Music 2 2017 HSC exam pack

Students should:

• select repertoire appropriate to their level of ability and not choose works that are beyond their technical and expressive capability
• match expressive skills and musicianship with appropriate technical skills
• present programs that demonstrate balance and communication between the accompaniment and/or ensemble
• explore and convey their musical understanding of the chosen genre
• ensure that tuning, combined with tonal and pitch control, are an integral part of the performance.

Students can prepare for this examination by:

• ensuring accompanists are familiar with, and have adequately rehearsed, the repertoire
• preparing performances that avoid repetitive interpretation
• ensuring performances and overall programs comply with the examination guidelines including time limits and original year composed.

In better responses, students were able to:

• demonstrate an ability to select and present repertoire that allows them to fully demonstrate their personal engagement and interpretation across the chosen style
• show familiarity in presenting their repertoire in the performance venue and with the chosen accompaniment
• convey and sustain stylistic understanding and expression
• present a repertoire that reflects the diversity offered by the mandatory topic
• perform with secure and consistent intonation, combined with sustained technical facility
• communicate effectively within the ensemble through rapport with accompanying musicians.

Sight singing

Students should:

• have a clear strategy and approach to use in the examination
• be aware of their own vocal range and be confident in singing aloud when practising for two minutes.

Students can prepare for this examination by:

• practising a range of tonalities (major and minor keys) and time signatures with varied intervallic distances
• developing rhythmic interpretation by having a pulse or beat while rehearsing
• deciding whether they wish to read the sight singing in the treble or bass clef
• considering the placement of sight singing within the examination order.

In better responses, students were able to:

• use the two minutes preparation effectively, for example to establish the tonality, to repeat bars or intervals which prove more challenging, and to ensure accurate pitch and rhythmic interpretation
• contextualise the key signature and tonality of the piece.

Core

Students should:

• consider transitions to create structural coherence when connecting different musical ideas
• explore harmonic variation, particularly when writing diatonic compositions.

In better responses, students were able to:

• display idiomatic writing for instruments and/or voices
• develop musical ideas to create interest and unity
• submit highly detailed scores
• adopt challenging and sophisticated styles.

Elective

Students should:

• strengthen transitions
• balance the repetition of musical ideas with further development.

In better responses, students were able to:

• display a strong stylistic understanding
• submit detailed and accurate scores
• clearly delineate and develop musical ideas
• take risks and use stylistic models as a point of departure for their own creative ideas.

Students should:

• reference accurately and include a substantial bibliography
• sustain a musicological focus and avoid an over reliance on historical information
• ensure that the quotes match the embedded files.

In better responses, students were able to:

• select interesting and original topics
• include clearly annotated scores and audio examples to illustrate key points in the body of the extended response
• explore musical concepts in depth and relate these with ease to the selected topic.

Question 1

In better responses, students were able to:

• name the instruments in the continuo and explain that they perform not only a harmonic bass line role, but could also imitate the main melodic idea (Q1 (a))
• make musical observations above and beyond labelling the chords. They also recognised that the continuo part is needed for harmonic recognition and included the bass note in the continuo when labelling chords (Q1 (b))
• list the bars where imitation occurs and recognise fragmentation, ornamentation and melodic development (Q1 (c)).

Question 2

In better responses, students were able to:

• interpret the score accurately and provide detailed score references.

Question 3

In better responses, students were able to:

• differentiate between tones and semitones and know the correct rhythm. They recognised patterns and repetitions correctly and completed both pitch and rhythm (Q3 (a))
• quote correct bar numbers, list instrumentation and provide detail. They linked the music to ‘tension’ and used correct terminology rather than descriptive words, for example, atonal, drone, syncopation, ostinato, cross rhythm and polyphony (Q 3 (b)).

Question 4

In better responses, students were able to:

• integrate musical quotes effectively and use correct terminology. In addition, they compared the two works successfully, referencing tone colour and duration in a detailed response.