Music 2 (2 Viewers)

[jessmooka]

Horrible, Horrible Exam. The hardest dictation I have ever done, and the essay question needed one material from Additional Topic??! WTF?
I am so pissed off. They only gave 1 minute for most responses, and only 5 playings of the dictation.
Holy Frig BoS, suicides will be high this year.

 

[atal.love]

i loved it.
i somehow (SOMEHOW) sailed through the melodic dictation & only missed one bar.
& i loved the essay question, so straightforward.
only problem was i didn't have any "musical examples."

 

[Njn]

the essay question needed one material from Additional Topic??! WTF?
.

If you look at past HSC questions, for the past two or three years or so, they have asked for additional topic... so no surprise there.

Otherwise, I thought the test was fairly straightforward... most of the parts were pretty alright, except for the melody dictation, had so much trouble trying to make out what the euphonium was playing. I would have much a higher pitched instrument haha.

 

[joshlama]

Horrible, Horrible Exam. The hardest dictation I have ever done,

Seen harder (Catholic Paper had a work in 4/2, and that was hard)

and the essay question needed one material from Additional Topic??! WTF?

They said ONE in each; they said it last year, and a few others. there was one exam (don't know when, and it might have been a trial) but they asked ONLY from the Additional Topic. Anyway, the essay was close to last years question.

I am so pissed off. They only gave 1 minute for most responses, and only 5 playings of the dictation.

That's normal. (they sometimes have 6 in dictation but they're cutting it back)

Holy Frig BoS, suicides will be high this year.

Might be, but I think it will be the year that the HSC pwns n00bs.

That being said, the first piece, "Oh Charming Harlequin" came off a series of CD's that are really good works...and they support Childrens Hospitals!
Hush : About Hush and it's from Volume 8!

 

[xxstef]

i thought the paper was quite okay!
when i heard the first playing of the melody dictation i couldnt'hear the euphonium part and panicked, but then i think igot it out in the end

essay was simple, perhaps a bit too simple..

i didnt like the agnus dei comparisons though.

 

[alex.leon]

I was the only person at my school doing the exam, so when I couldn't hear the euphonium I just got the supervisor lady to turn the speakers up really loud- ha!

I thought it was quite good. The essay question was fairly straightforward (can't believe people are surprised about drawing upon the Additional topic in the essay question) and all the questions asked for pretty simple things.

I hated the David Fanshawe setting for 'Agnus Dei'- not in terms of the exam, just generally. It was the strangest piece of music...with that ridiculous arabic quote at the end..weird.

Did anyone else realise the lack of chord analysis/key signature/identification type questions? Most of the questions were conceptually based- like talk about pitch, contrast, texture. Thought that was kinda strange too, if you look at it in relation to all the past papers.

I used two core and one additional for the essay. Reckon that'll be okay?

Also, wtf is 'comp.'?! I guessed that F Lyd was Lydian mode based in F, but comp?!? I think it must've been a jazz technique. I had no idea.

 

[boo92]

i wasnt sure either so i said play chords. compensate. i had not much idea at all.

dictation was ridiculous. the rest was pretty good. i would have liked some of the easy questions, you know, what instrument plays the melody and the accompaniment. or chord identification. nah, it was an ok exam but ive dun heaps better exams before.

 

[joshlama]

Also, wtf is 'comp.'?! I guessed that F Lyd was Lydian mode based in F, but comp?!? I think it must've been a jazz technique. I had no idea.

so that's what F Lid means!

I said 'comp.' was play the chords provided, but speaking to a person who is hevily in to jazz (got an encore nomination this yr) he said it mean acompany the melody (if you have the score also see 'C' Piano 1 says comp/fill?)

 

[RBKSoulja]

the test was pretty good, except for teh melody dictation....i got confused by the first familiarisation playing cos it was so fkn long...then they played the actual 11 bars...but still! the euphonium was clouded among the other instruments! couldnt get all the notes ><

yeah F Lyd is F Lydian mode and comp basically is accompany or improvise using the chords given on the score

Horrible, Horrible Exam. The hardest dictation I have ever done, and the essay question needed one material from Additional Topic??! WTF?

i did tell u that when u asked yday didnt I? that u need an additional topic. did u just end up writing about ur 3 mandatories??

all the pieces sounded nice tho, exam for the Fanshawne or wateva it was...nightmarish

anyway glad its over...3U 2moz!!!

