ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE Arts => VCE Arts/Humanities/Health => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Music Styles => Topic started by: Origin on March 25, 2010, 07:21:04 pm
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Started thinking about it yet? I'm doing the children's choir option so I'll have to get mine done by the end of the hols so they can practice.
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The composition outcome is the last one that my school is
doing, so I don't find out until this Monday as to what
options are available. I'll let you know when I do though!
..Let's make music styles active atleast for this year.
Even if it's just the two of us. hahaha.
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The best way I've found to describe it to people is by comparing it with English.
In English we do Language Analysis tasks, studying different articles and explaining how exactly it makes the reader feel and what techniques are used to achieve this. In English we are also expected to show our own ability in creating a persuasive piece, through an oral, which demonstrates our understanding conceptually of how the techniques work and being able to put them in action ourselves.
This is similar to Music Styles as we study musical compositions and explain how it makes the listener feel and what musical techniques are used to achieve this. As in the english exam we have to be prepared for any type of article to analyse, the same goes for music, we need to be prepared for any type of musical composition. So it could be a rock song, classical piece or even African drumming. We are also expected in music to recreate and demonstrate our understanding conceptually of the techniques and apply them into action by creating our own musical composition.
So while in the English threads you'll see alot of "What issue should I do for my oral?" this thread is parallel to that in that it asks "Which style should I do for my musical composition?"
Hope it all makes sense!
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Yes definitely.
It's a much more scientific-analysis approach to music
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I always intended on taking music performance before VCE; I've played piano for many years. The issue is my school lives in outer suburbs, low-socioeconomic area (Government bonuses! FTW! ;D) and I'm quite literally one of four students at my school that can atleast read sheet-music (that's with a population of just over 1500students..). So it was no surprise when a subject -that is recommended to have AMEB Grade 6 as a standard- got scrapped from the courses available at the school because no students were even getting near the average study scores. The school didn't want to disadvantage music students completely, so they adopted Music Styles as an available music course.
Of course; I could do Music Performance through correspondence but having seen how that works with other students during year 11, and that every student dropped their correspondence subject, I decided it was smarter to go with what was available and at hand.
And yes, the compositions you create in music styles are *usually* on your instrument of choice, as you have to record them for proof that you made them (incase teacher gets audited blah blah..) but it seems that some can be done with children's choirs and such; depending on how you want to create it. (Don't quote me on this last paragraph; I am only just learning it myself)
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Oh I was going for grade 6 in the may/june session this year but became overwhelmed with other extra-curricular and school activities. I was just never getting any time to get through all the scales and pieces everynight and was consequently not improving; so I had to sacrifice it for this year and pick it up at the end. Having said that- I haven't skipped any grades; started at preliminary and worked my way up.
How about yourself? I see you plan on doing Music Performance in two years time; what goals have you set for yourself?
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never any styles kiddos... argh such a small subject!
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Hahahaha exactly.. it either means that those who do it are REALLY good at it (oh god I hope not...) or next to no-one does it at all, so it's easier to be on top.
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I think it's that most people that do it are really good at it unfortunately :(
urgghh I have NO idea how I'm going to go whatsoever. my SS could be anything between 20 and 38ish, no joke. Gawd.
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Dear GOD.
OTHER STYLES STUDENTS.
I feel like I've just struck a gold mine! Apart from my class of 3 (me included), I haven't met anyone else...
What are your four works for this year?
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I'M SCREWED FOR TOMORROW JUST QUIETLY
oh my gawd
30 please. hello bottom subject
i'm doing mozart symphony no 40, earth cry - sculthorpe, erotomania - dream theatre & enta omri - oum kalthoum (a weird egyptian piece)
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Hahaha. The day before the exam. You left it a little late ;)
In Chronological Order:
The Four Seasons - Antonio Vivaldi
Earth Cry - Peter Sculthorpe
So What - Miles Davis
In C - Terry Riley
Do I know anything about them? Not really.
Do I have heaps of information to regurgitate in the exam? You bet I do.
EDIT:
i'm doing mozart symphony no 40, earth cry - sculthorpe, erotomania - dream theatre & enta omri - oum kalthoum (a weird egyptian piece)
Woah, Woah, WOAH! You're doing Earth Cry too?
This is where we exchange notes. I'll start with contextual issues, you add anything that I don't have, and hopefully I'm adding to yours. :D
1.Sculthorpe was commissioned by the ABC in 1985 to compose an Australian piece, yet the deadline was too soon for him to be able to compose a piece. This is shown by him reworking a previously unfinished piece named "Song of Talitnama", which was based off an aboriginal melody from an aboriginal poem.
2. He was fascinated by the Australian landscape, this is reflected by the doubling of instruments playing the melody to present broadness and structured the piece in ternary form to give the feeling of going in a circle. He believes that when you travel in Australia, where you end up looks similar to where you started and as such feels as though travelling in a circle. The tonal nature of the song is also due to his love of the Australian land. In an interview Sculthorpe stated "we need to listen to the cry of the earth, because if we don't, then death." His music mirrors this as it is based around the notes D, Db and A. Where D is "death", Db is the "Earth" and A is "Australia".
