Principles for designing an effective, post-compulsory music curriculum suitable for Western Australia

A new post-compulsory Music course known as the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) Music course was recently introduced into Year 11 and 12 in Western Australian (WA) schools. Following a convoluted process of creation, its implementation into classrooms has been problematic. Given criticism levelled at its process of creation and implementation, the researcher questions whether the WACE Music course embodies effective, recognised principles to support the effective teaching and learning of music. This study investigates the principles which should form the basis of an effective, post-compulsory music curriculum, suitable for WA. It involved a literature review which sought to produce a set of principles for teaching and learning frameworks based upon international best practice in music education, and applicable in the unique geographical, historical and multicultural WA context. In addition, the study employed a researcher–designed survey instrument to examine whether Western Australian music teachers perceived these principles to be evident in their practical experiences of the new WACE music course. With the subsequent publishing of a draft Australian National Arts Curriculum, it is an appropriate time to review the principles which should underpin an effective Music curriculum for senior secondary students in the WA context because, without a clear set of guiding principles that are understood by curriculum writers, there is a possibility that following courses could be fundamentally flawed and not serve the best interests of students

Non-Isochronous Meter: A Study of Cross cultural practice, analytic technique, and implications for jazz pedagogy

This dissertation examines the use of non-isochronous (NI) meters in jazz compositional and performative practices (meters as comprised of cycles of a prime number [e.g., 5, 7, 11] or uneven divisions of non-prime cycles [e.g., 9 divided as 2+2+2+3]). The explorative meter practices of jazz, while constituting a central role in the construction of its own identity, remains curiously absent from jazz scholarship. The conjunct research broadly examines NI meters and the various processes/strategies and systems utilized in historical and current jazz composition and performance practices. While a considerable amount of NI meter composers have advertantly drawn from the metric practices of non-Western music traditions, the potential for utilizing insights gleaned from contemporary music-theoretical discussions of meter have yet to fully emerge as a complimentary and/or organizational schemata within jazz pedagogy and discourse. This paper seeks to address this divide, but not before an accurate picture of historical meter practice is assessed, largely as a means for contextualizing developments within historical and contemporary practice and discourse. The dissertation presents a chronology of explorative meter developments in jazz, firstly, by tracing compositional output, and secondly, by establishing the relevant sources within conjunct periods of development i.e., scholarly works, relative academic developments, and tractable world music sources. Bridging the gap between world music meter sources and theoretical musicology (primarily, the underlying perceptual and cognitive model which represents a topology of the structural premises of meter) the research acts to direct and inform a compositional process which directly accounts for an isomorphic link between structurally similar meters

Volume 42, Number 09 (September 1924)

Schumann—The Master of Child Music: Why Schumann\u27s Muisc Has Had Such a Great Influence on the Education of the Young Small-Hands Pupil Making Practice Pleasant What Touch Shall I Use in Phrasing? A Much-Needed Discussion of an Everyday Musical Problem Helpful Hints on Practicing Velvet Tone Runaway Warhorses Turning Music Noiselessly What Effect is Jazz Likely to Have Upon the Music of the Future? (interview with Percy Grainger) Why Chopin Used a Metronome Sharps and Flats for Little Ones Sight-Reading Without a Teacher Will You Pay the Price Teach Coöperation by the Use of Two Pianos Carrots for a Donkey Where is Jazz Leading America? Part II of a Symposium Which Has Already Attracted National Attention Would Mozart Write Fox-Trots if He Lived To-day? Jazz Characterization Give Muscles a Thought Instrumental Music in Public Schools Quick Ways of Teaching Youngsters the Notes New and Practical Helps in Sight Reading Use of Improvisation Training That Awkward Thumb Necessity of Ear Training How to Organize a Boys\u27 High School Bandhttps://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/etude/1715/thumbnail.jp

The Trumpet Music of Eric Nathan

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the trumpet works of composer Eric Nathan in terms of their technical and notational elements. This analysis develops an understanding of the musical vocabulary and techniques that will provide insight into the structure, style, and performance of this repertoire and in doing so to discover a historical perspective of the trumpet’s role within solo and chamber music genres in the 21st century. Through this analysis, I suggest that Nathan\u27s music pushed the technical, and therefore expressive boundaries of the instrument. While not exhaustive, the analysis of Cantus, Four Sculptures, and Toying will provide a good representative sample of Nathan\u27s compositional approach towards music for trumpet. Developments in new music notation through the twentieth century will be examined along with a survey of how these developments are reflected in literature for the trumpet. Ultimately, this thesis considers how the convergence of notation and literature was key for the trumpet to secure a position as a solo instrument within the scope of western music practices. Nathan\u27s music is the lens to undertake this exploration

Constructing the authentic: approaching the ‘6 Tango-Etudes pour Flute Seula’ by Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992) for interpretation and performance

