The School of Music -- Conservatorium offers the following specialised programs:
The school
has an extensive collection of musical instruments and ensembles includes an
early music collection comprising a complete consort of Renaissance shawms,
crumhorns, recorders and various keyboard instruments, a complete Javanese
gamelan orchestra, Sudanese bamboo calung and angklung ensembles,
a Ghanaian African drum ensemble, a Chinese orchestra, a piphat/mahori
orchestra from Thailand, a large collection of Indian instruments, and a set of
Japanese instruments. It also contains an extensive music archive, including
the Sumatra research archive, Japanese music archive, the Australian music
collection, the Australian Archive of Jewish Music, and the Louise Lightfoot
Collection of Dance in South Asia.
The school fosters the cultivation of music on campus and presents many
concerts, lecture-recitals and other performances which music students are
expected to attend.
First-year students who are able to play an instrument or sing competently and read music fluently or who have completed the bridging course should enrol in the core sequence MUS1100 and MUS1110.
Students
with a strong musical aptitude undertaking this specialisation are expected to
acquire an assured performance technique and an awareness of history of
performance style. Students in the first-year develop their chief practical
study skills as well as interactive musical skills in orchestral, chamber or
other ensemble groups and accompanying skills in appropriate cases. They are
examined on both solo and ensemble or orchestral work, culminating each
semester in ensemble or solo performance events, which may be organised by the
students. There is continuous assessment in performance units.
In fourth-year honours, each student is required to present a recital with his
or her own program notes and a research essay on a topic related to the program
or an associated aspect of performance practice.
The examination of the solo performance components of a unit, where relevant,
will normally be carried out by at least two examiners, with equal weighting
given to each assessment.
The performance units MUS1160/MUS1170, MUS1980/MUS1990 and MUS2980/ 2990 are all-year units and will be fully examined at the end of second semester each year. At the end of first semester, a technical examination hurdle assessment will be required with repertoire and technical examinations at the end of the year. Two examiners, one of whom will be external, will give the end-of-year examination. MUS3980/MUS3990 will be fully examined at the end of second semester by a panel consisting of three examiners of whom one will be external. At the end of the first semester, a hurdle requirement assessment consisting of part of the recital program will be required. In rare cases where a student needs to complete one of MUS1980/MUS1990 or MUS2980/ 2990 mid-year, he or she will be examined on his or her whole program by a panel of two examiners as would normally occur at the end of semester two.
Students
undertaking this specialisation can expect to acquire the experience and skills
to develop a career as a composer. The program offers individual supervision of
students' compositional projects and encourages work in various media,
including traditional, electronic, and contemporary solo and ensemble
combinations. Honours students will prepare a folio of compositions and arrange
an annotated concert performance of their works. The School of Music --
Conservatorium organises a number of large and small instrumental and ensemble
choral groups and encourages performances of student compositions.
Those who do not have sufficient music theory knowledge should read about the
'bridging course' above or see the administrative officer at the school.
Students
who choose either of these specialisations or a combination of both can expect
to develop their knowledge and understanding of music to prepare themselves as
musicologists and/or ethnomusicologists, studying the music history of various
genres, research methods and aspects of systematic musicology such as
performance practice, analysis, aesthetics, criticism, music sociology and
psychology of music. Students at honours level present a thesis of 15,000 to
18,000 words on an approved research topic in musicology. They may then proceed
with masters-level coursework in other aspects of musicology.
In the ethnomusicology stream, students make detailed area studies of selected
music cultures of Asia and/or Africa, and may learn to perform in an Indonesian
gamelan and in other Asian and African traditions as appropriate for a
particular unit for which a student enrols.
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