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© Steiner Education Australia MUSIC CURRICULUM K-10 www.steinereducation.edu.au Version: April 2015
STEINER EDUCATION AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIAN STEINER CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
The Arts:
MUSIC CURRICULUM
Kindergarten/Foundation to Year 10
April 2015
The Australian Steiner Curriculum: Music was developed to meet the recognition and equivalence
given to alternate internationally recognised curricula by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).
While this process is currently not available for the Arts, Steiner Education Australia has made this curriculum available for Steiner Schools to use to meet state requirements based on the Australian
Curriculum.
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Revisions included in this document:
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Rationale
When the human being is artistically engaged with tone, he puts his ear to the very heart of nature and reproduces it in series of tones
- Steiner, Inner Nature of Music, Lecture III There's music in all things, if men had ears Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
- Lord Byron, English poet, 1788 -– 1824. Don Juan, Canto XIV Rhythmic movement, often expressed as frequencies, is inherent in all elementary particles and their interactions. It is, as Rudolf Steiner expresses it above, ‘the very heart of nature’. Pitches are the audible frequencies that our ear registers, our mind perceives and our soul reflects. They are part of the vast continuum of natural frequencies, from the rotation of the planets at one end to gamma rays at the other. Furthermore, pitches are, for Steiner, merely the vehicles for the experience of soul and spirit that music provides. When a composer, performer or listener artistically interacts with pitches there arises what we describe as ‘music’. Human endeavours in manipulating these pitches are intricately bound up with the developmental journey of human consciousness. Music is engaged in for its inherently joyful and life-affirming qualities. The most important aspect of music
education is for the teacher to understand each child’s musical path and to attempt to give it recognition as
something precious to be nurtured.
Music takes a central position in Waldorf education, studied both as a discrete discipline and most
importantly as a vital part of the pedagogy. In broad terms, Steiner Education aims to harmonise the physical
and spiritual aspects of the child. Music fundamentally supports this aim across the curriculum by offering a
way of understanding the dynamic and cosmic connections between the growing human being and his or her
stage in the development of consciousness. Because of this, it is important that the specialist music teacher
should have a good knowledge of the Steiner Main Lesson curriculum as this informs many of the decisions
regarding music choice and instructional practices. Likewise, the Class Teacher should bear in mind that
music as well as being part of everyday life in a Steiner Classroom is an art in its own right.
This curriculum is designed to provide a framework for Class Teachers, Subject Teachers, Middle and Upper
School Teachers who are working with general classes as well as for those teachers in Steiner Schools who
may be working with Music Elective Classes in the upper years. It is therefore not intended that all the
suggestions in the Content Elaborations are necessarily covered by any one teacher.
Before the age of about 9 years, music, like the other arts, is used to support the child’s development. After
this time, music can be addressed as an art form requiring growing attention, understanding and reverence in
order for it to yield its true rewards. A love for music can be a life-long source of intellectual interest,
emotional support and spiritual sustenance.
Listening, creating and performing music are all integral aspects of a balanced music education. Through the
students’ involvement in sequential and age appropriate activities, they develop a refined ability to
experience and eventually understand music from many different cultures, historical periods and places.
Music education is a rich and valuable experience in its own right and is known to have a positive influence
on the development of fine and gross motor skills, emotional intelligence as well as cognitive and
interpersonal capacities. Steiner’s insistence on the artistic approach to teaching, means that music (as well
as the arts, generally), has a special place in education. For instance, Steiner’s insistence that reading and
writing should come from drawing, relates to the sense of movement that students activate when drawing
curves and straight lines. The sense of movement is closely connected with the musical sense as it deals
with the aesthetics of rhythm, tension and relaxation. As the children move either in space or in their
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imaginations when learning the letters, so do they experience a musical quality. This positive relationship is
replicated in many other disciplines.
Whilst music undoubtedly provides opportunities for personal skill development and performance
achievement, it is a supremely social art that can build bridges between individuals and societies. Music is
also the art that, according to Steiner, is closest to the ‘will of the world’ the unseen forces that shape
physical existence and it is perhaps these aspects that makes it so vital a part of an effective education.
Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spir it lives, thinks and invents.
- Ludwig van Beethoven
Aims
In addition to the overarching aims of the Australian Steiner Curriculum: The Arts, the following knowledge,
understanding and skills are developed in students, individually and collaboratively:
1 The ability to communicate with others in musical contexts (such as ensemble playing).
2 The ability to sing and play instrumental music for enjoyment and self-expression.
3 The ability to create original music as a way of communicating feelings and ideas.
4 The ability to respect and make aesthetic judgments about music in different cultural and historical
contexts using appropriate meta-language.
5 A life-long love for a wide range of musical activities.
6 An understanding of the role music can play in sustaining good health.
Learning in Music
Students develop their experiences in and understanding of music through listening, performing and creating
original music. Each of these areas develops in complexity revealing more of the nature of music as the child
matures in understanding and capacity.
The parameters of verbal communication about music are called the ‘elements’ or ‘concepts’ of music and
consist of pitch, duration, timbre (tone colour), texture, dynamics and expressive techniques and structure.
Listening (both inner and outer) is the foundation for all other musical activities and is also an important skill
in other areas of life. Music activities directed towards listening are called ‘aural skills’ or ‘ear training’ in
music education. In the early years, the students are introduced to music in school as a natural part of their
daily life. They hear music without the need to consciously notice or analyse that it is different from speech.
This can lead to responses such as spontaneous imitated singing and dancing.
As the child’s soul and spirit become more integrated in their physical body, listening develops more and
more consciously and is able to provide information about how music is constructed and conveys its
‘meaning’. This in turn, informs the students’ musical decisions in performance and creating original music.
Performing music does not require an audience and can range from improvising alone through to playing
music created by a composer in front of many people. In Steiner schools, music performance begins with
singing, then playing instruments as part of the daily rhythm and progresses to formal performances for
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festivals and concerts involving listening, appreciating, analyzing, evaluating, arranging, notating, conducting,
rehearsing, presenting and recording.
Creating original music begins as soon as the children enter the school in the form of sung questions and
responses with a limited range of pitches and proceeds via formal and informal processes to the students
eventually creating complex pieces of music and songs.
Music is created and performed by using voices, body sounds, found objects, simple instruments, more
complex acoustic instruments and electronic instruments (in the upper classes). It is sometimes notated
using Western conventional (after Class III) and non-standard notation. Audio recording and replaying
technology is introduced after Class VI.
Knowledge
Steiner’s indications suggest that before the age of nine, learning in this and other arts subjects should be a
natural imitative process without artificial and abstract concepts. The young child should be first immersed in
a variety of musical rhythms; celebration of the seasons, of particular weekly and daily activities. The children
should sing as part of the rhythm of their everyday lives, in relation to necessary tasks, such as sweeping a
floor or baking. Instrumental music is introduced in Class One but is treated at this stage more like an
amplification of the child’s breath than a separate study.
Later, after the age of nine, the children’s attention can be drawn more and more to the requirements of the
art form, beginning with a firm foundation in aural awareness and proceeding to more complex forms of
understanding expressed practically through singing, instrumental playing, creating and responding to music.
Music for young children should be primarily melodic. As they progress through the first three grades, drones
and ostinati can be gradually added to songs and pieces of music but not harmonic accompaniment (such as
chords on piano or guitar, although this does not need to be followed absolutely). Young children only relate
to the melodic element. Harmony, which is expressive of more subjective feelings, can really be understood
from the age of nine onwards. Rounds and canons offer a good introduction to part-singing and they can lead
to more complex part-singing and instrumental playing depending on the maturity of the children.
The experience of rhythm is more varied and can appear first as an innate sense of movement in the young
child progressing to an independently perceived sense of beat and pulse, divorced from melody and harmony.
Later, complex polyrhythms can be heard, understood, created and performed sometimes in conjunction with
harmonic and melodic elements.
