2 of my students who are both doing AQA music gcse are unhappy with their compositions for "special event" and want me to suggest a special event so they can do their compositions again. My mind is going blank - one of them was doing a funeral and has changed her mind and the other a wedding.

Can anybody come up with some better ideas????


Help!!!

Violinia

How about music for a school reunion?

Or else? A friend who is in a dance group is lkooking for some specific waltz music to say goodbye to theri retiring dance teacher?

I have loads more ideas, but they are in the vein of those above.....

QUOTE (Chimpyang @ Apr 16 2005, 02:39 PM)

How about music for a school reunion? Or else? A friend who is in a dance group is lkooking for some specific waltz music to say goodbye to theri retiring dance teacher? I have loads more ideas, but they are in the vein of those above.....

Thanks - suggestions appreciated. More very welcome...

Violinia

Would a friend's 18th birthday party be any good?

Maggie

Opening of new theater?

Christmas tree light's turning on (ok major event for this....but possible)?

Firework's display (like the fireworks music - but i reckon you'll have to score for orchestra for balance of sounds and tht's take waay too long....)

Anniversary of some event which the local coucil has decided to run a celebration for ie battle of britain or VE day....be creative with this as it can create lots of possible options?

Birthday; baptism; coronation; inauguration into any office (Pope, cardinal, archbishop, bishop[1], chancellor or vice-chancellor of university, Lord Mayor ...); any Saint's day or eve[2]; trooping the colour; Mayday; equinoxes; solstices; solar or lunar eclipse; earthquake; volcanic eruption; meteor strike.

[1] 4th movement of Schumann's "Rhenish" Symphony.

[2] Mussorgski's "Night on a bald mountain".

Yes!!! Thanks!!! They'll be very happy with these... I had one of them weeping to me on the phone today...

Violinia

seen as the topic is very vague could they not base it on an event that special to them that they might have some experience of....

maybee the opening of a school fair

xmas day

birthday

passing a music exam or collecting a trophy

birth of a younger sibling

playing a game and then winning it

starting a new school

this way they will have more ideas about composing sounds with how they and the people around them were feeling...
i certainly hadnt been to many funerals or seen many inaugurations when i was doing my GCSE's so i wouldnt have been able to capture those events so well.
Hope this helps...

i know how freaked i was before my GCSE music!

pinkoi
x

Are they in year 11 or year 10? Coz the deadline for AQA is not too far away, as in a week away I think. Could they not change the title, or are both so typical of a wedding/funeral?

School concerts

Football match

graduation day/leavers day

Last night of the proms

are some of the things that have come up a lot in our school.

Chinese New Year - pentatonic scale.

But should they really be redoing coursework at such a late stage?

when i did music GCSE i wrote a xmas carol for my special events saying it would be for use in a carol service or something - as it was then clear the piece was to be vocal, i just wrote something for our school choir and based my lyrics on a section of the bible. good luck to the students - i hope they get it sorted out!

how about the opening of a restaurant or other business?

(I'm sorry if that's a bit feeble - it's a bit like going fourth on "family fortunes")

Thanks very much for all your suggestions. Yes they're very late but they're both unhappy with what they've done (they're friends). They just want to get it right...

Violinia

Poor souls, how about "Recieving GCSE results" music... I think even me with my non-existant knowledge of composing could do a sound job of that, but then, it was a good day for me!

Or... music for "the first exam"... I'm sure they could adequetely capture the nervous tension, and turn it into something motivating!

Special event: How about "The Music Exam" - plenty of tremolando, scales and arpeggios with the occasional soaring melody of success and, of course, some answering phrases and two-parts, indicative of the aural tests?

Seriously, I do hope they get sorted in sufficient time. This is such a weight on young musical shoulders.

How about the opening of a music festival? There should be lots of scope there.

What about celebrating the completion of GCSE music composition or GCSEs in general?

As its a bit late to be starting something new could their existing compositions not be improved/extended?

QUOTE (noodle @ Apr 17 2005, 02:45 PM)

What about celebrating the completion of GCSE music composition or GCSEs in general?   As its a bit late to be starting something new could their existing compositions not be improved/extended?

