Anybody doing Extension Music (musicology especially)?? (1 Viewer)

[sheep90]

If anybody else here is doing music extension I need your help!

I can't think of a topic that I want to do, has good information and I think I'll be able to adequately research and do well in.

At the moment I am thinking of doing folk music and its influence in music of different cultures (or different musical periods - not sure yet)

but I'm not sure if there is enough information in this topic

do you have any ideas in what markers like topic wise? or any ideas on general topics because there is just so much (literally everything) to choose from!

 

[gee-dee-enn95]

I did Extension Musicology for a term, but I did the Musicology Elective for 2 unit so I can help you out a little bit if it's not too late...

There aren't really any specific topics that will automatically get you into the top band. Ultimately, it shouldn't matter what your topic is. What should matter is that you've done it well. Have a look at the BOS Standards Packages for Music Extension (google it), they have past examples of musicology essays from each of the performance bands so you can get a rough idea of what people do.

Folk music and its influence in music of different cultures is a very open-ended topic so you'd need to narrow it down to a specific type of folk music, and a specific culture (or cultures). I happen to know for a fact that folk music had a heavy influence on a lot of the Romantic and early 20th century composers, such as Bartok and Chopin (although there is some debate as to whether there is a direct connection or not).

Think about what kind of music you're interested in, and what you like playing on your instrument. If you're really stuck, try linking it to your additional topic in some way. Ask your teacher if they have any past essays stored away for you to look through. Or, you could do a really in-depth investigation of a work that you really enjoy listening to, or are really fascinated by (multi-movement works are good to do, they give you a lot to talk about).

Anyway, good luck! I hope it all works out and I'm sure you'll do brilliantly!

 

[Lina3]

I did Musicology Extension HSC Choosing a topic was difficult for me also, but once I did it was great fun and I hope you enjoy it also. gee-dee-enn95 has already given you great advice, it's all about what you are interested in. However, the things I will add is that the markers are looking for in-depth analysis on your chosen work/works so you need to pick a topic that enables you to do that. The folk music focus that you wish to adopt is a great idea since it enables you to compare/contrast the use of the six concepts with appropriate references to parts of your piece, preferably through score extracts. Also, whatever your topic, you need to develop a thesis (ie a statement) that you can argue throughout your essay. I think those two aspects: your thesis and how well you prove it, are more what will determine your marks rather than any specific topic. Feel free to ask on here or via PM if you have any more questions. Its nice to see someone else doing musicology elective. There are about 400-600 people in the state that do extension music for the HSC each year, considering most do performance there are not many of us 'musicologists' out there

 

[AnastasiaH1991]

Hey! I really like the idea of folk music and it's influence in different periods. That way you could contrast the different eras and look at how they incorporated elements of the folk music while still remaining true to the stylistic characteristics of that period. It would really ice if you could find one or two folk melodies that have been used in different periods and track their progression throughout time. I think looking into different cultures may be a little more difficult to build a solid argument, especially since some folk melodies that composers use already have specific cultural origins...
Let me know what you end up going with!