Music Academic
Technology
T
he Music Department has moved into the world of music technology with a brand new state of the art computer, keyboard facility. We installed seventeen computer workstations with electronic keyboards for the start of the school year. Each Dr Robert Braham Director of Music workstation has software for music composition and sequencing. Students notate their compositions on the screen for any instrumental group ranging from a solo instrument to a full orchestra, jazz band or rock band. They can also, using MIDI keyboard or recorded instruments and voice, create and record their own compositions and burn them on to CD. These and other pieces of educational music software have changed the face of music teaching in the classroom for all boys in Years 8-12. The electronic music software Sibelius and Cubase immediately rewards the students. When the boys create music the programs allow them to hear their music played in any instrument line-up and style. The software has also enriched the boys’ theoretical and notational understandings and significantly increased motivation, creativity, and composition skill levels. In the Year 9 Music Course computer compositions have featured a plainchant, Alberti bass accompaniment, theme and variations and a contemporary song arrangement. The students incorporated theoretical and aural understandings, such as cadences, into their music works.
compositional software has enabled a greater range and complexity of work.
Catholic Schools’ Performing Arts Festival In 2003, the Trinity College music department won more awards in the CSPAF since its famous 1990 effort. 2004, in some observer’s eyes was destined to be a lean year. However, some of the most memorable performances in the festivals’ history occurred this year. The Year 12 body proved sensitive musical performers in their leadership of the Music Department. The solo performance on Marimba by Joshua Webster accompanied by Tommaso Pollio was exciting and virtuosic. The Chorale’s sacred and secular music renditions were described as “sensitively and beautifully performed”. With treble soloist Daniel Mullaney and violin soloist Justin Leong, the Dona Nobis Pacem achieved rare moments of musicianship. In the realm of dance both BIG and GIG produced pieces that were fine examples of artistic, creative dance They set dance company standards for future members of these exciting groups. Overall, students won the Zenith Award for Excellence in Performance and Participation in the Spirit of the Performing Arts Festival for their performances. Congratulations must go to the following boys and ensembles for their achievements in this year’s festival. Dr Robert Braham Director of Music
Year 10 students through their study of melody and rhythm have used Sibelius extensively. While studying the topic ‘Harmony’ in all its traditional theoretical manifestations they had their first taste of recording MIDI tracks using cubase. Using a Twelve Bar Blues composition, they wrote earlier in the year, each individual was able to record instrumental parts for drums, bass, and a selection of melodic instruments. The result was an exciting arrangement built on their understanding of harmony. Year 11 and 12 Music in Society students explored new areas of curriculum. Their creative work has included composing for solo instrument, duet, and class ensemble. They performed most of these works in the classroom setting. In the latter part of the year, the emphasis was on multimedia work with students putting sound tracks to an advert or film, the video footage playing on the screen while the students put down audio tracks in real time. For the TEE music students, where melody and accompaniment writing and arranging music for fourpart instrumental ensemble makes up much of the composition component of the course, working with
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