Tell me about it. They've just got themselves in a state but I think they're getting themselves sorted out now without having to change things too much, and the emails are calming down a bit.

My son has been going through similar stuff - he's been quite angry about all the pressure (but phew, he's done all his composing now), plus the other pupil I mentioned the other day who broke down in tears all over me.

Quite honestly I really feel that all this composing is far too much for young minds to cope with. Most teenagers, however musically talented, just don't have the wherewithal to compose particularly complex pieces of music - they're just not ready, and there's a real danger here of putting them off composing for life.

When I did A-level music back in the 60's, doing Baroque 4-part harmony was as complicated as it got; oh, and memorising large tracts of the score of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra if I remember rightly, and being able to reproduce whole sections of it for the written exam. There wasn't any course-work for the exam at all, which meant less continual stress for the student, but far more stress on the actual exam days.

I'm going off to have some tea and cake with my friend and try and forget about music for a while - I've had enough for today and I needed a weekend!!!

Thanks again for all your suggestions - much appreciated.

Violinia

All I can remember about GCSE composition was that about this time in year 11, I was getting into school and doing it before the teachers got into school, and staying for about an hour after they left on some nights.

It's much easier in 6th form when you have frees! Then you don't sit there for hours after school!

QUOTE (Violinia @ Apr 17 2005, 02:49 PM)

I'm going off to have some tea and cake with my friend and try and forget about music for a while - I've had enough for today and I needed a weekend!!!

TEA and cake? I have discovered that coffee tastes better when I add a little scotch!

I know what you mean about A level music Violinia. When I did it I about 85% was 2 papers, a history/set works paper and a harmony paper. I had to harmonise a chorale too, continue a 2 part 16 bar thing and complete a string quartet - all under exam conditions. The other 15% was performance and aural - dictation in two parts, cadences, writing the lower part of 4 part harmony.

QUOTE (Violinia @ Apr 17 2005, 02:49 PM)

Quite honestly I really feel that all this composing is far too much for young minds to cope with. Most teenagers, however musically talented, just don't have the wherewithal to compose particularly complex pieces of music - they're just not ready, and there's a real danger here of putting them off composing for life.

You've got a point there-and it could apply to GCSE music as well-1 of my piano students recently had to decide on her GCSE options, and nearly didn't do music because she was so worried about the composition. Happily she's decided to go ahead now.

What about music for a special afternoon tea? or a tea dance?

QUOTE (noodle @ Apr 17 2005, 05:37 PM)

I know what you mean about A level music Violinia.  When I did it I about 85% was 2 papers, a history/set works paper and a harmony paper. I had to harmonise a chorale too, continue a 2 part 16 bar thing and complete a string quartet - all under exam conditions. The other 15% was performance and aural - dictation in two parts, cadences, writing the lower part of 4 part harmony.

Well either A-level music hasn't changed or we both did it before it changed, cos that sounds exactly how it was when I did it (1969). I wonder if they still have to write out 4-part harmony in their heads under exam conditions? Quite honestly it did wonders for my aural skills, and I've never forgotten the lessons learned - about consecutive fifths and octaves, bass lines going in opposite directions to melody lines, not doubling up the 3rd and minimum of movement with the middle parts. Four very simple things but the absolute foundations of conventional harmonising and I've used them all my life.

I wonder if what they're learning now is as useful in the long run as what we learnt? Or am I just being an old fuddy-duddy with all this talk about things being better in the old days? After all, pop music, blues and other non-classical genres weren't even touched back then and I remember thinking they should be. So perhaps in the end some things are worse and some are better; swings and roundabouts as is usually the way..

Violinia

PS The cake turned out to be lemon meringue pie and delicious it was too!

QUOTE (Violinia @ Apr 17 2005, 06:38 PM)

I wonder if they still have to write out 4-part harmony in their heads under exam conditions?