The changing consciousness of the growing child echoes the historical developments in human
consciousness and this has its musical counterpart in particular types of intervals and scale systems relating
to these stages. Whilst Steiner stressed that it is not necessary to be pedantic about this, he indicated that for
young children, the open ‘mood of the fifth’ (see annotated bibliography) and pentatonic music accords with
their experience of existence without separation from nature. They are, so to speak, at home with the gods.
Therefore the earthly ‘home’ note of the tonic is absent as they swing freely between different pitches using
major seconds and thirds. This accords with influential Hungarian musicologist Kodaly’s indications for early
childhood musical education based on the development of folk music idioms. As they grow in self-
consciousness, so does the musical experience become more inward, moving from music using different
modes such as Dorian and Aeolian to the experience of major and minor. This occurs in Class 3/4 with the
emphasis on the major and minor third and their place, unlike the expansive fifth, ‘inside’ us. These intervals
appeal to our heart. As we progress through the school years, more and more complex forms of music are
introduced using different tonalities, such as the Hijaz scale, modes based on Indian ragas, blues scales,
octatonic scales, bitonality and atonality, serialism and aleatory music.
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As the students become more familiar with the theoretical basis of different musical genres, they are better
equipped to understand, evaluate and synthesize concepts concerning different spiritual, psychological,
ideological and philosophical contexts. From Foundation to Class 10, a growing sophistication in musical
understanding and use of terminology informs the students’ activities in listening, performing and creating
music.
Skills
Students develop their skills in vocal and instrumental performance from the beginning of their time in
Foundation. They are introduced first of all to simple pentatonic songs and imitate the teacher’s careful
singing. As they progress they become more able to sing within a larger range of notes and tonalities, with
greater control of dynamics and timbre and with the intention of expressing thoughts and feelings. They begin
with unison singing and end by singing accurately, sophisticated pieces of music in harmony.
Students may begin learning the pentatonic pipe (or by playing pentatonically on the recorder) that extends
their growing experience of the connection between ‘inner and outer’ through breathing. They may learn the
lyre and experience the spiritual/mathematical purity of the sounds. A bowed stringed instrument may be
learnt at around eight or nine years old. These instruments ensoul the sound of the vibrating string with the
breath-like bow, creating a sound between spiritual/mathematical and utterance (Ruland 1992). Playing other
orchestral and band instruments becomes possible and each student is given the chance to create a
relationship with their chosen instrument.
Steiner emphasized the usefulness of identifying character traits through a study of a child’s temperament
(sanguine, melancholic, choleric or phlegmatic). The choice of instrument for a child, where there is no
particularly strong desire for one or another, can be informed by a consideration of his or her temperament
(Steiner 1987).
They experience the process of practising over many years in order to achieve a musical goal. It is through
this that they learn the deep satisfaction of self-discipline and commitment to a progressively more difficult
yet rewarding task. Ensemble skills are developed throughout the instrumental program.
Students are also made familiar with the basic techniques of classroom percussion instruments and later
keyboards and guitars and their use in arrangements of songs and instrumental pieces.
Students may be introduced to Tonic Sol-fa letter notation in the early years and proceed to learn, via
pictorial and imaginative methods, standard staff notation. They develop the skills to accurately hear,
reproduce, write and read music.
Students gradually develop the capacity to listen with an awareness of the elements of music and a growing
understanding of the importance of cultural and historical context. They increasingly use their aural sensitivity
and expanded conceptual framework to inform their musical performance and composition.
Ultimately, the art of music is a social art and students are encouraged to use music as a way of building
bridges to other people, often communicating on a level that is non-verbal but profound.
Materials
Voice; bodies; pentatonic pipes, and/or diatonic recorders and pipes; classroom percussion instruments;
guitars; keyboards; pianos; other instruments and sound sources; music stands; sheet music; manuscript
paper; electronic equipment for creating, recording and processing musical sounds; computers and notation
software; headphones; spaces for composing, performing and listening.
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Overview Classes K-2
Kindergarten to Class 2
We leave the musical element the instant we develop concepts about it.
- Steiner R The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone
The young child of Foundation to Class 2 lives in the musical realm that provides a healthy support for his or
her growing physical body. To engage them in abstract concepts about music at this age is to rob them of a
living experience and connection with their own world.
The musical development of young children can be likened to the image of a gong. To begin with the children
are still living on the edge of the gong, undifferentiated in body/soul/spirit and music belongs to their
experience in a natural and unconscious way. The sounds that surround them are diffuse and free. The
young students are allowed to live in the ‘periphery’ that is beneficial to their natural and easy assimilation of
musical idioms later on. Teaching in this stage does not concentrate on accuracy of intonation or rhythm. The
movement qualities of the breath and not the pulse are more important. They learn primarily through imitation.
In this stage, students experience reverence in their approach to musical sounds and in Class 1, images of
enchanted tones waiting to be returned to their homes in the stars by the students’ careful performance on
pipe or chime bar are helpful. To begin with ‘unfinished’ instruments such as a large seedpod shaker provide
space for the child’s imagination. As they grow, so their instruments become more technologically
sophisticated. The students learn to care for all their instruments and are introduced to them in a
pictorial/narrative way in which the images build reverence.
As they progress from Foundation through to Class 2, the students gradually ‘come closer’ to the centre of
the gong; the sounds are more focused and defined, pitch becomes absolute and rhythm is related to beat
and can be separated from melody. The speed of this transition will depend on the environment and the
children but the important point is that it is a process to be treated artistically and from observation of the
effects that the music has on the children.
The students’ developing musicality and sensitivity to sound in general is supported by imitating the teachers’
light quality of voice. This should be more musical than dramatic such as is appropriate for telling stories in
the younger years. Kindergarten students experience their teachers using voice interchangeably with singing.
In Class 1, singing is sometimes used to bridge activities enabling students to mark formal changes in the
rhythm of the day. Throughout Classes 1 -2, students engage in singing songs that relate to the Main
Lessons, subject lessons, festivals and plays.
In Kindergarten and Class 1, the students respond best to pentatonic music that does not emphasise a
keynote and music in ‘the mood of the 5th’ as the soul qualities of this music speak to their stage of
development. They can also experience folk songs and other tonalities. In Class 2, pentatonic music that
emphasises a key note (either major or minor), hexatonic music (without a strong leading note, such as D, E ,
F#, G, A, B, D) and music using the church modes (Aeolian, Dorian, Mixolydian especially) are useful as
bridges from pentatonic to full diatonic major and minor (Class 3 and 4).
The students learn music in melodic unison in Foundation and Classes 1 and 2. Simple drones and melodic
and rhythmic ostinati can be added in Class 2. Rounds are best left to later on in Class 3 or Class 4 for
reasons given below (see Class 3 and 4).
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There are various considerations in the choice of a pipe/recorder for the students in Class 1. Students may
begin to learn the pentatonic pipe (five different notes only) or use a diatonic pipe/recorder (able to play all
the notes of major and minor scales) pentatonically. Learning the fingering on a pentatonic pipe can make
the transition to the diatonic pipe more difficult. Because of this it is suggested that students play pentatonic
music using a diatonic pipe from the beginning of Class 1.
They may also learn how to play the lyre and percussion instruments from Class 1.
The students learn notation formally in Class 3 through images to which they can relate (see below).
However, in the course of playing recorder, lyre and singing, there may arise in Classes 1 and 2 the
opportunity to engage in such imaginative preparatory exercises as drawing the contours of melodies (for
instance as a mountain range) or using line lengths to represent the different lengths of sounds but these are
not a priority and may be saved until Class 3.
The students learn about the polarities of pitch, timbre, texture, dynamics and tempo using suitable language.
(In the tables below and in similar tables, the Roman numerals refer to the school year group (so II is Year 2).
The next numbers refer to the content description and then the elaboration of the description. Where there is
more than one point per elaboration, letters are used to distinguish the points from others belonging to the
same elaboration.)
