Scaffold

Year: 2008

Concept(s): Duration, Pitch

Topic / genre: 20th/21st Century

Composer / artist: Prokofiev, Sergei

Excerpt title: Dance of the Knights - Romeo and Juliet

Excerpt length: 1:19

Question:
03. Discuss the composer’s use of DURATION with reference to the THEMES and ACCOMPANIMENT in this excerpt.

Question 3

Criteria	Marks
Discusses in detail the composer’s use of duration with reference to the themes and accompaniment. Demonstrates a high level of aural understanding with well-supported observations, including detailed descriptions of musical events. Answer may contain some inaccurate observations.	7-8
Discusses the composer’s use of duration with reference to the themes and/or accompaniment. Demonstrates aural understanding, including descriptions of musical events. Answer may contain inaccurate observations.	5-6
Discusses some aspects of the composer’s use of duration. Demonstrates some aural understanding, but often makes generalisations and may not provide supporting examples.	3-4
Demonstrates limited aural understanding of the composer’s use of duration.	1-2

In better responses, candidates:

identified a majority of the principal themes of the extract and their interrelationships
clearly addressed all aspects of the question
provided a well-structured response and supported observations with detailed references to
musical events
provided substantial detail and examples, often including accurate notation
demonstrated a thorough understanding and used musical terminology accurately
correctly identified performing media
identified and successfully related answers to duration
referred to musical concepts accurately.

In weaker responses, candidates:

misinterpreted the question, making reference to dramatic rather than musical themes, which led
to storytelling and subjective commentary
frequently referred to the mood of the piece
lacked detail in their answers or made irrelevant comments
did not support their answers with musical examples
did not address the question fully, made generalisations and wrote subjective answers
used terminology inaccurately, eg heterophonic, beat, metre, rhythm, themes
included irrelevant or poorly labelled diagrams
made incorrect references to the concept of duration
identified and referred to several concepts without relating them to duration
incorrectly identified the performing media
presented poorly structured, sometimes incoherent answers
did not accommodate the entire content of the piece, eg concentrating on the first two recurring bars.

2008 Q3 - HSC Music 1 aural exam revision