Diploma exam query: I could loose marks...help! Options

[organistno1]

Hello

For the purposes of this, I will keep names and other little details to myself (you never know who reads these posts and I would hate this to be passed onto someone in authority).

Right, today I took a diploma exam; my LTCL in piano. All appeared fine. I played the pieces relatively well though the examiner had a big big issue with one work and I, baffled at his issue wish to query it. I therefore would like your help and advice.

For Trinity exams in diploma, the examiner has copies of all the music. Me, being stupid, and it not stating this on the website, just picked random editions without realising if they corresponded with the ones I was using.

Thankfully, all editions matched with the exception of a piece by Bach.

At the end of the exam, the examiner said to me, "were you using the same edition that I had been given"

I said, "no why?"

He then said that most of the notes I was playing did not match what he had on his score. however, he realised that I might have been using a different edition and that has gone on the mark sheet. However, he did rightly say that any other examiner may have classed the different notes as wrong notes and not a difference in edition and you would therefore lose marks.

I left the exam room only to realise that, in practice sessions I had played from both editions and had not noticed a big difference. Being ticked off that I might loose marks as a result of this I analysed both his and my score and, despite him stating that most of the notes in my edition were different in his edition, I could find no differences between the two. Both are taken from the original score.

Therefore, what does he mean? How can he say that I was playing different notes to the one on his score when my score is note for note exactly the same.

I thought that maybe it was my ornamentation. To make it sound really Baroque I ornamented it a lot and I don't just mean trills (you probably know what I mean!!).
To achieve this, I added notes to the score to create elaborate and authentic ornaments particularly whe repeating the movements (this is common baroque practice).

Maybe then, the examiner mistook my ornamentation for extra notes and thought..."he's just played some notes not on my score" not realising they were an ornament.

Surly a proficient musician should be able to tell the difference between added notes ornaments.

Anyway, because both scores are identical, and my playing was correct, the added notes in my ornaments seems to be the only reason why he would pick me up on playing notes not on his score.

What if I loose marks for over ornamenting?

Has this happened to you? What do you think? (apart from making sure you use the same edition!!). Should I message Trinity college if I am marked down?

Michael

[lorraineliyanage]

This does sound very odd - different editions shouldn't have different notes, so I can only think he meant the ornamentation. I went through three editions of Bach Partitas for my ATCL before I finally settled on a Henle version. There were slight differences in ornamentation with the Schirmer and AB editions, and phrasing was all over the place in Schirmer, loads of marks that weren't in the Urtext. I gave the copy of Henle to the examiner but it wasn't marked up with the ornamentation that I added in the second repeats when I added my own ornamentation to elaborate as I just understood this to be standard Baroque practice and no offence was taken to it.

I think it may be wise to take this up with Trinity right now so they can seek an answer from the examiner while it is fresh in his mind. It's about 6 weeks to wait for the results, so that is a long time to stress out about this issue. Part of me is thinking "Wait and see what mark you get" but I know that if I was in this position, I would be keen to sort it out as soon as possible before the marks are submitted into the system. Good luck with it!

[Seer_Green]

I think it may be wise to take this up with Trinity right now so they can seek an answer from the examiner while it is fresh in his mind. It's about 6 weeks to wait for the results, so that is a long time to stress out about this issue. Part of me is thinking "Wait and see what mark you get" but I know that if I was in this position, I would be keen to sort it out as soon as possible before the marks are submitted into the system. Good luck with it!

I agree - take it up with them now. If you are supposed to give the same edition to the examiner that you're using and you didn't do this, I suppose that they are right to question in, though I can't quite see the point the examiner's making in this instance. I would write a formal letter outlining your experience and see what happens.

[BitterSweet]

I would write a formal letter outlining your experience and see what happens.

Yes, and a formal letter on paper is the best way to do it since you can keep copies and get a postage receipt if you need to, and it always looks better than using email or telephone.

I hope you get the clarification you need.

[KixMusic]

I would write a formal letter outlining your experience and see what happens.

Yes, and a formal letter on paper is the best way to do it since you can keep copies and get a postage receipt if you need to, and it always looks better than using email or telephone.

I hope you get the clarification you need.

I agree that a formal letter on paper is often the best way to go but when I have telephoned Trinity they have always wanted Email letters as they deal with emails pretty much instantly but do admit to being slow on responding to written and telephone enquiries.

So I would probably email the letter (in letter format but not as an attachment) and post it and mark it as "copy of email letter sent x/y/2012" or something similiar

[dotted quaver]

I think it may be wise to take this up with Trinity right now so they can seek an answer from the examiner while it is fresh in his mind. It's about 6 weeks to wait for the results, so that is a long time to stress out about this issue. Part of me is thinking "Wait and see what mark you get" but I know that if I was in this position, I would be keen to sort it out as soon as possible before the marks are submitted into the system. Good luck with it!

I agree - take it up with them now. If you are supposed to give the same edition to the examiner that you're using and you didn't do this, I suppose that they are right to question in, though I can't quite see the point the examiner's making in this instance. I would write a formal letter outlining your experience and see what happens.

This is what I'd do. I'd also send a copy of both copies of the music to show that they were exactly the same.