Kindergarten
Content Description Content Elaborations
K.1 Sing songs and chants
including Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander music
and play simple musical
instruments.
K.1.1 Imitating the teacher’s vocal pitch, rhythm and timbre in simple pentatonic songs. K.1.2 Responding to music through dancing or movement. K.1.3 Playing simple musical instruments such as shakers and bells. K.1.4 Immersion in a ‘singing environment’ including songs for work, play, nursery rhymes etc.
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Class 1 and 2 Key to Elaborations numbers: First digit indicates class; 1/2 denotes both Class 1& Class 2.
Content Description Content Elaborations
Classes 1 and 2 1/2.1 Develop active listening to engage the feeling capacities.
1/2.1.1 Half of class listening to other half singing and playing 1.1.2 Imitating with greater accuracy the teacher’s vocal pitch, rhythm and timbre
in simple pentatonic songs. 2.1.2 More self-directed ability to sing with correct pitch and rhythm. 1.1.3 Demonstrating awareness of polarities of: timbre, lighter/darker; dynamics,
louder/softer; tempo, faster/slower. 2.1.3 Demonstrating awareness of polarities of pitch, higher/lower. 1.1.4 Experiencing the mood of the interval of a perfect 5th. 2.1.4 Experiencing the moods of different modes. 1/2.1.5 Observing basic ensemble skills, when to play and stop.
1/2.2 Sing and play on instruments age-appropriate songs, chants and pieces relating to Main Lesson and other subjects and for Festivals, celebrations and plays, including Aboriginal and Torres and Strait Islander music.
Elaboration 1 (class1/2) Singing in unison and parts. 1.2.1 Singing confidently in unison simple pentatonic songs with range D to E’ 2.2.1 Singing confidently in unison more complex major and minor pentatonic,
and other 6 note modal songs (avoiding strong leading notes but with latent sense of keynote) with range B to E’
Elaboration 2 (1/2) Singing alone. 1.2.2 Singing alone in self-initiated play. 2.2.2 Having the opportunity to sing alone. Elaboration 3 (1/2) Reading notation. 1.2.3 Showing contours of melodies with hands and bodies. 2.2.3 Imitating and using Tonic Sol-fa hands signs. Elaboration 4 (1/2) Playing recorders/pipes 1.2.4 Caring for recorder/pipe and playing pentatonic songs by imitation, ear and
contouring using correct breathing and tonguing techniques; notes. 2.2.4 Using confidently all pentatonic notes. Elaboration 5 (1/2) Playing on lyres and percussion instruments 1.2.5 Playing on lyre, pentatonic songs by imitation, ear and contouring signs.
Performing finger games to increase dexterity. 2.2.5 Playing simple ostinati on tuned and un-tuned percussion instruments. Elaboration 6 (1/2) Demonstrating awareness/understanding of rhythm and beat. 1/2.2.6a Moving freely to pentatonic music 1/2.2.6b Clapping and counting number rhythms 2.2.6c Performing rhythm exercises on one pitch using movement words
(see Examples of Knowledge below).
1/2.3 Create and perform music by improvising in pentatonic and other modes on instruments and voice to communicate with an audience.
Elaboration 1 (1/2) Showing respect for music. 1/2.3.1 Showing reverence for the ‘magical’ nature of sound. Elaboration 2 (1/2) creating music and using movement. 1.3.2 Demonstrating awareness of polarities of dynamics, timbre and tempo. 2.3.2 Demonstrating awareness of polarities of dynamics, timbre, tempo and
pitch. 1.3.2b Improvising short musical phrases using pentatonic modes. 2.3.2b Improvising short musical phrases using major/minor pentatonic and other
modes. 2.3.3 Creating body movements to express musical phrases. 1/2.3.4 Creating music for given or invented texts, dances, pictures, colours, forms.
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Examples of knowledge and skills in Music at Foundation to Year 2
In these classes students experience the elements of music, including pitch, rhythm, timbre, (tone colour),
texture, dynamics and expressive techniques), provide a framework for this progression.
Rhythm/time:
‘Breathing’ rhythms (flowing rhythms related to speech patterns, not tied to beat)
Rhythms and beat as part of the melody (Years 1 and 2)
Polarities of tempi (speeds), fast, slow, getting faster, getting slower.
Sound and silence, long/short sounds, rest, ostinato.
Performance of rhythm names (or similar) – push (semibreve), glide (minim), walk (crotchet), running (two
quavers), running faster (four semiquavers)
Performance of rhythmic rests, (silent performance of above rhythm names),
Experiencing duple and triple metres.
Pitch:
High/low, contour, musical memory (remembering simple pitch patterns), unison.
Singing and playing using pentatonic, modal, major tonalities.
Dynamics and expressive techniques:
Polarities of and finding central point in; loud, medium, soft and gradations of volume.
Slurring and detached in recorder and other instrument playing and (by end of Year 3) Italian terms legato,
staccato.
Timbre:
Polarities of and finding central place in light and dark timbres.
Characteristics of each sound. E.g. What type of person would the sound of the cymbal be?
Exploring how different sounds are made on different instruments.
Progression from more peripheral, diffuse sounds to more focused sounds.
Texture:
Multi-layered timbral textures.
Unison melodic textures
Harmonic textures – drones and simple ostinati only.
Form:
Simple one or two part forms in Years 1 and 2.
Skills:
Singing with age-appropriate awareness of correct pitch and rhythm and enunciation of text.
Playing an instrument correctly and safely (pipes, lyres, recorders, classroom percussion)
Listening carefully to contrasts in musical elements and responding age-appropriately.
Being sensitive to the social aspect of music making
Being sensitive to the ‘magical’ quality of musical sounds
Understanding the relationship between musical sounds and visual representations of them.
Being able to perform from memory and ‘by ear’.
Being able to use sounds and silence creatively.
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Foundation to Year 2 Achievement Standard
By the end of Year 2, students will enjoy singing songs with good intonation and playing pieces of music on
pitched and un-pitched instruments. They will in an age – appropriate manner improvise, compose, perform
music in conjunction with other students. They will present music to audiences such as parent groups and at
assemblies or festivals and have experienced the pleasure that making music brings.
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Overview Classes 3 – 4 From Class 3 to Class 4 the students begin to consider music as an art form and to gain knowledge of the language that enables them to appreciate, perform, create and discuss music. The students engage in singing songs that relate to the Main Lessons, subject lessons, festivals and plays.
Class 3 Musical considerations and Main Lesson themes. From Foundation to Class 3, the students undergo a major change in their relationship to music in that the
changing nature of the child’s consciousness makes it desirable to begin to turn their attention to music as an
art. The child of around nine years old, crosses the ‘Rubicon’; Steiner identifies this developmental crossing
where self-consciousness takes the place of a sense of unity with the world. Towards the end of Class 3, it
could also be later (Class 4) depending on the age of the child, the music teacher works with the interval of
the major and minor 3rd that emphasize the students’ newly developed sense of inner and outer, self and
other. The emphasis on doing in the world (farming, measuring, and building Main Lessons) means that in
Class 3, the students respond strongly to music in diatonic major and other modes that have a sense of a
keynote. The relationship that the different pitches of a diatonic scale have to the keynote is also symbiotic
with the relationship that the growing individuality has with self and others.
By the end of Class 3, the stabilizing of the ratio between the breath and the heartbeat (1:4) marks a new
relationship to musical beat and rhythm. Whereas before, rhythm was considered more in relationship to
breathing, throughout Class 3 and into Class 4, it can be considered more in relationship to beat.
By Class 3, students are engaged more consciously in singing-training, ensuring that they sing with a light
tone, correct pitch, rhythm and pronunciation.
By Class 3 the students can learn very simple rounds and canons as preparation for singing and playing in
parts which Steiner places in Class 4. For the same reasons that major and minor are not formally introduced
until around the nine year old ‘Rubicon’, rounds, depending on when they are introduced, may create too
much age inappropriate self-consciousness.
