Music 2 Core Performance

[angewina_naguen]

Hey, fellow Music 2 students! I have two questions about the core performance for this subject that I would like thoughts on before I start rehearsing my core performance piece.

- Would the sophistication of my Australian piece chosen make a difference? I'm a vocalist and I have found a musical theatre number which is from an Australian musical. If the piece is not as musically complex as others that could be chosen by other HSC candidates, will that affect my results?

- How do we reflect Australian Music of the last 25 years in our performances? I know with the mandatory topic for Preliminary HSC it was to use the stylistic features of the period but I'm not too sure on how to present my piece because all the ones I've studied so far don't have contextual techniques or performance markings.

[alisoneom]

Hello! I'm glad that I've finally found someone else who does Music 2 on this forum  I wouldn't call myself an expert at this topic, but I'm answering to the best of my knowledge!

a) The repertoire matters in the sense that it must be good enough as a standalone to get you into the top band - i.e.) it's not a good idea to "rely on" other pieces in your repertoire to get the marks. You should be confident that every single piece, even when assessed individually, should be enough to get you a strong result. This is why it's important to choose "good repertoire" - which is something that demonstrates your technical ability and highlights your strengths - e.g.) if you have a strong high register, you would choose a song that is mostly in the higher register, or has climactic moments in the high register. Being "sophisticated" matters in a sense that you shouldn't be choosing something that is too easy, or else you are not showing enough of your skill for the examiners to know that you have a very strong technical ability - which may limit your chances of getting in the top band. Ultimately, it's about finding a balance between choosing something that is sophisticated enough, with something that you can realistically prepare within the next 7 months or so!

b) It's really hard to define "Music of the Last 25 Years (Australian focus)" and identify specific features, because it's so diverse in nature (which is the exact problem that I'm having with my comp). So what I would suggest is to exaggerate and highlight any extended techniques in your piece. An example might be a glissando (I'm not very good with vocal techniques, sorry) or a note that doesn't belong to the key signature - you would emphasise that. Again, it's hard because there's not much we can do about it and the topic is so diverse in nature.

Best of luck for the year ahead and hope this helped!

[alisoneom]

Hey, fellow Music 2 students! I have two questions about the core performance for this subject that I would like thoughts on before I start rehearsing my core performance piece.

- Would the sophistication of my Australian piece chosen make a difference? I'm a vocalist and I have found a musical theatre number which is from an Australian musical. If the piece is not as musically complex as others that could be chosen by other HSC candidates, will that affect my results?

- How do we reflect Australian Music of the last 25 years in our performances? I know with the mandatory topic for Preliminary HSC it was to use the stylistic features of the period but I'm not too sure on how to present my piece because all the ones I've studied so far don't have contextual techniques or performance markings.

Also in case you're thinking of changing your repertoire, notice how the core topic is officially known as "Music of the Last 25 Years (AUSTRALIAN FOCUS)" - which means that theoretically, your chosen piece for the core performance doesn't actually have to be Australian, it just has to be from the last 25 years. If you actually want to do this, check with your school teachers that this is okay, because I know that different schools have different opinions on this. If you're only doing the core performance (i.e. choosing composition or musicology for your elective) and you feel like your Australian piece isn't sufficient to demonstrate your skills, this might be an option worth choosing because you really need to make that one song count! Thanks for reading this really long post (in combination with the other one) and hope this helped

[angewina_naguen]

Also in case you're thinking of changing your repertoire, notice how the core topic is officially known as "Music of the Last 25 Years (AUSTRALIAN FOCUS)" - which means that theoretically, your chosen piece for the core performance doesn't actually have to be Australian, it just has to be from the last 25 years. If you actually want to do this, check with your school teachers that this is okay, because I know that different schools have different opinions on this. If you're only doing the core performance (i.e. choosing composition or musicology for your elective) and you feel like your Australian piece isn't sufficient to demonstrate your skills, this might be an option worth choosing because you really need to make that one song count! Thanks for reading this really long post (in combination with the other one) and hope this helped

Thank you for all of this advice! I'm going to take it on board when I rehearse the piece for the performance task I have this term. It was really insightful and I feel like I understand the core topic far better. Good luck with your composition and I hope things go well for the both of us with Music 2!