Year 12 Music
In Year 12, students explore music through the focus areas of Musicology, Performance, Composition and Aural Skills.
Each student completes a mandatory performance as part of their major work. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the 2021 HSC class were not able to perform at a live event; however, there are some fabulous recordings below for you to get a glimpse of all of their hard work!
Finding performance opportunities that allow students from both courses to combine and develop their ensemble performance skills is always challenging. This year we decided to get ‘LOUD’ from the musical ‘Matilda’.
Performance
Music in Year 12 is split into two courses, each with different topics and skills. The 2021 Music cohort was a joint class with a mix of both Course 1 and 2 students.
Tom performing "Aeroplane" on the Electric Bass Guitar
Students in the Course 2 stream must study Music of the last twenty five years with an Australian focus and reflect upon 5 major works in order to produce both a composition and a practical performance for submission in the HSC. They can also choose an area of elective study from performance, composition or musicology. This course builds upon prior musical study and encourages sophistication in musical perception.
Students in the Course 1 stream can choose their own pattern of electives from the areas of performance, composition and musicology. They have over twenty contexts or topics to choose from in their HSC year.
Most of our 2021 students in this course have chosen performance electives reflecting the contexts of:
An Instrument and its Repertoire, 20th and 21st Century Music and Popular Music.
Zoe performing "Piece by Piece" written by Kelly Clarkson
Jimmy singing "Layla" by Eric Clapton with accompaniment on the guitar.
Darcy performing "Sing sing sing" on the Drum kit.
Nick performing " Pedoc Folksong Variations” by Kosak on the clarinet.
Composition
For their first assessment task, students in Course 1, studying ’An Instrument and Its Repertoire’, were required to compose a cover of any song of their choice, in any style, featuring the instrument they play, for a small ensemble of 3-6 performers. This was designed to reflect their understanding of topics studied in the Year 11 Preliminary Course (Music for Small Ensembles and Methods of Notating Music).
Two of these covers are featured below.
With his love of Jazz and saxophone as his instrument, this choice of piece and performance ensemble allowed Robbie to play to his strengths. It is always easier to compose for instruments when you know their capabilities and performance techniques and to write for ensembles where you understand the roles of the instruments and the style through your own personal experiences.
In Tom’s own words “I chose to cover ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ by The Beatles, as the song's musical composition shows great musical contrast in its harmonic and melodic content, and constant textural change. I started watching covers of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ to analyse different ideas and see how they could inspire my own cover of the song. I picked the genre of rock because I enjoy listening to it and know more about it overall.”