By Class 3 the students are playing diatonic pipe/recorder. They may also be able to play melodies on tuned
percussion instruments and add melodic and rhythmic ostinato to songs and musical pieces.
The students learn notation formally in Class 3 through images to which they can relate. In the course of
playing recorder, lyre and singing, there may arise in Classes 1 and 2 the opportunity to engage in such
imaginative preparatory exercises as drawing the contours of melodies (for instance as a mountain range) or
using line lengths to represent the different lengths of sounds but these are not a priority and may be saved
until Class 3.
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Class 4 Musical considerations and Main Lesson themes
In Class 4, the sense for belonging on earth is explored in the local geography Main Lesson and this could
involve creating individual ‘song-lines’. The Norse myths, with their emphasis on the human will, encourage
work with beat and rhythm. This is carried out much more consciously than before and the students identify
melody, harmony and rhythm as three distinct but overlapping elements. Through the greater intensity of
their subjective life, they experience the polarities of major and minor. This is a reflection of their
consciousness of an inner and outer life. As a result, they can accurately sing half and whole tones and can
work with these in compositions.
The students work with fractional note values in relationship to the semibreve. The use of American
nomenclature for rhythmic values is helpful here (semibreve = whole note, minim = half note etc.).They also
understand metre and time signatures and can use them in compositions. They understand 4/4 most
naturally, as this is the relationship between one breath and four heart beats that has established itself by this
time.
The students learn about the relationship between humans and animals and they understand the ability of
the human being to play and to practise an instrument and thereby gain greater skill and enjoyment from the
process. They understand that many musical instruments have been created from a picture of the human
being and have human qualities.
The students learn about the history of writing words and also how music notation developed. Their study of
map-making enables them to consider the musical score as a map and to begin to appreciate the overall
formal structure of songs and pieces of music. Graphic scores are worked with as a way of imaginatively
translating sounds into symbols.
Freehand geometry requires inner space visualisations and the students perform this aurally in imagining and
creating the continuation of musical sequences, patterns and in simple dictations.
The symmetries of form-drawings are reflected in their musical compositions as call and response, regular
phrase lengths, repeated dynamics and expressive directions such as staccato and legato.
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Classes 3 and 4 Content
Note on numbering: In this and similar tables, the first digit refers to the school year group or groups;
eg 3/4 = both classes 3 & 4. A number in brackets after the elaboration title indicates the class.
The second digit refers to the content description, and the 3rd to the elaboration of the description.
Where there is more than one point per elaboration, these points are indicated with a, b, c, etc.
Content Descriptions Content Elaborations
3/4.1 Develop active listening
through experiencing the
elements of music,
performance, relating sounds
to symbols and comparing
music from different social,
cultural and historical
contexts including Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander
music
Elaboration 1 Developing understanding of music as an art. Class 3 3.1.1a Demonstrating an understanding of melody, rhythm and beat. 3.1.1b Demonstrating an understanding of the gradation of dynamics, timbres,
pitch and tempo. 3.1.1c Notating simple melodies using contour lines, Tonic Sol-fa letters and
eventually staff notation including different rhythmic values.
Class 4 4.1.1a Identifying the keynote in diatonic music. 4.1.1b Demonstrating an understanding of note lengths. 4.1.1c Demonstrating an understanding of intervals and their different
characteristics. 4.1.1d Transcribing pitch and rhythm dictations using staff notation and Tonic
Sol-fa hand signs. 4.1.1e Recognising chords as distinct from melody and where chords change
(two chords only to begin with, including major and minor chords). 4.1.1f Distinguishing between melody, harmony and rhythm.
3/4.2 Sing in unison and
parts with developing vocal
technique and expression
songs, chants and pieces
relating to Main Lesson and
other subjects and for
Festivals, celebrations and
plays, including Aboriginal
and Torres and Strait
Islander music
Class 3 Elaboration 1 (3) Singing in unison and simple rounds. 3.2.1a Singing confidently in unison, songs using different pentatonic,
hexatonic, Medieval church and eventually major modes 3.2.1b Singing rounds (see above) and phrases in ‘call and response’. Elaboration 2 (3) Singing alone. 3.2.2 Singing confidently alone. Elaboration 3 (3) Reading notation. 3.2.3a Imitating and using Tonic Sol-fa hands signs. 3.2.3b Reading pitch and rhythm from five-lined stave in treble clef. Class 4 Elaboration 1 (4) Singing in unison and parts. 4.2.1a Singing rounds, canons, quodlibets 4.2.1b Singing in combined choir Elaboration 2 (4) Sight-singing and Tonic Sol-fa. 4.2.2 Simple sight-reading from notation and using rhythm names, (see
examples of Knowledge and Skills for Foundation to 3 and 4 below), letter names and Tonic solfa names. Singing the major scale.
Elaboration 3 (4) Analysing and performing music read from notation. 4.2.3a Recognising keys of C, G, D and F majors; a, e and d minors 4.2.3b Discussing aspects of melody; range, melodic shape, frequently used
notes, repeated rhythms.
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Content Descriptions Content Elaborations
4.2.3c Understanding how to construct simple triads on the notes of the C major scale.
3/4.3 Create, perform and
record music using graphic
and conventional notation to
express ideas and emotions
and engage an audience
Class 3 Elaboration 1 (3) Creating and notating original music 3.3.1a Demonstrating greater awareness of the polarities of dynamics, timbre,
tempo and pitch and showing choice in using them. 3.3.1b Creating short ‘answers’ to musical ‘questions’ using pentatonic,
hexatonic, church and diatonic major modes. 3.3.1c Demonstrating understanding of relative lengths of sounds, using
standard notation (quavers, crotchets, minims) including the use of
body movements.
Class 4 Elaboration 1 (4) Creating and notating original music 4.3.1a Notating original music using graphic scores and conventional staff
notation. 4.3.1b Understanding and using simple time and key signatures. 4.3.1c Creating music following a simple template and limited pitch range. Elaboration 2 (4) Setting words to music. 4.3.2 Setting short sentences to music, using limited pitch range, simple
non-melismatic melodies and sometimes with a given rhythmic framework.
3/4.4 Play instruments with
developing technical and
expressive skills individually
and in parts in ensemble.
Class 3 Elaboration 1 (3) Playing recorders/pipes 3.4.1a Caring for recorder/pipe and playing diatonic songs by ear and notation
using correct breathing and tonguing techniques. 3.4.1b Using confidently all notes in C, G and F majors. Elaboration 2 (3) Playing on lyres and/or percussion instruments 3.4.2a Playing melodies on lyres and/or tuned and untuned percussion
instruments. 3.4.2b Playing simple accompanying patterns on lyres and/or tuned and
untuned percussion instruments. Class 4 Elaboration 1 (4) Playing recorders and percussion instruments 4.4.1a Playing descant recorder diatonically, using slurs and detached notes,
music in up to two parts. 4.4.1b Playing diatonically on tuned percussion. 4.4.1c Playing more complex rhythmic ostinati and second parts (descants or
harmonies) on tuned and un-tuned percussion Elaboration 2 (4) Demonstrating an understanding of rhythm and beat. 4.4.2a Performing rhythm and beat independently. 4.4.2b Performing conducting patterns for 2/4, 3/4, 4/4.
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Examples of knowledge and skills appropriate for students in Music at Year 3 to Year 4 level. In classes 3 and 4 the students progress to treating music as an art form whilst not losing sight of its
important social function as well as its scope for pure enjoyment.
Rhythm/time:
Progressing to awareness of rhythm and beat separated from melody (Year 3)
Simple metres (Year 4)
Whole note and fractional note values, American names of note lengths (Year 4) Push (whole note),
glide (half note), walk (quarter note), running (two eighth notes), running faster (four sixteenth notes),
tumbling (three equal quavers, either in 6/8 or triplets). Similar words may be used but the emphasis
is on a kinaesthetic experience of rhythm and beat (Years 3 and 4)
Other rhythmic units – run faster, faster run,
Rests of above (silent imagination of the movement).
