Music 2 - General thoughts (2 Viewers)

[Hairey]

That exam was the biggest load of crap. Since when do they ask you to compare excerpts in Music 2?

And that melodic dictation.. it took me all 6 hearings to finally get it... and i have perfect pitch. Regarding the Horn, is there a Horn in E?

And wtf... all past papers I have practiced on have NEVER asked for additional topic in essay. WTF was that!? and the question was even worse. I had no idea what to talk about! Must have waffled on a lot.

BTW what were peoples answers for the Bar 21/Bar 22 chords from Score Attachment A

lol i was exactly the same with the melody dictation and ive played the piece! rofl my mate has played it on cello, apparantly he was writing it down before they played it lol

i think the only section i really stuffed up was the first. was the recording in the same key as the score? it sounded like Ab or something. being suzuki taght until year 7, i have perfect pitch and a decent ear but i cant read key signatures

I kinda stuffed up the essay as well. did anyone else make up musical examples? i knew the general idea of what i was referncing but not enough to actually write down the right notes so i guessed/made them up lol

the bar 21/22 were like root position Db and Eb i think? in context I think they were ii 5/3 and I 5/3 but thats just a massive guess.

I can't remember the actual quote for the essay question but it was by phillip glass and how he realised he could use rhythm as a structural device. we had to use one additional topic (ours was 1900-1945) and one mandatory. it was hard because rythm really is just one but of lots of different variables which can be changed to create new sections or structural development. also, alot of times, the new section will be alot the same or a drawn out version for example while still keeping certain motives such as a descending triplet pattern or something.

yeah just looked it up and found the quote:

[SIZE=-1]What came to me as a revelation was the use of rhythm in developing an overall structure in music. Philip Glass

and we had to comment on the statement[/SIZE]

 

[2hi2u]

lol
i hate melodic dictations... esp bass parts >_<
probably got a 2 in that T___T
a classmate of mine actually played that part for the melodic dictation with the syo or sumthing ...... lucky lol

otherwise... it was a fair exam...
my class had a bet with our music teacher... that they would throw in the additional topic for the essay...
and my music teacher won >_>
she lost this bet with her class last year... and boy was she suprised!
but check in the syllabus... technically they can ask us to write about up to 5 pieces from mandatory and additional topic
but it was about time... if it didnt happen this year, it would have happened next year....

 

[dancarter10]

I can't remember the actual quote for the essay question but it was by phillip glass and how he realised he could use rhythm as a structural device. we had to use one additional topic (ours was 1900-1945) and one mandatory. it was hard because rythm really is just one but of lots of different variables which can be changed to create new sections or structural development. also, alot of times, the new section will be alot the same or a drawn out version for example while still keeping certain motives such as a descending triplet pattern or something.

yeah just looked it up and found the quote:

[SIZE=-1]What came to me as a revelation was the use of rhythm in developing an overall structure in music. Philip Glass

and we had to comment on the statement[/SIZE]

we did not just have to 'comment' on it

The essay asked for the EXTENT that this was true in the works you have studied

so you COULD argue that it was NOT true IN THE WORKS YOU STUDIED, as long as you made the point that it COULD be true for other works.

 

[esyvila]

it was a pretty damn good exam overall.

horns did transpose to Eb.

and the shostakovich was AMAZINGLY lucky! had that baby written out before the first playing!

the essay quote was interesting but gave you TONS of stuff to discuss in relation to it.

the only problem was differentiating between damn additionals and electives and all that other crap. got it right in the end though thank goodness.

ok HOW can you think it was a good exam? It definetly wasn't the hardest, and if you knew ur stuff it was ok ... BUT IT WASN'T GOOD!

but i do agree with the essay question.
it wasn't all that bad when you thought about it...

well my class all hated the exam and i do think it wasnt as easy as it could've been, but with the essay question. I know my class got warned the WHOLE way through yr 11 & 12 that the additional topic might up in the essay, its jst none of us took any notice of that and skipped over it haha. Hindsight, it probably would've helped. But the rhythm, even though it hasn't changed that much in the past 25 yrs, you can back it up with other things that have such as expressive techniques, well i think so anyway haha i could b SO wrong.

but i don't think the essay question was toooo bad, i know i wont get 10/10 for it or anything, but it did give you lots to talk about i think.

As for the melody dictation, it was REALLY annoying, but wasn't it all just crochets and quavers? It just went a bit to fast to get all the notes perfect.

But who cares now. We've finished music for the HSC! It's over! YAY! Haha

Who else wants to do music next year?

 

[dancarter10]

me haha B.Mus here we come!

 

[champo14]

Bam, had my additional topic ready and raring to go.

And because the rest of the exam was so shit I started the essay extra early and went and filled up an extra writing booklet.

As for the first section: I can't transpose for crap. I put horn in F, also. And for some reason Trombone for the second instrument. Man I'm an idoit.

I blame English, I was so buggered after that exam.

 

[bethrealistic]

Yeah man those transposing instruments screwed me over, and I probably got 0 for melodic dictation. I'm a bass player and I even found the intervals extremely hard to hear. I found it a bit unfair that a lot of people seem to have played the piece.

I did the same with writing my essay early - they gave us too much time for the Kevin Rudd question; sooo many playings. But the examiners didn't have an extra writing booklet to give me; told me to just write on the back so I hope it all gets marked.

My teacher's also been saying for years that it's about time they asked for the additional topic, and our class was totally prepared. But I still wrote more about 25 years, because the new pieces proved the statement but the 1900-1945 ones we'd studied disproved it, so the musical examples I used from 25 years were more relevant.