Since Astor Piazzolla’s death in 1992, his 6 Tango-Etudes pour flûte seule (1987) have quickly entered the flute oeuvre to become standard Western ‘classical’ concert repertoire, despite their association with tango as the core of their musical style. Though Piazzolla’s music has much musical appeal abroad, performative differences exist between ‘foreign’ and Argentinean musical interpretations of the tango – and by extension to the performance of this score – due to various misappropriations of both the notation and the cultural background, which have often been used to suggest an ‘authentic’ reading. As a way to bridge the gap between the two styles, the current tango performance literature largely focuses on didactic, imitative approaches to the genre, with only limited discussion of how various essential cultural references might pragmatically influence an interpretation of Piazzolla’s published repertoire. This thesis addresses ways in which the ‘authentic’ has been constructed in the tango genre in a variety of contexts both in Argentina and abroad, and how this understanding can suggest a new reading of the score of Piazzolla’s 6 Etudes. Current discussions from the field of (ethno)musicology as well as other disciplines within the social sciences are incorporated. The quantitative approaches used draw upon a wide range of performance analyses for understanding Piazzolla’s own performances, and those from tango and western players. The author’s field work in Buenos Aires and experience as a conservatoire-trained flautist is combined with various qualitative discourse analyses. Initial concepts of what constitutes a pure cultural setting of Piazzolla’s scores are challenged, and then expanded from current viewpoints to include various vital cultural practices inseparable from the notation. New approaches to the interpretational processes that are currently found to exist among western flautists when performing this work are pragmatically demonstrated so as to encourage fresh renditions of not only the 6 Etudes, but also Piazzolla’s other compositions from the same period

Valuing jazz: cross-cultural comparisons of the classical influence in jazz

‘Valuing Jazz: Cross-cultural Comparisons of the Classical Influence in Jazz’ re-examines the interaction of Western classical music and jazz, focussing particularly on developments in North America and Britain in the twentieth century. This dissertation acknowledges and builds on the existing connections that have been drawn between classical music and jazz—both those that underscore the musical differences between the two idioms in order to discredit the latter, and those that acknowledge similarities in order to claim cultural legitimacy for jazz. These existing studies almost universally use outdated evaluative criteria, and I seek to redress this by using contemporary classical-music practices and discourses as my point of reference. By adopting a range of methodologies to investigate both intra- and extra-musical trends, this dissertation offers a thorough and balanced exploration of the topic. Each chosen avenue for exploration is explained with reference to parallel developments in North America, in order to provide a context within accepted jazz history and to highlight the different ways in which jazz developed in Britain. The phenomena under consideration include the emergence of a school of jazz criticism and scholarship that adopted systems of analysis and evaluation from established studies of classical music (Ch. 1); physical characteristics of jazz performance venues and the changing styles of audience reception within (Ch. 2); the adoption by jazz composers of ideologies and musical features from classical repertoire (Ch. 3); and the development of educational establishments and pedagogical systems that mirrored those already present in the classical-music world (Ch. 4). Although by no means exhaustive, these chapter topics provide a range of jazz narratives that provide a clear picture of the degree to which the development of jazz in America and Britain has been conditioned by the practices and characteristics of classical music

Valuing jazz: cross-cultural comparisons of the classical influence in jazz

‘Valuing Jazz: Cross-cultural Comparisons of the Classical Influence in Jazz’ re-examines the interaction of Western classical music and jazz, focussing particularly on developments in North America and Britain in the twentieth century. This dissertation acknowledges and builds on the existing connections that have been drawn between classical music and jazz—both those that underscore the musical differences between the two idioms in order to discredit the latter, and those that acknowledge similarities in order to claim cultural legitimacy for jazz. These existing studies almost universally use outdated evaluative criteria, and I seek to redress this by using contemporary classical-music practices and discourses as my point of reference. By adopting a range of methodologies to investigate both intra- and extra-musical trends, this dissertation offers a thorough and balanced exploration of the topic. Each chosen avenue for exploration is explained with reference to parallel developments in North America, in order to provide a context within accepted jazz history and to highlight the different ways in which jazz developed in Britain. The phenomena under consideration include the emergence of a school of jazz criticism and scholarship that adopted systems of analysis and evaluation from established studies of classical music (Ch. 1); physical characteristics of jazz performance venues and the changing styles of audience reception within (Ch. 2); the adoption by jazz composers of ideologies and musical features from classical repertoire (Ch. 3); and the development of educational establishments and pedagogical systems that mirrored those already present in the classical-music world (Ch. 4). Although by no means exhaustive, these chapter topics provide a range of jazz narratives that provide a clear picture of the degree to which the development of jazz in America and Britain has been conditioned by the practices and characteristics of classical music