3. Due to interests in non-western music, Sculthorpe was heavily influenced by Balinese Gamelan and Japanese Koto music. The Balinese Gamelan is prevalent in his horn figurations, while the Japanese Koto music through the cellos imitating the horns.
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haha yeah sounds like me
rote-learning ftw!
but in all seriousness, section b and c should be fine, section a is what i'm worried about :S
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lol yeah, tomorrow's gonna suck for me...
I'm doing:
Le Jardin Feerique (The Fairy Garden) from the Mother Goose Suite by Ravel
90 Minutes Circling the Earth by Stuart Greenbaum
Symphonie Liturgique (3rd Movement) by Honegger and
Petrushka (2nd Movement) by Stravinsky
I'm exactly the same. As long as I get context for Greenbaum and hopefully contrast for Honegger I'm set. Section A's my downfall as well though - it's so unpredictable and if it's a really complex question I get flustered etc.
Garughg. Why can't we just have cake.
And yes, anyone else finding Section C just the most pointless section ever?
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section C is actually ridiculous. oh my lord. completely ridiculous...
it seems like it's not too hard to do well on as long as you bullshit A LOT though.
i want the hard excerpt(s) for section A to be last so they don't throw me off for all the other ones =/ often they're first though and i'll have a freak out argh.
every other subject i can guess how i'll go, but this one i just have NO idea.
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Ahh I agree!
Yeah it's pretty easy, but literally you could make up a composition and the examiners wouldn't have a clue (not that I'd be game enough to though lol). Yeah I did a religion 3/4 this year so I'm pretty top notch at bullshitting :P
Yeah that's a good idea, like an easy 1 or 2 just to get into the swing of it and then a tough one with 3 plays at the end.
It's really interpretive this subject, I was talking to another girl in my class about it today and it's just so hard to know where you stand with it?
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yep. i'm ranked one for SACs (albeit out of a class of about 5) but i'm scared about this exam.. i have no idea how i'll go. somewhere between 20 and 40 would be my rough estimate for my SS! haha
it'll probably either be my 6th, or one of my best. which is so weird..
some past excerpts for section A are so strange, gawd =| i just want at least one really good jazz one and a very typical Classical one and i should be okay. the non-western ones - who knows..
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Yeah, my teacher's happy with my progress, like I've been doing really well on the sacs as well but I guess just getting into the exam. I remember doing the 06 exam and there was that really weird excerpt that was this woman making weird tounge sounds. If we get one like that I'm so screwed.
Hopefully we get a choir one - I've been in choirs since year 3 so that's pretty much my thang :P
I'm aiming for at least mid 30s for my ss but I guess it just rests on the excerpts...well, that and actually writing fast enough to finish!
I agree - non western and death will occur :P
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Ahahaha! I absolutely loathe the tongue clucking and guttural vocal interpretations of vocalists. "How does the vocalist ensure interest in the song?" *shudder*
I remember an african woman in one was just doing vocal drum patterns o.O
And another consisted of a buddhist rock group that sung wailing as their lyrics.
If I don't sleep tonight, I won't have to wake up for tomorrow's exam.
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Yeah, that was the one! :) The vocal drum patterns, and it was like 'Discuss rhythm and instrumentation'. Like, seriously.
Favourite though was the mongolian rock-folk group who used traditional instruments in conjunction with guitar and drum kit. Like, who thinks of that?!
I'd love to know how they pick these excerpts, like does the examiner have a kickass iTunes collection? :P
Yeah, I may just sleep early so I can wake up extra early and wait outside my teacher's office and bug him for a few hours. Just an option.
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yes i've done that vocal one - so trippy. then read the examiners reports for high level responses and was like wtfff how do people hear that.. i missed heaps.
i struggled with that mongolian one! so different to anything i'd ever heard before
i emailed my teacher 3 hours ago with unheard practices and no reply so will probably have to hassle him tomorrow. god i hope i do okay..regroup here after the exam tomorrow to discuss it, after i go out celebrating the fact that i'll finally be finished woooo :D
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The mongolian one was so silly.. they just re-wrote the given information of instruments but said how they were used to score like 85% of the marks. Definitely reconvene here after the exam. How do you guys tackle Section C? I don't even fully understand what 'creative processes' means. Care to enlighten me? ::)
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Hahaha. The day before the exam. You left it a little late ;)
In Chronological Order:
The Four Seasons - Antonio Vivaldi
Earth Cry - Peter Sculthorpe
So What - Miles Davis
In C - Terry Riley
Do I know anything about them? Not really.
Do I have heaps of information to regurgitate in the exam? You bet I do.
EDIT:
i'm doing mozart symphony no 40, earth cry - sculthorpe, erotomania - dream theatre & enta omri - oum kalthoum (a weird egyptian piece)
Woah, Woah, WOAH! You're doing Earth Cry too?
This is where we exchange notes. I'll start with contextual issues, you add anything that I don't have, and hopefully I'm adding to yours. :D
1.Sculthorpe was commissioned by the ABC in 1985 to compose an Australian piece, yet the deadline was too soon for him to be able to compose a piece. This is shown by him reworking a previously unfinished piece named "Song of Talitnama", which was based off an aboriginal melody from an aboriginal poem.
