Subject: Music 6085
Curriculum Outline
Perception (Western music)
Term/
Topic
Objectives
Week
Students will be able to:
Term 1
Musical numbers • Identify the essential musical characteristics of
Weeks 1-4 of the opera
the musical numbers of the opera, namely:
seria, buffa and
o overture,
Singspiel (late
o aria,
Baroque –
o recitative (secco and accompanied),
Classical)
o ensemble,
o chorus
• Identify the common forms employed in the
respective musical numbers
• Account for the variety of opera genres (seria,
buffa and the Singspiel)
Weeks 5-7 English Art Song
• Identify text-setting and word painting
in Britain (1880 –
strategies used
1945) for solo
• Trace the structural processes that shape the
voice and
musical discourse
accompaniment
• Identify the differences between the 20thcentury writing style of authentic English art
songs and folksong-based English art songs
• Identify the differences between the music
writing style of the German Romantic Lied
composers and the 20th-century English Art
Song composers
Week 8
Weeks 910
Common Test
Broadway
Musical Theatre
(1940 – 1960)
•
•
Academic Year: 2014
Compare the opera with the musical theatre
w.r.t. aesthetic focus, linguistic features,
musical features and social function
Identify the cultural referents incorporated into
the music to increase the authenticity of the
setting e.g. references to yodeling (The Lonely
Goatherd), food (My Favorite Things), the
Level: Secondary 4
Assignments /
Assessments
Handel’s Agrippina (Opera seria); Mozart’s Le nozze
di Figaro, K. 492 (Opera buffa); Die Zauberflöte K.
620 (Singspiel)
Resources
Sadie’s New
Grove
Dictionary
of Music
and
Musicians
Music
scores
Articles and
other
publications
related to
the course
content
Finzi’s Channel Firing (1940)
Vaughan William’s On Wenlock Edge (1909)
Britten’s arr. of O Waly, Waly (1947) vs. Sharp’s
transcr. of the same
Teacher’s
resources
Vaughan Williams’ Linden Lea (1901)
H/W: Listening to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01gg7dm
Musical numbers from Rodger’s and
Hammerstein’s Broadway Show The Sound of Music
(1959)
H/W: watching “The story of the Musicals” (9-part
series on youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBjntZmrxg0
Page 1
Subject: Music 6085
Curriculum Outline
ländler (Laendler), and the use of ‘vernacular’
language in lyrics (So Long, Farewell)
Term 2
Weeks 1-2
Weeks 3-5
Week 6
Weeks 710
Term 3
Weeks 1-2
Weeks 3-4
Weeks 5-8
Week 7
Level: Secondary 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fjC0iMMtqE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyXOhV4dIxQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5pD3iO7H_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzQs27B9jkI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVms-Um-SPY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlU6eyaM4Lk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wy7CmBXJ8k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2Nxn7H5YqM
Revision:
Romantic Lieder vs. early 20th-century English art songs
Revision:
Development of solo keyboard music writing (Baroque to Impressionist)
Revision:
Classical Trios and Quartets
Mid-year Examinations
Revision:
Development of the symphonic style (Classical to Romantic)
Revision:
Development of the concerto style (Baroque to mid-20th-century)
General revision
Prelims and O-levels
Academic Year: 2014
Page 2
Subject: Music 6085
Curriculum Outline
Prescribed source materials – Jiangnan Sizhu
Term/
Topic
Objectives
Week
Students should be able to:
Jiangnan Sizhu
Term 1
Geographical location and historical origins
• State which geographical region Sizhu music is derived
a) Geographical
Weeks 1 - 4
• Have an understanding of the history of Sizhu music
location and
historical origins
Notation and mode
• Apply moveable ‘doh’ systems in score reading
b) Notation and
• Demonstrate proficiency when reading cipher notation for single and
mode
multiple instruments
• Compare the anhemitonic pentatonic system to the Western diatonic
scale system
Weeks 5 - 7
Instruments
Week 8
Weeks 9 -10
CT
Heterophony
Academic Year: 2014
Instruments
• Identify the common instruments used (dizi, xiao, sheng, erhu, pipa,
sanxian, qinqin, yangqin, bangzi, ban), their physical properties,
method of sound production and instrumental effect
• Classify the instruments according to their materials . “Si” (silk) –
bowed, plucked and struck strings and “Zhu” (Bamboo)– Bamboo
flutes and mouth organ
• Explain the seating arrangement of Sizhu musicians with regards to the
roles played by the instruments
• Make comparisons between the recorded extract and transcription
Heterophony
• Recognize the skeletal/stock melody (Qupai)
• Describe the semi-improvised ornamentation of the skeletal melody
