, I was able to realize how Romantic developed from Classical, evolving into more characteristic type of music. By comparing the m melodically, harmonically, structurally, and rhythmically, I was able to understand in depth how music periods of different time can have certain similarities and differences. Moreover, by only comparing the flute songs, I was more able to understan d how even though all â€Å"languages† seem different, they are all ways of communication and they do have similarities.