Presenting Music

Presenting is a process inherent to music-making. Students present music that they have prepared in the roles of researcher, creator and performer. Just as there are many purposes for presenting music, there are many forms in which music is presented. Throughout the course, students should be offered multiple opportunities and approaches for sharing their work with others, including, but not limited to:

• communicating musical and artistic intentions with consideration to relevant and appropriate styles, conventions and practices

• interpreting diverse musical material to convey its meaning in a personal way

• expressing the intentions of diverse musical material to convey its meaning

• demonstrating technical skills and proficiency as students develop, improve and polish musical works

• informing others through coherent and concise written material using appropriate terminology and notation, including programme notes, analysed scores, research notes and commentaries.

Presenting as a researcher

As music researchers, students must consider how to effectively present their knowledge and understanding to others. Students will learn about different written and spoken forms of presentation in relation to their musical work. The aim is for students to learn how to present in a clear, succinct and purposeful manner, as the quality of written and spoken presentations are of fundamental importance to an audience understanding—or an examiner assessing—a piece of work. The use of accurate and appropriate musical terminology and effective use of notation according to musical conventions are critical for presenting musical research.

In music, common written or spoken presentations include:

• annotations

• commentaries

• essays or reports

• lecture presentations

• notations

• programme notes

• written analyses.

As a researcher, students must think critically about their choice of works for their final presentation. When choosing works, students must think carefully about:

• how musical works address the four areas of inquiry

• how creating and performing conventions are realized

• how musicality and technical proficiency can best be demonstrated through different forms of expression and varied interpretation.

Presenting as a creator

This course encourages and challenges students to imaginatively and resourcefully engage with diverse musical material, conventions of style and compositional techniques in their created works.

In presenting, students will prepare original works, which may include compositions and improvisations. Students may also work from a stimulus, for example, for improvisations or for theme and variations. Any quoted stimulus material should be logged in their music journals as it must be appropriately referenced and cited in the bibliography for assessment. Stimuli may include, but are not limited to:

• chord progressions

• motifs

• lyrics

• visual stimuli, for example, films or images

• programmed loops.

Whether by composing or improvising, students are encouraged to carefully consider the:

• idiomatic use of instruments

• conventions of style

• timbre, range and technical possibilities of instruments

• rhythmic, melodic and harmonic development

• appropriate notation or representation of music.

As part of “Presenting music”, students will learn to accurately notate or visually evidence their composed or improvised works. Where staff/stave notation is the conventional form of notation, music must be notated accordingly. However, the notation style for other contexts and conventions is not limited to staff/stave notation. In those instances, notation or visual evidence should be carefully chosen and developed in line with the conventions of, and appropriate to, the chosen style. Any notation or visual evidence should effectively communicate the intention of created works.

Presenting as a performer

As performers, students present music to an audience. Such performances demand self-discipline and focus on the part of students as they learn to improve their technical skills on an instrument. By honing their technical proficiency and musical skills, students are better prepared to convey the intention and purpose of a piece clearly, as well as to interpret musical material imaginatively. Similarly, the demands of an interpretation may drive the honing of particular technical skills.

When developing as performers, students should be given the opportunity to engage with solo and ensemble performance. Different skills are associated with successful performance as a soloist, performing with an accompaniment and performing as part of an ensemble. As part of the teaching and learning of this course, students should experience the challenges associated with each of these performing options and develop skills to master them successfully.

In presenting their work and thinking about the impact of the music on the listener, students should consider:

• performing as a soloist

• performing as part of an ensemble

• performing with an accompaniment

• interpretation

• expression

• technical proficiency.

As performers, students also learn to present their works effectively to an audience. It is strongly recommended that teachers create regular performance opportunities for students to practise before an audience. The size of an audience and the location or set-up of the performance are not as important as the intention to allow students the experience of performing for people. Another useful aspect of this approach is the opportunity to record practice sessions. Students can listen to the recordings and evaluate their performances or ask peers and teachers to offer feedback on how to improve.

During the course, students will learn to work with accompaniments, according to the musical conventions of the chosen works. For example, if a piece is composed for flute with piano accompaniment, then it is expected that the presentation will feature both the soloist and the accompanist. Backing tracks of accompaniments not conceived as such are strongly discouraged.

The contemporary music maker (HL only)

“The contemporary music maker” component culminates in a collaborative project that is inspired by real-life practices in contemporary music-making. The project brings together the roles and skills of researcher, creator and performer, as well as the processes of exploration, experimentation and presentation, through a real- life music-making situation within a contemporary setting. Developing, realising and sharing artistic intentions through practical music-making is at the heart of this project.

Students are encouraged to explore aspects that they may not have previously considered as part of the course. This component challenges students to investigate the potential opportunities, limitations and demands of being a musician in the 21st century. Projects may be studio projects or inspired by the music industry or by a global context. Students may, for example, explore unfamiliar performance venues, consider virtual spaces for music-making or collaborate with peers, such as dancers, film-makers or sound engineers.