Well I think I am finally there, 4000 words exactly. One final edit tomorrow before printing off the 3 copies.

I can't believe that I have actually made it to the end of this course.

Two new courses start this Saturday - A224 Inside Music and A215 Creative Writing.

I hope to do A224 next year so I'll be interested to hear how it goes for you!

Well done!! Does that mean you can relax a bit now?

Hmm I can stop stressing quite as badly but I don't know about relaxing, that will come next June, lol. Mind you I have a spa day next week to look forward to and Procorda the following week. Really looking forward to seeing you again.

Congratulations Eldatom! I finished mine yesterday and have been a weird mood. It is strange to not have any OU work pending. I shall print it tomorrow and post it on Tuesday. Sadly I didn't get mine to 4000 exactly (about 3850).

Last week I have about 5000 words but some harsh editing got that down to below 4000. I'm sure it will pass but I am not expecting super high marks for it.

Now I can get onto my other passion - Grease! I have all the songs for Act II to arrange and rehearse with the band, and we have about 9 weeks until performance. I really am glad to have AA317 out of the way

Looking forward to seeing you too And relaxing a bit - I'm not sure if I'll be able to with Musicstand playing in a competition

I haven't finished mine yet ! Don't expect great marks either!

Well done Nicki. I posted mine today, I dont expect mega marks either. Grease sounds fun.

Just started doing some free writing today for A215 but still have to face the challenge of Sibelius for A224.



Oh dear Chris, thats unfortunate. What day is the competition, will you getva chance to relax afterwards?

Neil, good luck with finishing yours too.

It's while we're at Pro Corda on the Friday - I won't be able to watch him, obviously, and I'll be really nervous. If he does well he'll play in a concert on the Saturday too.

I am sure he will do great Chris. If my daughter hasnt had her baby by then, we could bkth be a bag of nerves! She is due today.

Gosh - I hope it arrives soon

I really can't imagine you being a grandma, though!

I'm getting cross with my ECA now. The plan is (and always was) to hand it in to the Regional Centre tomorrow as I'm going to be near there anyway and it means that I can get a proper stamped thing from them and it goes through their post which is hopefully more reliable than the normal post...

It was all going fine until I started trying to write the musical examples I want to include. I'd expected this to be straightforward, but after a lot of playing around I eventually gave up with Musescore, downloaded the free trial version of Finale Notepad and worked out how to use that - only to discover that it wouldn't let me write what I wanted either. It seems that Messiaen's transgressions of time and rhythm are more than the software can cope with, and I'm now having to do it all by hand. I could have saved a lot of time if I'd just done it that way in the fist place, instead of trying to demonstrate that I could meet the 'appropriate use of ICT skills' part of the assessment criteria.

mine went off Monday, although it was 3900 I'm not convinced I have actually answered the question! not expecting a Distinction, a pass of any kind will be good.

Glad its over, that was a hard course.

Good luck everyone

Just finished ! Yes!!!!!!!!
Sending it tomorrow!

Excellent.

I handed mine in to the Regional Centre this morning. According to people on the course forum I shouldn't have used subheadings, but too late now. It does have and overall argument etc and the subheadings haven't become mini-essays, so I hope it will be okay.

There's a lot of stuff which I should really have talked about which I couldn't fit in - but had gone over the 4000 words although comfortably within 10% of that. There really wasn't anything else to chop. Not sure I've used enough of the course materials - only 8/41 references are to course materials.

What did people do for their ECAs? I've be wanting to know for ages, but knew we weren't supposed to discuss before they were handed in. I did option 2, looking at time, intertextuality and emotion in Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. I think I bit off more than I could chew with it.

Hi, I did option 2 as well and compared Mallarme's poem Afternoon of a Faun to Debussy's Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun. Hard as the poem was a translation

So pleased its over!! :-))

I did qu 3 not very well in my opinion! Didn't refer to the course material that much either! Not holding out for good marks!

That sounds interesting. I'd never known that the Prelude de l'apres-midi d'une faune was based on a poem - and I played it for my grade 7 flute so I probably should have known!

I had translation/language issues as well. Everything that Messiaen wrote is in French (including his explanations of all his techniques) and he presumably used a French translation of the Bible when he wrote the piece I was doing. I found English translations of some of the stuff and pieced these together with a couple of things that were only in French. The Preface from the Quartet wasn't accessible in English and included a detailed discussion of techniques he'd used in the piece - so I ended up looking at his main French thing about his musical language and English discussions of these in order to work out the gist of what he'd said in the score's Preface.


It's reasauring to know that I'm not the only person who had problems fitting in course materials. Hopefully you'll get a better mark than you think - I seem to remember you being unconvinced by your A215 revision/exam, and then getting a distinction for that module. Don't forget that a pass 2 (or 2:1) is actually a very good mark at honours level, and any sort of pass is very respectable.

But I am already a grandma Chris to the 12year old and 9 year old. This will be my first grandaughter though. She still hasnt arrived and I am hoping that she doesnt whilst I am away this weekend, or next week! Lol

Flossie I was told by my tutor that I could only use the course materials as a atarting point and it all had to be outside learning. I did question 4 and Indian classical, inuit throa and country style music. I did quote at least twice from the course materials and hoping that was fine as tutor didnt want me using them. I hope I kept to the question but I am sure I may have strayed a little. I used numerous outside sources and had a wordcount of exactly 4000. I am hoping that I get enough marks to keep me in grade. 55% will do as even if I was marked 100% my grade will not change.

Ha! i don't really care about tha mark. I didn't do TMA 6 as I ran out of time! The summer was too.... summery..... with my kids at home and husband in Africa! I had better things to do. So although I had pretty ok marks for the TMA's missing out 1 wasn't helpful! I'm not trying to get a degree- just doing this for fun really!
I was really sick of the ECA by the end and just wanted shot of it! I have enjoyed the philosophical nature of the course and the questions it raises (and indeed this morning was listening with interest about a play that's been written to accompany music - not a musical- on radio 4) but at the end, got bored of churning out essays!