Music / Year 7 and 8 / Exploring and responding

Curriculum content descriptions

investigate the ways that composers and/or performers use the elements of music and/or compositional devices in music composed across cultures, times, places and/or other contexts (AC9AMU8E01)

Elaborations
  • accessing and researching music through live or recorded/streamed performances to analyse performers’ interpretations of composers’ intentions; for example, using recordings and score/s or chart/s or other information such as an interview or review to identify how performers have interpreted a composer’s intentions, such as tempo choices, instrumentation, feel or articulation
  • listening to live or recorded music and identifying stylistic characteristics; for example, analysing how elements of music are manipulated and how compositional devices are used; then using this information to describe features of a style or to inform their performance of music in that style
  • listening to and evaluating how elements of music are manipulated in music composed by a range of composers, with the intention of drawing attention to social issues or values; for example, protest songs, nationalistic music, music that uses “folk”/traditional tunes in re-imagined ways, songs with lyrics that focus on themes such as identity or belonging
  • researching and discussing the influence of social, cultural and historical developments relating to specific styles, forms or traditions and incorporating these into their performance and/or compositions; for example, conventions relating to forms such as 32-bar song form, genres such as chamber music, or traditions such as singer-songwriter
General capabilities
  • Intercultural understanding Intercultural Understanding
  • Literacy Literacy
ScOT terms

Music styles,  Composers (Music),  Culture,  Music,  Cultural contexts,  Musical elements,  Timbre

Interactive

Listen With Your Heart featuring Casey Donovan

An interactive music lesson where students explore the song 'Listen with your heart'.

Interactive

Meeting the Sun

An interactive music lesson where students will meet renowned Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin and learn about her inspirations for composing and creating new works. Students will explore various stories and poems written by some of our incredible Anzac heroes and experience a performance of Elena’s Anzac inspired ...

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What is Music?: What makes an effective AFL club song?

AFL songs are among the most widely recognised and popular pieces of music in Australia, sung proudly year after year. Would it surprise you to find out they’re rarely original? Discover the early 20th-century origins of most of Australia’s football chants and the stylistic features that make them so effective in energising ...

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What is Music?: What are the musical features of a news theme?

Music that introduces the news has to be not only dramatic and exciting but also neutral. It has to introduce war and disasters, as well as weddings and elections. It turns out, the music we associate with the news worldwide often originates from movies! So, what does an effective news theme often include? How would you ...

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What is Music?: What is a musical phrase?

Sometimes we come across musical phrases that catch on like wildfire. With every repetition, these phrases take on more meaning. Listen closely for this jazz lick that has appeared in many forms throughout music history. What other popular musical phrases can you think of? What meanings do they carry, and what could you ...

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Can you clap the cymbal part from Carmen?

Get your clapping hands ready and join the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as they play some music from the opera Carmen, by composer Bizet. Follow along with host Paul Rissmann and see if you can keep up with the orchestra! How does this piece of music make you feel? Why do you think it has that effect?

Interactive

The Whitlams meet the Sydney Symphony Orchestra

The Whitlams meet the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was produced through a partnership between the Sydney Opera House and the NSW Department of Education (then the NSW Department of Education and Training). It consists of an interview (divided into eight video clips) with Tim Freedman from The Whitlams and conductor Ben Northey ...

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Who's that cheeky gnome?

Listen as host Paul Rissmann tells a story about Mussorgsky and a gnome called Harry. How does the orchestra's music help to tell the story?

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What a colourful exhibition!

As the orchestra plays a piece of music called "The Ballet of the Chickens in their Shells", lots of artworks are flashed up on the screen.These pictures were sent in for the concert from schools around Australia. If the music inspries you, perhaps you could make your own artwork.

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Lights out!

Host Paul Rissmann describes a scene where Mussorgsky finds himself all of a sudden in the dark. How does the music add to the scariness of this story?

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Can you hear the famous rhythm?

Beethoven was a composer who lived about 200 years ago. Have a listen as the orchestra plays one of his most well known pieces of music. Do you recognise it? Can you hear Beethoven's famous rhythm being repeated in the music?

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Come and meet the instruments video

Come and meet the orchestra! The musicians are wearing 4 different colours to show which section they belong to. Can you name the 4 sections of the orchestra? What are the names of some of the instruments in each section?

Interactive

Musical theatre – music

Discover the key elements of theatre music through performance. Explore the key elements of musical theatre music, lyrics and orchestral score.

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What is Music?: What makes the music of Star Wars so iconic?

Star Wars begins with the biggest B-flat chord you’ve ever heard! John Williams’s fanfare is so iconic that people usually recognise what they’re watching without even looking at the screen. So, what informs the music and makes it so powerful? What techniques can you apply in your own compositions?

Interactive

Vivid Sydney – 77 Million Paintings

A series of video interviews with Nick Robertson about Brian Eno's '77 Million Paintings' installation, which was part of an exhibition in Vivid Sydney 2009. The resource includes clips of the installation.

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Listen to music inspired by paintings

This piece of music is called ""Pictures at an Exhibition"". It was written by a Russian composer called Mussorgsky. He was inspired to write this piece of music when he went to see his friend's paintings in an exhibition. As you listen to the orchestra playing the music, perhaps you can imagine you are walking through ...

Video

Jogja hip-hop reaches birthplace of hip-hop

This is an article about the impact and influence of hip-hop music on the youth of Yogyakarta in Java, Indonesia. The author highlights the strengths of a globalised hip-hop culture to nurture young Indonesian artists who incorporate Javanese colloquial language into their lyrics. There is also a video clip of performance ...

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Koorie Cross-Curricular Protocols for Victorian Government Schools

The Koorie Cross-Curricular Protocols for Victorian Government Schools are applicable to schools intending to develop activities that involve the use of Koorie cultural expressions, including stories, songs, instrumental music, dances, plays, ceremonies, rituals, performances, symbols, drawings, designs, paintings, poetry, ...

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Indigenous Australian collection

This federated search from the QAGOMA database features a selection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks from the collection. The searchable database provides artwork images, background information about the artist and the artwork, a map of major Indigenous regions in Australia, classroom activities, a glossary ...

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Australian collection

This database features a selection of Australian artworks from QAGOMA. The searchable database provides artwork images, background information about the artist and the artwork, classroom activities, a glossary of key terms and curriculum alignment information for teachers. Search results can be refined by theme, period, ...