Separation of beat from rhythm and melody (Year 4).
Musical mathematics (Year 4).
Ostinati, tempi changes, ritardando, accelerando.
Pitch:
By end of Year 3 notating pitch on 5 line staff
Diatonic intervals, simple musical dictations, major and minor (Year 4) Melodic shape, patterns, scales and arpeggios.
Recognizing and singing semitones. Tonic Sol-fa hand signs for pitches.
Harmony – chords and chord symbols e.g. I. IV, V, ii, iii, vi (Year 4).
Alignment in notating 2 part music and stave systems (Year 4).
Graphic representations of pitch (Year 4).
Dynamics and Expressive Techniques:
Italian terms – piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte and forte (Year 3).
Italian terms for very soft (pianissimo), very loud (fortissimo), getting louder (crescendo), getting softer (decrescendo). Accents.
Timbre:
Qualities of different instruments and human characteristics of their ‘voices’ (Year 3)
Recognising isolated and combinations of timbres. Instrumental techniques (Year 4).
Texture:
Mostly monophonic textures in Year 3 with ostinato and drone accompaniments and the beginning of round singing (being mindful of the significance of nine year change).
Two rhythmic, melodic or chordal patterns appearing simultaneously. Exploring contrast within texture (Year 4).
Form (structure):
Year 3 rounds (see above), repetition, echo, call and response.
Phrases, question and answer, ostinato, repeat signs, binary (AB) form. Verse chorus (Year 4)
Skills:
Developing the ability to sing simple rounds Year 3 or 4 (via drones, ostinato).
Singing in parts and in unison with correct pitch, rhythm and dynamics (Year 4).
Playing instruments individually and in ensemble with correct rhythm, pitch and dynamics
Discriminating between rhythm and beat.
Demonstrating beat and tempo changes – conducting patterns for duple, triple and quadruple time signatures (Year 4).
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Examples of knowledge and skills appropriate for students in Music at Year 3 to Year 4 level.
Exploring roles in ensemble; rhythmic, melodic, harmonic (Year 4).
Being able to read staff notation for vocal and instrumental music and perform simple music at sight.
Being able to aurally remember and sing or play increasingly longer and more complex phrases of music.
Using all the above in creating original music.
Achievement Standard Year 3 to Year 4
By the end of Year 4 the students will enjoy and be able to sing in two parts, and play instruments in two
parts with accurate pitch, rhythm and expression. They will understand how to use dynamic contrast in
performance. They will understand the rudiments of Western music notation and achieve satisfaction in
creating and arranging, as individuals and in groups simple pieces of music and songs using sound, silence,
tempo and volume, and understand and communicate where and why people make music, such as at
festivals and for other occasions.
The students can describe and discuss in an age-appropriate manner, the differences between pieces of
music they compose, sing, play and listen to, especially in relation to identifying the elements of melody,
rhythm and harmony.
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Overview Classes 5-6
From Class 5 to Class 6 the students continue to consider music as an art form and to gain knowledge of the language that enables them to appreciate, perform, create and discuss music. They also become further skilled at playing and singing with others to create uniquely social experiences.
Class 5 Musical considerations and Main Lesson connections.
The students’ affective life develops strongly with more empathy and depth of feeling present. In music they
are ready for playing music in small groups where they need to work on communication and leadership.
The Main Lesson content for Class 5 features the evolution of human consciousness and this offers many
opportunities for the students to learn about the part music has always played in human culture and the
mood of each epoch. Beginning their studies in Ancient India, they consciously experience the sacred nature
of music and its ability to transport us in time and space. Journeying through Ancient Persia and Ancient
Egypt, they experience first the dualities of light and dark, (that could be expressed as musical dualities of
timbre, tempo, pitch) and then the perfect 5th as the interval that Steiner identified as hovering between the
physical and spiritual worlds.
The Hellenisation of the world through Alexander’s travels enable the students to learn about beauty in music,
through balance and symmetry. Brought in a phenomenological way, The Greek modes and the notion of
‘ethos’ deepen the students’ understanding of the power of music to affect human beings. For instance, the
same melody (original or not) could be played using different modes. The students’ attention is drawn to
timbre as a way of expressing beauty in music. The students practise an instrument in the way an Olympic
athlete trains for a competition.
In the same way that the grammar Main Lesson explores how language can enrich the expressive power of
words, the students’ study of music theory supports their understanding of the expressive aims of music.
They continue to learn specific musical terminology.
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Class 6
Musical considerations and Main Lesson connections.
The students learn about aesthetic appreciation of music and the place of musical context. They learn
musical history more from a thematic than a chronological approach, for instance in the biographies of
composers and musicians. The balance between the individual and the State is a theme for this year and is
expressed in the music lessons by further development of ensemble skills, orchestral and band performance
and conducting. This is also underpinned by the study of the conditional in grammar that requires empathy.
The expressive possibilities of language are used to describe verbally or in writing, music that the students
hear.
Music, being essentially ratios of time and frequency supports the students in their search for internal order.
The astronomy Main Lesson deals with the order of the cosmos and the students may learn about the ‘music
of the spheres’. They use the Greek ‘planetary’ scales (modes) for composition exercises.
The scientific aspects of music are explored in the Main Lesson program for this year especially in the
phenomenological study of acoustics. The students are inspired with the wonder of the world and in music
their knowledge of the concept of pitch can be used in the Chladni plate experiments that reveal varying
spatial patterns. The students learn about the relationship between pitch and string length or vibrating air-
column. Students could explore the natural and man-made world in relation to musical sounds. What sounds
do rocks, pieces of wood, railings make? Theoretical matters are approached more abstractly such as
intervals, major and minor scales. The students work with parallel keys and reading key signatures. They
learn to transpose melodies. They use and understand Italian terms for dynamics, tempo and articulation.
The students understand the layout of the piano keyboard for theoretical and basic practical work.
Students in classes 4 to 6 continue to develop their ability to sing in parts in combined choirs. Their sight-
singing skills and use of Tonic Sol-fa notation increases in speed and complexity.
They may continue to learn a bowed string instrument and can choose a wind or brass instrument.
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Class 5-6 Content
Note on numbering: In this and similar tables, the first digit refers to the school year group or groups;
eg 5/6 = both classes 5 & 6. A number in brackets after the elaboration title indicates the class.
The second digit refers to the content description, and the 3rd to the elaboration of the description.
Where there is more than one point per elaboration, these points are indicated with a, b, c, etc.
Content Description Content Elaborations
5/6.1 Develop active listening through experiencing the elements of music, performance, relating sounds to symbols and comparing music from different social, cultural and historical contexts including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music.
Elaboration 1 Understanding pitch and rhythm 5/6.1.1a Identifying the keynote in diatonic music. 5/6.1.1b Demonstrating an understanding of note lengths. 5/6.1.1c Demonstrating an understanding of intervals and their different
characteristics. 5/6.1.1d Identifying major and minor intervals. 5/6.1.1e Transcribing pitch and rhythm dictations using staff notation and Tonic
Sol-fa hand signs. 5/6.1.1f Identifying different moods through the use of different scales and
tunings. 5/6.1.1g Identifying different cultural and historical contexts for music including
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music.
5/6.2 Sing in unison and parts, songs relating to Main Lesson and other subjects and for community festivals. Explore dynamics and expression, using aural skills to identify, understand and perform rhythm and pitch patterns.
Elaboration 1 (5/6) Singing in unison and parts. 5.2.1 Singing rounds, canons, quodlibets 5/6.2.1a Singing more complex rounds, canons and quodlibets and part-singing
in two, three and four voices, unaccompanied and with harmonic accompaniment.
5/6.2.1b Singing in combined choir Elaboration 2 (5/6) Sight-singing and Tonic Sol-fa. 5/6.2.2a Sight-reading from notation and using rhythm names, (see Examples of
Knowledge and Skills for Foundation to 3 and below), letter names and Tonic Sol-fa names. Singing the major scale.