 

[alex.leon]

so that's what F Lid means!

I said 'comp.' was play the chords provided, but speaking to a person who is hevily in to jazz (got an encore nomination this yr) he said it mean acompany the melody (if you have the score also see 'C' Piano 1 says comp/fill?)

Yeah I saw comp/fill which just confused me even more. I think in the end I was tossing up between compose and compress...sounds dumb doesn't it, but I really had no idea. I listened to the score and it just confused me...!

How many musical examples did people have for the essay question? I had 3, but the first one I got a bit carried away and wrote like 4 lines...waaaay unnecessary.

 

[joshlama]

Yeah I saw comp/fill which just confused me even more. I think in the end I was tossing up between compose and compress...sounds dumb doesn't it, but I really had no idea. I listened to the score and it just confused me...!

How many musical examples did people have for the essay question? I had 3, but the first one I got a bit carried away and wrote like 4 lines...waaaay unnecessary.

I did three excerpts from two pieces. And I'm proud that I spoke about both pieces, because I usualy don't have time to speak about both due to time.

 

[katieee1]

i could NOT for the life of me work out the melodic dictation. by far the hardest one ive ever seen in a paper... the changing metre and the fact that you COULDNT hear the euphonium definately threw me out.

questions before melodic dictation were fantastic. and the comparing was a bit of a bitch, and i didnt like that they asked for tone colour and texture for the concepts in the essay but it was ok.

i didnt write a conclusion for the essay though, ran out of time, reckon thatll matter much???

 

[jessmooka]

i did tell u that when u asked yday didnt I? that u need an additional topic. did u just end up writing about ur 3 mandatories??

Lol looking back at my post... slight over-reaction i think it was cos i was so drained... I did actually have an additional piece, an excerpt from Handel (Baroque)... I didnt like the dictation cos the stupid lady put the cd on the other end of the hall and wouldnt move it, so i couldnt really hear... grrr ah well, 3 unit tomorrow!

 

[xxstef]

comp means comping btw, which is a jazz technique when you fill in an accompaniment based on the chords they've given you.

 

[Justion]

I've never lost a mark in any melodic dictation I've done, but this one killed me.

Comping is when the piano plays accompanying chords of the marked chord symbol, but with their own rhythmic discretion as well as with voicings, so as to 'fill' around the person taking the solo.

I had 9 musical quotes from two pieces which I quoted throughout, so that was okay.

The fact that we had to listen to that extremely dissonant interval of a minor 7th in that Fanshawe piece literally a million times...I swear, the supervisors were going to slaughter themselves. Never again would they sit through a Music exam.

 

[xxstef]

I've never lost a mark in any melodic dictation I've done, but this one killed me.

Comping is when the piano plays accompanying chords of the marked chord symbol, but with their own rhythmic discretion as well as with voicings, so as to 'fill' around the person taking the solo.

I had 9 musical quotes from two pieces which I quoted throughout, so that was okay.

The fact that we had to listen to that extremely dissonant interval of a minor 7th in that Fanshawe piece literally a million times...I swear, the supervisors were going to slaughter themselves. Never again would they sit through a Music exam.

far out i actually wanted to tear my ears off by the millionth time we heard the end of the fanshawe extract. did she really have to sing so HIGh and so LOUD?

 

[alex.leon]

far out i actually wanted to tear my ears off by the millionth time we heard the end of the fanshawe extract. did she really have to sing so HIGh and so LOUD?

My supervisor started laughing the first time she heard it, then looked embarrased. Then just raised her eyebrows over and over.

 

[vantastic]

Anybody else not need the 5 x repeat?? and wtf melodic dictation!!!! Essay was pretty easy, got two core and an additional in, with five musical quotes and two scholarly quotes

 

[atal.love]

My supervisor started laughing the first time she heard it, then looked embarrased. Then just raised her eyebrows over and over.

3 people in our exam started laughing as well as the 2 supervisors.
if they set something like that it's bound to happen xD

 

[xxstef]

3 people in our exam started laughing as well as the 2 supervisors.
if they set something like that it's bound to happen xD

ahh beats us. we only have two students haha. and two supervisors.