(Jiahua) and discuss how tempo creates different variants of Jiahua
• Explain the concept of heterophony with respect to the melodic
relationship and hierarchy amongst instruments (erhu and dizi take
more prominence than other instruments)
• Explain heterophony and part-playing and differentiate between
Level: Secondary 4
Assignments /
Assessments
Worksheets #1, #2
Resources
Transcription /Aural
dictation of a Sizhu melody
to cipher notation
Frederick Lau
Music in
China:
Experiencing
Music,
Expressing
Culture, pp
79–82 and
track 31
(Global
Music series)
Samuel
Wong
Shengmiao,
An
Instrumental
Guide to the
Chinese
Orchestra
Worksheets #3 - #5
CT
Short composition and
performance of a stock
melody with jiahua for 3
instruments (use of
heterophony)
Notes [tr]
Notes from
Samuel
Wong’s
workshop on
Jiangnan
Sizhu
MOE
Resource
package
Page 3
Subject: Music 6085
Term 2
Weeks 1-6
Weeks 7 -8
Weeks 9 -10
Term 3
Weeks 1- 8
Weeks 9 - 10
Term 4
Weeks 1-2
Repertoire
Mid-year
examination
Nature and
performance
context of Sizhu
music
Curriculum Outline
them
• Contrast the concept of heterophony to polyphonic stratification
(gamelan music)
Repertoire (with a focus on Zhonghua Liuban)
• Be aware of the standard Jiangnan Sizhu repertoire (eight great
famous pieces)
• Describe the origins and musical characteristics of Zhonghua Liuban
• Define and identify the Lao Liuban / Baban (a tune or verse which
forms the nucleus of the whole repertory of Zhonghua liuban) in a
recording
• Describe the differences in tempo (Banyan) between the Lao Liuban
(1/4), Zhonghua Liuban (4/4) and Man Liuban (8/4)
• Be aware of the sequence of presentation of pieces (from slow to fast
tempi)
• Compare different recordings and scores of Zhonghua Liuban
Nature and performance context of Sizhu music
• Describe the nature, musical practices and performance context of
Sizhu music
• Make comparisons between the ensemble making styles of Sizhu
musicians and Javanese musicians (aural tradition, prominent
instruments take the role of the conductor, focus on coordination and
mutual understanding, musicians can play multiple instruments)
• Discuss similarities and differences between the performance practice
of Chinese and Western ensembles and musicians
• Revision
Preliminary
examinations
Revision and consultation
Academic Year: 2014
Level: Secondary 4
Worksheets #6 - #8
Jonathan
Stock, World
Sound
Matters
Terry E.
Miller and
Andrew
Shahriari,
World Music,
A Global
Journey
Mid-year examination
Worksheets #9 - #10
Specimen Paper
Stephen
Jones, Folk
Music of
China
Jeff Todd
Titon (ed),
Worlds of
Music
Preliminary examinations
Page 4
Subject: Music 6085
Music Writing
Term/
Topic
Week
Word setting
Term 1
Part 3
Weeks 1-4
Local poems
Weeks 5-7
CA1
Week 8
(Common
Test week)
Weeks 9-10
Recording
techniques
Term 2
Weeks 1-3
Word setting
Part 3 (con’t)
Local poems
Curriculum Outline
Level: Secondary 4
Objectives
Students should be able to:
• Display an ability to set longer text with irregular stanzas to music
• Compose and develop different types of piano accompaniment
according to the mood and meaning of the poem
• For repeated words, vary or extend musical motifs via devices
Assignments /
Assessments
Contemplative poems
a) Sky painting
(Specimen paper 2007 O)
b) Satin Flowers (2007 O)
c) The habit of leaves
(2008 O)
d) Dandelions (2009 O)
e) Accident (2011 O)
f) My mother (2012 O)
• Complete the coursework in 4 hours, and display an ability to
consolidate the knowledge gained so far
• Perform own/other’s CA1 coursework and demonstrate ability to
record music (using a sound recorder, iphone etc.) and burn to CD
(to be done as homework)
• Place the appropriate stresses on local poems which can be
translations from other languages and can contain localized phrases
or words
• Display an ability to set longer text with irregular stanzas to music
• Compose and develop different types of piano accompaniment
according to the mood and meaning of the poem
• For repeated words, vary or extend musical motifs via devices
CA1
Resources
O level
examination
papers
Localised poems
a) A Malaysian comes to
Singapore, Irian Way
(Prelim 2009)
b) Twenty not four
(2009 O)
c) To my beloved military
hat (2012 O)
Humourous poems
a) 13 Ways of Looking at a
Durian, Chris Mooney
Singh
b) The Grammar of a
Dinner, Arthur Yap
Academic Year: 2014
Page 5
Subject: Music 6085
Mid-year
Weeks 4-7
examination
(School midyear
examinations:
Weeks 7 -8)
Curriculum Outline
• Complete the coursework in 4 hours, and display an ability to
consolidate the knowledge gained so far
Level: Secondary 4
Mid-year examination
Weeks 9-10
Revision and consultation
Term 3
Weeks 1-3
Preliminary
examination
Preliminary examination
Weeks 4-7
O level Word
setting
coursework
O level Word setting
coursework
Academic Year: 2014
Page 6