5/6.2.2b Singing major and minor scales to Tonic Sol-fa and known songs to letter names and Tonic Sol-fa.
6.2.2c Transposing melodies using letter names. 6.2.2d Beginning to self-correct intonation, diction and rhythm. Elaboration 3 (5/6) Analysing and performing music read from notation. 5/6.2.3a Distinguishing between melody, harmony and rhythm. 5.2.3b Recognising keys of D and Bb majors; a, e and d minors/ 6.2.3b Recognising keys of A and Eb majors; b and g minors. 5/6.2.3c Discussing aspects of melody; range, melodic shape, frequently used
notes, repeated rhythms. 5/6.2.3d 5/6.2.3d Discussing aspects of harmony; intervals, chords.
5/6.3 Play instruments individually and in parts in ensemble. Explore dynamics and expression, using aural skills to identify, understand and perform rhythm and pitch patterns
Elaboration 1 (5/6) Playing recorders and percussion instruments 5.3.1a Playing descant recorder diatonically, using slurs and detached notes,
music in to two parts 5/6.3.1b Playing treble recorder diatonically, using slurs and detached notes,
music in up to three parts 6.3.3.1c Playing recorder consort music. 5/6.3.1d Playing diatonic melodies and harmony parts on tuned percussion. 5/6.3.1e Playing more complex rhythmic ostinati on tuned and un-tuned
percussion
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Content Description Content Elaborations
Elaboration 2 (5/6) Demonstrating an understanding of rhythm and beat. 5/6.3.2a Performing rhythm and beat independently. 5/6.3.3b Performing conducting patterns for 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 and (Class VI) 6/8. 5/6.3.2c Performing more complex rhythms including syncopations. Elaboration 3 (5/6) Playing orchestral and band instruments in ensembles. 5/6.3.3a Playing instruments in groups, Class Orchestra with the use of dynamics
and expressive techniques, beginning ensemble skills and for a variety of audiences.
5/6.3.3b Beginning to work in small groups on self-directed musical projects.
5/6.3.3c Playing simple chordal accompaniments in class ensembles.
5/6.4 Create, perform and record music using graphic and conventional notation to express ideas and emotions and engage an audience
Elaboration 1 (5/6) Creating and notating original music 5/6.4.1a Notating original music using graphic scores and conventional staff
notation. 5/6.4.1b Understanding and using simple time signatures 6.4.1c Understanding and using compound time signatures 5.4.1d Creating music without template and using a greater range of pitches
with and without harmonic accompaniment/ 6.4.1d Creating longer pieces of music demonstrating specific knowledge
including AB/ ABA form and phrase structures, with and without harmonic accompaniment.
Elaboration 2 (5/6) Setting words to music. 5/6.4.2 Setting multisyllabic words to music, using literary metres, a fuller range
of pitches and showing an awareness of form and phrase structures.
Examples of knowledge and skills appropriate for students in Music
at Year 5 to Year 6 level.
Rhythm/time:
2/4,3/4, 4/4, and (Year 6) 6/8
Simple metres, compound metres (Year 6)
Whole note and fractional note values, American names of note lengths. Push (whole note), glide
(half note), walk (quarter note), running (two eighth notes), running faster (four sixteenth notes),
tumbling (three equal quavers, either in 6/8 or triplets). Similar words may be used but the
emphasis is on a kinaesthetic experience of rhythm and beat.
Other rhythmic units – run faster, faster run,
Rests of above (silent imagination of the movement).
Separation of beat from rhythm, melody and harmony.
Identifying harmonic speed.
Different types of beat, e.g. minims, quavers.
Musical mathematics.
Ostinati, tempi changes, ritardando, accelerando.
Duple and triple notes.
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Examples of knowledge and skills appropriate for students in Music
at Year 5 to Year 6 level.
Pitch:
Diatonic intervals, musical dictations, Ragas, Greek Planetary scales (modes) and their characters. Melodic shape, patterns, scales and arpeggios.
Recognizing and singing semitones. Relationship of pitch to string length/air column. Tonic Sol-fa hand signs for pitches.
Harmony – chords and chord symbols e.g. I. IV, V, ii, iii, vi, in different keys.
Dynamics and Expressive Techniques:
Italian terms for very soft (pianissimo), very loud (fortissimo), getting louder (crescendo), getting softer (decrescendo).Accents. Legato, staccato.
Timbre:
Qualities of different instruments and human characteristics of their ‘voices’. Recognising isolated and combinations of timbres. Instrumental techniques.
Texture:
Two or more rhythmic, melodic or chordal patterns appearing simultaneously. Exploring contrast within texture.
Form (structure):
Phrases, question and answer, ostinato, repeat signs, binary (AB), ternary (ABA) forms.
Verse and chorus.
Skills:
Singing in parts and in unison with correct pitch, rhythm and dynamics.
Playing instruments in ensemble and individually with correct rhythm, pitch and dynamics.
Performing rhythm and beat independently.
Demonstrating beat and tempo changes – conducting patterns for duple, triple and quadruple time signatures.
Exploring roles in ensemble; rhythmic, melodic, harmonic.
Being able to read staff notation for vocal and instrumental music and perform music at sight.
Being able to aurally remember and sing or play increasingly longer and more complex phrases of music.
Using all the above in creating original music.
Year 5 to Year 6 Achievement Standard
Students begin to explain how music communicates meaning (mood) in musical performance and composition through distinguishing aspects of the elements of music. They describe how the music they perform can evoke different times, cultures and places.
Students create music that expresses emotion and communicates ideas showing an understanding of simple
forms, phrase structure, melody, harmony and rhythm, timbre and texture. They demonstrate aural skills by
singing and playing instruments with accurate pitch, rhythm, dynamics, articulation and developing sense of
style. They find satisfaction in communicating meaning and expressing feelings to an audience.
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Years Foundation to 6 General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking – Music making involves many opportunities for critical thinking such as
deciding on alternative solutions in composition exercises, evaluating performances and planning for
improvement in the future or ascertaining the roles of different instruments heard in a piece of music.
Creative thinking is found in the enormous range of choices available to composers of music (pitch and
rhythm combination, the choice of instruments, dynamics, articulation); performers of music (how to phrase a
song, where to breathe, what dynamics to use) and listeners (what a piece of music suggests to a listener,
how to interpret and decipher it and respond to it).
Personal and social competence – Musical practice provides opportunities to develop personal skills such
as discipline in practicing an instrument and carrying out a performance or composing, notating and
performing a piece of original music. Social competence is developed through working musically with others
in duos or small groups. Composition in small groups, particularly, requires a great deal of awareness of
one’s own and others’ strengths and weaknesses and the need to listen to ideas from other people.
Ethical behaviour – Music requires a respectful approach, not just in terms of respecting the creations of
other people, such as compositions or musical performances but also in respecting the music as having a
being of its own. An example would be the ‘magical’ silence engendered at the end of a piece of music. Here
students can develop the ability to allow the music to disappear in its own time and not destroy the change of
mood. It is also important for students to understand that some musical ideas, like language structures,
cannot just be copied but are a personal expression of individuals.
Intercultural understanding – Through learning music from different parts of the world and from different
periods of time, students gain an appreciation for different cultures and ways of living. Music has a unique
ability to transport the listener or performer to another culture or era as these are clearly defined by particular
musical characteristics.
Literacy – Through their engaging with song and lyrics, students have the opportunity to appreciate
language both as interpreters and creators. Setting texts to music requires an understanding of metre and
emphasis as well as the need to make artistic decisions about meaning. Through developing their singing
technique, students become more and more aware of consonants, vowels and pronunciation.
