Extension Music-MUSICOLOGY (1 Viewer)

[demosthenes]

Hey. I was just interested to see who was doing musicology as an extension elective---I am going to do it, but my teacher knows jack about it....he is just used to performance based extension electives. So I was wondering if you have any info or even past musicology essays i can see.
Cheers!

 

[nemuca]

I'm doing musicology both for my 2u elective and for extension...
I've already decided on the topic for 2u, but still thinking which one to choose for extension.

What I think is, in extension the teacher wouldn't be of much help, coz you gotta do all the research youself anyway
You should try to read more musicology/music history books yourself

Try to ask your teacher whether anyone's done musicology in extension in the past years, the school should have the portfolios and the essays kept somewhere...

 

[ujuphleg]

I did Extension Musicology this year.

The hardest thing about it is trying to come up with an original topic.

I would suggest that you check out the musicology exemplars in the Standards Package:

2001: http://www.boredofstudies.org/mirror/Standards/2001/MUSIC/EXT/index.pdf

There is a really good one from 2002, but as far as I know there isn't a copy on the internet.... I'll see what I can dig up.

I'll also do a write up when I can about Musicology essays in general... STILL waiting on subforums... this will make this place much cleaner.

 

[Phanatical]

There are so many possible areas which you could explore. I just finished a paper on Chinese Music and its influence on and of Confucian doctrine through the Qin/Han Periods. In first year we did an essay on Hindson's quote that "Popular Music is the Folk Music of our times". Maybe you could do an essay on the stylistic differences of Beethoven's Late period in contast with his Early and Heroic periods. An exploration of equal temperment in non-western music?

 

[I\'m Curly]

Hey. I did Musicology for Ext Music and just found out that it's gonna be in the Encore programme as the Exemplary work for 2004, so I'd be happy to help later on when you are on your way. Just choose something that interests you, otherwise it will be an awful essay.

 

[ujuphleg]

Wow! Congratulations Order!

Job very well done.

 

[I\'m Curly]

Cheers

 

[demosthenes]

Thanks a heap for your replies!
I am thinking i want to do something on Australian jazz, and how it has developed a range of unique musical qualities....i think it would be good because i am really into the jazz scene in Australia, and I have connections that i can interview some big names through....
What i need to know now is do you have to make a specific question or can you just explore "the development of jazz music in Australia???"
Cheers!

 

[ujuphleg]

"The Development of Jazz Music in Australia" is:

a) far too broad a topic
b) quite overdone.

However, don't lose hope yet.

What I suggest you do is start some background reading. Look at some books, history but in particular, get heaps of music to listen to and SCORES.

Some things you may want to then consider:

Do the scores have things in common?
Do they have things which are different?
Why are they different? - modal harmonies, differing time signatures etc.
How is Australian Jazz different to "normal" jazz?
What are its defining musical characteristics?


etc. etc. You'll need to narrow down your topic much much more before you can start writing. I would use this holidays to do all your background research etc.

So, I hear you ask, where do I get scores from? The Australian Music Centre is a great place to go, not only for the scores, but for books, articles, journals and recordings. Information is in that link to the other thread, but they also have a website: http://www.amcoz.com.au

Thats about all I can help you with for now. Come back with more specific questions should they arise

 

[I\'m Curly]

Hi again. I found out that I got 50/50 for Music Ext, so I reckon I can help with ur essay. The jazz thing sounds good, but yeah, it's too broad. The fact that you're doing Australian jazz is really important, because, realistically, the only essays that do well are about Australian music, which is why I did contemporary Australian opera instead of European. There are a few REALLY important things - your Portfolio is SO important and you should try and get 50 for your internal assessment. It's so easy - just get the criteria and make it really obvious that a section of your folder (or I had 3 folders - research, analysis/correspondance and drafts) links to a dot point. The same with the actual essay - the most important thing is to have a hypothesis that's simplse, interesting and east to keep refering to ALL the time. You have to be good enough to say what your cnoclusions are going to be right at the beginning, without making it obvious to the marky markers. Also, score extracts are MOST IMPORTANT. The reason my essay was 35 pages was because I had a million musical quotations - I still made the word limit, 3400 I think, but I can't remember. Write all over the quotations by hand (it's not included in the wordcount). Highlight phrases and things that you refer to in various colours. Draw lines and whatever you need to get the point across. Finally, get as many people to check it as you can. Get every teacher in the world! English, History, and Music teachers. You'll find they have heaps of things to change, and once you stop being protective and just trust that they know how to rework it to play the game, you start realising how to do it as well. Just remember - it's not for you, it's for the Board. Play their game to win. If you wanna research and write a unique essay that doesn't meet the criteria, do it in your own time, just don't submit it. Hope this helps. P.s. If you get it out of the way really early, it's a whole unit done, so you can spend your time studying for subjects that actually have exams. I was so worried about how much time went into Musicology, but it was all worth it. Good luck.

 

[demosthenes]

Thanks for that reply, order! It was really helpful!
I think that your idea about focusing on Australian music allows an effective essay to be synthesised is very important, not only because it allows more first hand investigation (interviews etc) but also because it is close to the heart, i suppose.
The other idea I had apart from Australian jazz is to explore how the music of Jazz bassist Charles Mingus was a reflection of his manic depressive personality. I thought it might be interesting to track (chronologically) how his music paralleled his descent into manic depression....would this allow me to create a good essay or should I stick to Australia?

Also would it be possible for any musicology extention people to give me some sheets or information which your teacher might have given you, or even assessment notifications...it is very hard to do this while my teacher focuses upon all the performance people!
Cheers again!

 

[Phanatical]

Make sure you read lots of sources, and quote them appropriately. It's important not to make unqualified statements, so make sure your footnotes are good.

- the best place to go for sources is the Conservatorium Library (use http://www.library.usyd.edu.au to search the Con library).

 

[demosthenes]

I am doing the mingus idea (2 posts above.) I have made a start, at least......
Anyone else out there doing musicology?