Level 8
Developing Practical Knowledge in Music (PK)
Students will use focused listening, practical activities, instruments, and technologies to manipulate, analyse, and describe musical structures and devices and to transcribe, transpose, notate, describe, and evaluate music from a wide range of styles and genres.
Developing Ideas in Music (DI)
Students will improvise music in performance settings.
Students will compose and arrange music for specific purposes in particular forms, styles, and genres.
Students will notate, edit, record, and direct original compositions and arrangements.
Communicating and Interpreting in Music (CI)
Students will prepare, rehearse, refine, present or direct, record, and evaluate individual and group performances of a selection of extended pieces in contrasting styles, including a programme of works selected for performance.
Students will use critical analysis to inform and evaluate a wide range of performances.
Understanding Music in Context (UC)
Students will investigate the purposes and significance of music in society and research a range of styles and genres of music in relation to past and present contexts.
Students will research the ways in which technology mediates between the composer or performer and the audience in contemporary contexts.
Learning Examples
- Select and set a text to original music, using advanced effects and performance techniques for expressive purposes (e.g., word painting, hocket, falsetto). Notate, present, record, and evaluate the composition. Maintain a comprehensive portfolio of such compositions, arrangements, and workings, including commentaries about their evolution, purposes, and structures. (PK, DI, CI)
- Compare a range of recordings of similar groups and identify and describe the different engineering approaches behind their particular sounds (e.g., miking and processing of drums, EQ and reverb on vocals, close miking and EQ on strings). Debate why particular production decisions were made and suggest alternatives. (UC, CI)
- Prepare and rehearse an extended piece for possible inclusion in a programme of performance works. Present and record the piece and evaluate the performance in relation to technical skills, fluency, style, and expression. Maintain a portfolio containing notes on and recordings of such performances, demonstrating knowledge of performance practices and conventions and the background and key features of the music. (CI, UC)
- Add vocal or instrumental lines to an existing work, arranging the piece for three or more parts and developing the ideas to form a cohesive work that is in style. Notate and perform the resulting composition and record and evaluate the outcome. (PK, DI, CI)
- From a range of media sources, study and compare past and present reviews of concert performances. Develop criteria for evaluating a specific, public music performance in relation to its setting and audience, and use these criteria to complete an in-depth review of that performance. (CI, UC)
- Critically analyse two or more scores (including New Zealand music) from different genres and eras and, in a presentation, describe in depth the influence of historical and social contexts on each work. Include discussion of the composer's (and, if appropriate, performers') intentions, the purposes of the music, the social customs and conventions of the time, and the use of structural devices. (UC, PK)
- View or listen to a performance, live or recorded, and critically evaluate it. Then analyse, compare, and account for differences found in a range of reviews, in different media, of the performance. (CI)
- Listen to and transcribe a two- or three-part piece, showing its tonality and harmony (using either Roman numerals or jazz terminology) and adding performance directions. (PK)
- Arrange a familiar song or tune for a vocal or instrumental chamber group, aiming for harmonic or contrapuntal interest. Rehearse and direct a performance of the arrangement, and seek feedback from classmates on its effectiveness. (DI, PK, CI)
- Investigate sound-reinforcement systems in a range of venues. Experiment with techniques and equipment identified during the investigation, and use them to enhance a school performance. (UC)