Numeracy – Ernst Bindel suggests that in musical experience there is inside each of us an unseen
mathematician busily calculating the ratios and proportions that enable us to have an aesthetic experience of
music. In order to distinguish pitches, we have to make these calculations, however unconsciously, so to
train ‘the ear’ is to work with number at a profound level. In the gradual understanding of rhythmic
relationships, there is much scope for number work, for instance in the use of fractions when dealing with the
subdivisions of the whole note.
Information and communication technology (ICT) competence – The students of KG to Class 6 do not
use ICT in music education. This is because it is not considered appropriate.
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Years Foundation to 6 Cross Curriculum Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures – Students may engage with Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander music in their music lessons, learning to sing and play songs and chants as part of
stories or festivals.
Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia – The Music Curriculum is best followed in conjunction with
the Main Lesson Curriculum and this involves immersion in the stories and histories of Asia, such as in the
Ancient India Main Lesson. This will involve singing and playing music from Asia.
Sustainability – From the earliest stories in Kindergarten to the story sometimes told in Class 1 about the
child who makes a musical pipe from a fallen pear tree, ecology and sustainability are part of the music
curriculum. Instruments in the early years are best when not too ‘finished’ such as using seed-pods as
shakers, resonant stones or sticks for clapping sticks. That the physical aspects of music itself, when
produced acoustically, are formed in the natural world has a health-giving effect on young children and helps
them to connect to the world of nature. Later, when they approach the topic from a more intellectual point of
view, this real experience will inform their ability to relate to the issues of sustainability.
Aspects of ‘sound pollution’ may also be investigated using age-appropriate language.
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Overview Years 7-8
Building on the previous stages, the students have now learnt the basics of music theory and have practical
skills that they can apply to their performance, composition and to deepening their listening and responding
experiences. It is important for the students to enjoy music making. Musicology and aspects of music theory
continue to unfold a greater degree of sophistication in listening and responding to, performing and creating
music. The ‘elements of music’ are formally introduced in Class 8 but throughout Class 7 the students are
using a growing familiarity with specific technical terms to inform their music studies.
Matters of workplace health and safety in the use and care of equipment are adhered to as the students engage in more sophisticated musical practices. One of the main aims of the music curriculum in the higher classes is to enable the students to use the skills
they have been developing in the younger classes to engage in more sophisticated musical practices in the
areas of performance and creating music. Listening and understanding are key to this.
There is ongoing communication between the Class Teacher and Specialist Music Teacher in how to continue the use of music as part of the daily class rhythm and also to extend the students’ knowledge and skills.
Year 7
Musical considerations and Main Lesson connections.
Harmony should be emphasized in this year as it is the musical expression of feeling. The students’ internal
lives are entering into the turbulent journey of adolescence and harmony helps them to ride the waves of
extreme emotion as it balances the polarities of thinking and willing.
The Main Lesson program seeks to provide a contrast to the students’ subjective lives. The study of Medieval
European history and in particular the ideals of chivalry, provide a background for the study of Medieval
music, including the context of secular and sacred music. The Crusades introduce the migration of Islamic
music, instruments and ideas to Western Europe and the students study the origins of some modern
instruments. The students learn to play and sing music of the period and to compose using Medieval church
modes and rhythmic modes.
Through the study of the Renaissance period the students learn about technical developments in science
and their effects on musical instruments and expression. They also consider what tends towards the sacred
and objective beauty in the arts. Their musical judgment is encouraged through considering balance, shape,
proportion, timbre, purpose and expressivity. This is furthered by a study of different composers’ and
musicians’ biographies and musical styles.
The Voyages of Discovery Main Lesson enables the students to consider the wider world and is reflected in
their study of different world music including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music and musical
innovations. They learn to respect the music of the world’s cultures and understand its value.
The students continue to develop their ensemble skills in instrumental groups and Class orchestra and this is
the time when some students may begin to play in a combined Middle School orchestra.
The students are encouraged to sing as a class and also in combined class choirs. Care must be taken with
the boys’ voices as they begin to change. (See annotated bibliography for resources).
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Year 8
Musical considerations and Main Lesson connections.
An important theme of this year is causality and the students work to find a relationship between the ideals
they have been given and the reality of their own and others’ lives. The students learn music history with
reference to preceding styles, through independent research into aspects of musicology. Their objective
judgments and evaluations are fostered. At the same time, music with strong emotional expression and
biographies of highly individual musicians provide reflective material for the students. In ensembles and
orchestras, the students study music with a strongly emotional and personal bias from many different
cultures and periods arranged for suitable combinations of instruments.
Many of the boys’ voices are now changing and singing with the classes needs to take account of this. The students learn a variety of songs; a cappella and accompanied in up to four parts; melodramatic, songs with weighty themes, such as death, or songs that criticize aspects of contemporary life (e.g. protest songs). They also learn humorous songs as a counterbalance. Musical style and character are studied and the ‘elements’ or ‘concepts’ of music are formally introduced as the language of musicological study. The students build on previous knowledge and learn how to compose their own songs based on given or composed texts. They consider word-painting and imagery in their compositions and study the songs of other composers and song-writers including contemporary popular artists. This can support the production of the Shakespeare play that in many schools is a tradition in Class 8. The students study the political and social effects of revolution and learn about music and musicians that have been at the forefront of social unrest and change, for example Beethoven and his 3rd Symphony, Shostakovitch’s 11th Symphony, Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’, the songs of Bob Dylan, ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries, the phenomenon of Punk Rock, etc. The objective study of the physics of air and water provide opportunities for the students to consider the artistic and practical aspects of amplitude and frequency. The study of electromagnetism supports consciousness in the use of electronic music media; keyboards, electric guitars, microphones, amplifiers, computers etc. The students learn how to use computer software programs for writing and recording music, such as Sibelius, Garageband and Abelton. The objective realm of geometry has a strong relationship to musical forms and the students may learn from a phenomenological point of view about the significance of number in music such as in aleatory and serial music.
©SEA:ASCF MUSIC Curriculum Years K-10 Page 27 of 40 www.steinereducation.edu.au Version: April 2015
Years 7-8 Content
Note on numbering: In this and similar tables, the first digit refers to the school year group or groups;
eg 7/8 = both Years 7 & 8. A number in brackets after the elaboration title indicates the class.
The second digit refers to the content description, and the 3rd to the elaboration of the description.
Where there is more than one point per elaboration, these points are indicated with a, b, c, etc.
Content Description Content Elaborations
7/8.1 Explore the elements of music, through practice, sensitive rehearsal and performance; singing in unison and in parts including Australian, music.
Elaboration 1 – (7/8) Singing 7/8.1.1a Continuing to develop vocal tone and expressive possibilities through
manipulating timbre and dynamics. 7/8.1.1b Beginning to sing in SAB and SATB arrangements. 7/8.1.1c Singing art music, ballads, popular songs and world music songs with
increasing chants, motets etc. in unison and in parts from the Medieval and Renaissance periods demonstrating an awareness of appropriate tone colour and other performance techniques/ awareness of style.
7.1.1d Singing madrigals, Gregorian chants 8.1.1d Singing spirituals, ballads, strongly emotional art music, protest songs,
songs with social commentary, revolutionary songs, songs for the Shakespeare play, accompanied and a cappella, in unison and in parts.
7/8.1.1e Singing for a variety of audiences and with awareness of different performance requirements depending on musical style.
7/8.2 Explore the elements of music through practice, sensitive rehearsal and performance; playing instruments individually and in ensembles including Australian music.
Elaboration 1 (7/8) Playing instruments 7/8.2.2a Playing instruments in groups, Class and Middle School Orchestra,
Concert Band, Percussion Ensemble, with a range of dynamics and expressive techniques, increasing ensemble skills and for a variety of audiences.
7/8.2.2b Making stylistically appropriate musical decisions in self-directed small group rehearsals and performances.
7/8.2.2c Playing guitar or similar chordal instruments (autoharp, ukulele etc) in class ensemble with an understanding of stylistically appropriate harmonic accompaniment styles.
7/8.2.2d Playing Medieval and Renaissance music on recorders with an understanding of appropriate timbre and expressive techniques.