2. He was fascinated by the Australian landscape, this is reflected by the doubling of instruments playing the melody to present broadness and structured the piece in ternary form to give the feeling of going in a circle. He believes that when you travel in Australia, where you end up looks similar to where you started and as such feels as though travelling in a circle. The tonal nature of the song is also due to his love of the Australian land. In an interview Sculthorpe stated "we need to listen to the cry of the earth, because if we don't, then death." His music mirrors this as it is based around the notes D, Db and A. Where D is "death", Db is the "Earth" and A is "Australia".
3. Due to interests in non-western music, Sculthorpe was heavily influenced by Balinese Gamelan and Japanese Koto music. The Balinese Gamelan is prevalent in his horn figurations, while the Japanese Koto music through the cellos imitating the horns.
Section A uses a Japanese Hirajoshi scale (apparently)
And the Balinese Gamelan influence is also seen in his use of polyrhythms in the winds at figure 4
A lot of this is due to his belief in the importance of a connection between Australia and the rest of the Pacific
The Aboriginal influence of the chants of the Arrernte people can be heard through the repetitive rhythms, extending phrases etc etc of section B
Your point 2 is really awesome, never heard most of that before! Wow :D
Ummm.... Sculthorpe believed in the importance of the "true breath of our culture" and believed we are lacking a "true national identity." Blah blah blah he was trying to counteract the stereotyped view of Australia such as that promoted by figures such as Paul Hogan (there's just a bit of a weird context one)
For creative processes, say (I think!) how it affected how you composed. Say if it was "how did the restrictions placed by your teacher affect your creative processes in terms of structure/melody" you could say something like "our teacher instructed us to write in a Classical style, so I decided to use Sonata form" etc etc
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I know, it's freakin weird. If we get one tomorrow I will honestly stab myself with a pen.
I quite liked the piece itself, just so hard to analyseeee.
My teacher does that :P I did like 3 exams worth of excerpt yesterday, saw him this morning and he didn't mark them, so I don't think I'll get them in time for the exam...
Sounds like a plan! Chilling with class, then going for icecream, come back and chill before hitting the club to analyse some club music (of course lol)
How do you guys tackle Section C? I don't even fully understand what 'creative processes' means. Care to enlighten me? ::)
I just talk about how I use Sibelius... my teacher gave us the task of creating a 3 - 5 minute film score, so I usually refer to how I had the storyline of the movie and then trying to express that through the style and melody of music.
I think it's just your thought processes while creating the composition, well that's what I've been interpreting it as anyway... :-\
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Yeah that's what I do for any questions related to 'preservation of the work' and such
which sometimes they ask the creative processes in terms of that, sometimes other things
stuff about how sibelius you can use 'trial and error' and playback what you've composed to hear if it works
but how no live recording means some expressive elements cannot be notated accurately
utter bullcrap really hahaha
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hahah no I completely agree, but essentially yes. and the fact that I didn't have much/any real theory experience also assisted with the trial and error things. and also the software was really hard to get the hang of in the beginning, plus my computer crashed half way through which was fun!
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hahahahaha
yeah i was gonna talk about how in mine i had an illegal copy of sibelius but then it stopped working and coz i didn't wanna pay for it i can't save my scores which made for difficulties! but i figured i shouldn't write that :)
well good luck guys!
i'm going to look over some section B stuff now coz i keep forgetting important details which is a good start
freedom in about 16 hours wooooooo! doing well at this exam could get me high enough for music/arts at monash fingers crossed..so time to do some last minute revision :)
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hahaha nice work :P
you too! yeah I'm gonna go look over assessment reports etc to try and psych myself into feeling good about this exam lol. i'm so excited about finishing, in exactly 16 hours we will be totally freeeee
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Good Luck guys! Thanks heaps for clearing up the definition.
I now feel as prepared as I'd ever bother being for this subject. ^^
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No worries - good luck guys!
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how'd you all go?!?!
so glad there were no really weird unheards!
and i LOVED the first question of section B :D
usually i'm best at jazz pieces for unheard but i struggled with the structural/harmony question... i talked about the use of 12 bar blues, i think i said it was a cyclic structure but i'm pretty sure it wasn't and i made that up haha
and then just identified bits in each section... don't think my answer was very good =/
but section B and C was a breeze though!
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It's just repeated 12 bar blues and you discuss the variation of instruments as they perform with the call and response between them and the swing band.
I felt it was a very reasonable exam, I'm just so happy that there was no ambiguous questions :D Although.. I did run out of time and only got about 1 paragraph written on the last question :-[
However, I do not care, because WE'RE FINISHED :D :D :D
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i finished but oh my god i swear my arm still hurts =/ and i had 30 mins of rest breaks i could've used but the exam was so intense and full on i forgot about it!
yeah i'm so glad that it was fairly reasonable!! FFFFFINISHED!!!!
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WOO FINISHED :D
I think it was pretty good, I finished with about a minute to go, but the question that threw me was the Australian style one, apart from that pretty happy with it.
and YAY FOR NO WEIRD SECTION A!!
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I am doing it next year. Any advice? ???