Nope, we did a basic harmony couple of lessons, but I don't understand any of it, and whatever I did always had consecutive fifths and octaves! I can't tell you any of the rules, and I just basically resorted to transposing the examples! (we never actually wrote or harmonised any melodies, just did exercises)

QUOTE (Violinia @ Apr 17 2005, 06:38 PM)

Well either A-level music hasn't changed or we both did it before it changed, cos that sounds exactly how it was when I did it (1969). I wonder if they still have to write out 4-part harmony in their heads under exam conditions? Quite honestly it did wonders for my aural skills, and I've never forgotten the lessons learned - about consecutive fifths and octaves, bass lines going in opposite directions to melody lines, not doubling up the 3rd and minimum of movement with the middle parts.

I did A level music 20 odd years later but the syllabus has changed greatly since then. I did O level music which is nothing like the GSCE exam at all. All the written exams I did were 3 hour papers with a very small percentage of marks for practical/aural etc.

Yes I remember the consecutive 5ths etc too. I don't think they have to do composition or 4 part chorales under exam conditions.

QUOTE (noodle @ Apr 17 2005, 08:41 PM)

I don't think they have to do composition or 4 part chorales under exam conditions.

I think that's a great loss, because it meant you had to be able to hear all the harmonies in your head otherwise you couldn't do it. Or I suppose you could work it out mathematically, which I remember one girl doing, and she did OK. Either way you had to thoroughly understand all the principles, and they really do stay with you for life.

What elmo says seems to confirm that the later A-level syllabus isn't as rigorous, harmony-wise, as it was back then. I think it's a shame.

Violinia

As far as I know, the Edexcel students have to harmonise a Bach chorale (at least they do at the college where I teach). They are allowed access to a keyboard during the exam, but they can only try out odd chords - they are not allowed to sit at the keyboard and work out the harmonies.

QUOTE

They are allowed access to a keyboard during the exam, but they can only try out odd chords

There you see - less demand on the inner ear. I rest my case.

Violinia

Something sad is always easier i think.

death - funeral

illness

QUOTE (Violinia @ Apr 17 2005, 08:47 PM)

What elmo says seems to confirm that the later A-level syllabus isn't as rigorous, harmony-wise, as it was back then. I think it's a shame.

I think so too.

I can't help thinking that if harmony and composition were done under exam conditions, students would be less stressed and pressured about having to do so much coursework.

if harmony and composition were done under exam conditions, id fail. no dount about it. i need lots of time

Nat, listen to me. You are NOT going to fail anything. I seem to remember reading somewhere that you got a high distinction in grade 5 theory. 15 marks of that were for composition which you did under exam conditions. Thats not going to be a problem for anyone this year because its too late to change the syllabus!

We had a discussion about this in music yesterday, and our teacher said that although he'd been taught to do 4 part and 2 part harmony for A-level, he got to uni, and the composition teacher said that he had to scrap everything he knew and get his own style. Whereas we have our own style coz we never learnt rules, so that's a sort of advantage. But I think if we'd had more aural work drilled in lower down the school, I wouldn't have as much trouble now!

QUOTE (elmo @ Apr 19 2005, 04:48 PM)

We had a discussion about this in music yesterday, and our teacher said that although he'd been taught to do 4 part and 2 part harmony for A-level, he got to uni, and the composition teacher said that he had to scrap everything he knew and get his own style. Whereas we have our own style coz we never learnt rules, so that's a sort of advantage. But I think if we'd had more aural work drilled in lower down the school, I wouldn't have as much trouble now!

What, so you mean consecutiv fifths and octaves were allowed all of a sudden? I guess they're fine in modern music - just not in Baroque.

However, I think you're better off in the long run learning the rules in the first place and then abandoning them, rather than never learning them. They give you a certain understanding and structure, in a "joining up the neural pathways" sense.

Could be wrong, though! Perhaps the most truly innovative and creative people of all just found their own way outside of all rules and structures; but again, you'll find that most successful artists went through a learning process first before finding their own voice.

A successful artist friend of mine tells me he had to unlearn everything he learned at art college, but would he have become so successful (and good) if he hadn't gone through all that in the first place?

In my own experience, I've had to unlearn a lot of my classical training in order to play jazz successfully, but would I be able to play at all if I hadn't had the classical training in the first place?

It's an interesting subject for debate, I wouldn't wonder. For me the jury's out.

Violinia