(Also thank god English is over; they fucked us over with that essay question, it was too generic and now all the people with prepared essays will get better marks than me! Our school is always telling us to not prepare an essay, just to do practice ones. Rargh.)

 

[champo14]

Yeah man those transposing instruments screwed me over, and I probably got 0 for melodic dictation. I'm a bass player and I even found the intervals extremely hard to hear. I found it a bit unfair that a lot of people seem to have played the piece.

I did the same with writing my essay early - they gave us too much time for the Kevin Rudd question; sooo many playings. But the examiners didn't have an extra writing booklet to give me; told me to just write on the back so I hope it all gets marked.

My teacher's also been saying for years that it's about time they asked for the additional topic, and our class was totally prepared. But I still wrote more about 25 years, because the new pieces proved the statement but the 1900-1945 ones we'd studied disproved it, so the musical examples I used from 25 years were more relevant.

(Also thank god English is over; they fucked us over with that essay question, it was too generic and now all the people with prepared essays will get better marks than me! Our school is always telling us to not prepare an essay, just to do practice ones. Rargh.)

I agree. Did you get the "leads to unexpected encounters". What the hell?

Lucky it was a "to what extend" question, so I just said "none to a little bit"

Oh and the Shostakovich No. 5 Finale is like my favorite piece in the world, but I'd never listened to the second mvt.

Turns out it was on my iPod....

But I played it on the piano and I got it all right except for the Bb, instead I wrote B natural.

 

[hannah_ryan]

Does anybody have the correct answer for the melodic dictation?

 

[diannersaur]

I thought the exam was pretty great - did anyone else just use pieces from their own general knowledge, rather than ones they studied endlessly? luckily my additional topic was 1900-1945, so i used a piece by Debussy &, ironically, a Philip Glass one too. As if Kneeplay No. 2 didn't illustrate the statement perfectly... (cue 'one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four'.)

Melody dictation was insane. Were there lots of B flats in there? Damn serialist composers saying the piece was in Dm when clearly it modulated between Em & C major all of the times...

For the harmony question, did anyone get Db major root position & Ab major root position? Were there suspensions? Oh my.

It was pretty good though. I liked the question on '...It Gets Complicated...' involving what 'challenges' the performer would face.

Yip.

 

[champo14]

Does anybody have the correct answer for the melodic dictation?

e (rest) d | c d b | c e-f g | b e-f g | a-a a-a a-b | c-d e-f g-a | Bb a-Bb a-Bb | g g-a g-a | f g e | f d e | c g (rest) | Bb f (rest) | a e (rest) ||


That makes sense to me, at least, and I'm pretty sure thats right ( I have the recording)

 

[cortes88]

it was pretty straight forward. I was pretty lucky with the melodic dictation. I have played it before and Shosta 5 is my favourite symphony. I managed to write it out within the first playing of it and start working on the essay and getting all of my quotes in. i wasnt sure what to write exactley refering to Glass' statement. I think i managed to get away explaining that rythmic motiffs define sections in music thus giving it structure. i used the opening of Stanhope's Morning Star III and opening of Bach brandenburg 2 marking out the sections as ritornello form.

the transposing instruments section was kinda dodgy. i wasnt sure if they were asking what "transposing instruments" were scored or what key they've transposed to/from.
pretty solid overall though. quite stoked with the whole thing
hope everyone else enjoyed it

 

[ayumidoll]

Identify the instruments and its transposing keys? HAH, totally screwed that one up.

And melodic dictation. At least i got more than half right... =/ Get marks for contour, hopefully.

I'm the only person at my school who studies music at all, so I was in the room by myself, with 2 HSC examiners. They said they didn't like the "It gets complicated" piece. LOL!

The essay question regarding rhythm and structure moulded quite well with my mandatory piece, but I was TOTALLY unprepared for additional topic. Damnnnn... this paper was much harder than any other trial/past HSC paper that I practised. Was very depressed after this exam -__-"

 

[dancarter10]

Dictation:

 

[kazzaaaaa]

Dictation:

hey did you write this or is it the actual score?

 

[dancarter10]

I wrote it into Sibelius

I have actual score in my shelves if you want that scanned for some reason....

 

[stagma]

wow, i know i found it hard...it did indeed get complicated... i almost cried in the melodic dictation cos it was faster than my brain. philip glass can stick it too. what kind of stupid quote was that anyway. rhythm determines the overall structure of music or something. steve reich shits all over philip glass.
i think i said clarinet, bassoon, and french horn. and i think they asked for the additional topic in the 1999 exam...maybe. but it was a different course then.
i hated that exam.

 

[stagma]

me too...only one with two old women watching my every move. it was sad.

 

[crono26]

yeah twas clari in Bb, bassoon in C (or nothing) and Horn in Eb or somthing ( i put F)

ill get 4.5/5 for dictation.. just didnt bput a Bb after the quaver section

 

[quadrian]

oh man! I spent the first two plays of the melody dictation sharpening my pencil as i realised it was blunt, and couldn't start writing without it, and missed them pretty much completely! I did the six quavers a tone too high, and filled the remainder in at a guess!! Ahh, its 1.5 for me.... Bass clef?! why?
I think the essay was ok...

There were 12 of us in our class, so at least we outnumbered our examiners!

Does anyone know the composer of that 'Prelude' piece, which was just before 'It Gets Complicated'?