7/8.3 Create, perform and record music by manipulating the elements of music in order to develop musical ideas such as mood and atmosphere.
Elaboration 1 (7/8) Creating music 7/8.3.1a Notating compositions using conventional notation including dynamic
and expressive markings. 7/8.3.1b Creating and interpreting other types of notation representing musical
sounds. 7/8.3.1c Improvising and composing music in groups, experimenting with the
sequencing and layering of sounds to achieve specific musical outcomes.
7/8.3.1d Harmonizing melodic music using appropriate accompaniment styles. 7/8.3.1e Considering phrase lengths; call and response; question and answer
structures. 7/8.3.1f Considering range and tessitura in musical composition. 7.3.1g Creating music using Medieval pitch and rhythmic modes. 8.3.1h Setting words for songs in Shakespeare’s plays including word-
painting and imagery. 8.3.1i Including harmonic cadences and modulations in musical
compositions.
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Content Description Content Elaborations
Elaboration 2 (8) Using digital technology 8.3.2 Manipulating sounds using music-writing software and recording
programs. Elaboration 3 (7/8) Arranging music 7/8.3.3 Arranging existing music by manipulating the elements of music.
Considering stylistic changes during the process.
7/8.4 Listen to, create and interpret music through an awareness /understanding of the use of the elements of music in stylistic features and cultural/ historical context including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music.
Elaboration 1 (7/8) Aural training 7/8.4.1a Identifying different instruments aurally (and visually) 7/8.4.1b Recognising, reproducing and characterizing all major and perfect
intervals. 7/8.4.1c Identifying tones and semitones by ear. 7/8.4.1d Recognising and reproducing the chromatic scale.
7.4.1e Meeting the ‘circle of 5ths’/ 8.4.1e Understanding and reconstructing the ‘circle of 5ths’
7/8.4.1f Recognising and reproducing some of the notes of the harmonic series. 7/8.4.1g Recognising, reproducing and using chords I, IV, V and vi in musical
progressions. 8.4.1h Recognising, reproducing and using chords ii, iii and vii in musical
progressions. 7/8.4.1i Transcribing melodic, harmonic and rhythmic music from dictation. 8.4.1j Recognising musical effects of alliteration and assonance and using
them in composition and performance practice. 7.4.1k Recognising harmonic cadences (perfect and imperfect).
Elaboration 2 (7/8) Identifying features of musical style 7/8.4.2a Distinguishing and reproducing features of musical style (including
Medieval and Renaissance) with reference to the elements of music for example, drones, modal scales, rhythmic modes.
7/8.4.2b Comparing, evaluating and reproducing features of musical style with a knowledge and understanding of the elements of music, historical context and chronology especially associations with revolution and innovation.
7.4.2c Recognizing music of other cultures including Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander music/ 8.4.2c Understanding the context of and respecting music from diverse
cultures including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music.
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Examples of knowledge and skills appropriate for students in Music at Years 7 and 8 level.
In Years 7 and 8, the students continue to use their knowledge of music to inform their musical practices
of listening, performing and creating.
Elements of Music
Rhythm/time:
Rhythmic devices such as anacrusis, syncopation, ties and pause; Medieval rhythmic modes.
Pitch:
Melodic sequences; key and key signatures; major and minor chords and primary triads (I, IV, V, ii,
iii, vi) in chord progressions; reading treble and bass clefs and leger lines; perfect and imperfect
cadences; intervals within the major scale.
Range and tessitura
SAT, SATB singing
Dynamics and expression:
Dynamics and articulations relevant to style, for example, glissando, slide, slap, melismatic
phrasing.
Form and Structure:
Regular and irregular phrase lengths; repetition and contrast, digital sequences; theme and
variation; 12 bar blues; popular song structures including verse, chorus, bridge, middle 8, intro
and outro.
Timbre:
Recognizing instrumental types and groups; voice types; acoustic and electronic sound.
Texture:
Identifying layers of sound and their role (accompaniment and melody); unison, homophonic
(melody with chords), polyphonic (two or more independent layers performed simultaneously).
Experimenting with sequence and layering of sounds.
Skills (including aural skills)
Recognizing rhythmic patterns and beat groupings
Discriminating between pitches, recognizing and reproducing intervals and familiar chord
progressions
Identifying and notating metre and rhythmic groupings
Aurally identifying layers within a texture
Imitating and/or notating simple melodies and rhythms
Performing with expression and technical control, correct posture and safety
Understanding their role within an ensemble, balancing and controlling tone and volume
Using technology as a tool for music learning and to record their music
Holding and playing instruments and using their voices safely and correctly
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Year 7 to Year 8 Achievement Standard
By the end of Year 8 students enjoy identifying the elements of music and use them to discuss musical
experience. They recognize the mental strength this creates through increasing their powers of judgment.
They are able to identify and analyse how the elements of music are used to create different forms of musical
expression and idea in various cultures and historical periods and hence the story of human consciousness.
They apply this knowledge in their own music making and communicate this to audiences.
The students deepen their understanding of musical composition and performance through increasing their
ability to listen with more consciousness and discernment. Students create music that expresses emotion
and communicates ideas showing an understanding of more complex forms, phase structure, melody,
harmony and rhythm, timbre and texture. They use aural skills, music terminology and notation symbols to
inform their composition and performance practice.
They use musical notation and music technology in order to help with the notation and recording of musical
ideas.
For General Capabilities and Cross Curriculum Priorities see Years 7-10 below
Marimba band
Mixed age lyre group plays for Winter Festival
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Overview Years 9-10
This stage builds on the learning of the previous stages and aims to support the themes of the Main Lesson
curriculum. It focuses on both the technical language and skills needed for understanding, performing and
creating music in greater depth and the emotional and spiritual sustenance that activity in music provides,
Matters of workplace health and safety in the use and care of equipment are adhered to as the students engage in more sophisticated musical practices.
Musical considerations and Main Lesson connections.
Year 9
Year 9 is essentially a practical year and the emphasis is on practical music making. Students in Class 9
learn about cause and effect. This is experienced in music as stylistic developments in a range of genres
from around the world and different periods of history. The historical and cultural influence on composers and
performers and their effect on each other is traced and used to inform performance and composition
experiences. This helps to prepare the students for the Music History Main Lesson in Class 11. Class 9
students are encouraged to develop their sometimes black and white judgments springing from an emotional
response to music, to judgments based on observation and understanding. How music is created and
recorded, how instruments are made, how composers and song-writers earn their living, comparisons
between composers of the same time period, the attractions and challenges of the world of popular music are
all themes for study as the students move from ideal to practical reality, from discovery of the world to
creation.
Modern History for this year provides an opportunity to explore the significance of music produced under the regimes of world ideologies such as Communism and Fascism. The role of women in performance and composition, in the light of the Suffragette movement for instance, is studied. Social History allows the students to consider the phenomenon of popular music in a chronological review. They learn about the societal factors that led to the rise and popularity of Jazz including slavery, Prohibition and the Depression. The fusions that resulted in “Rock ‘n’ Roll” and 20th century popular music are described, characterised, compared and assessed and connections made between music and society. The influences of the revolution in electronic and communication technology are studied in terms of the production and consumption of music as a commodity. In chemistry Main Lessons, the students study the art of refining substances and in music the aim is to
enable the students to refine their ability to make conscious musical judgments and cultivate artistic ‘taste’.
A study of the archetypal nature of tragic and comedic theatre, designed to objectify their emotional
discomfort, can include students experiencing music drama through preparing for a musical theatre
production. The objective commentary on emotional process that music within drama offers is a therapeutic
process for students of this age. They can also engage with stagecraft and other related activities.
The considerations of English usage and grammar, including the manipulation of text structures for effect is
echoed in the Class 9 music curriculum in the study of song-writing and rapping. Students learn how
individual composers and song-writers of different styles and periods create particular musical effects
through using the elements of music to enhance texts and forge a personal style.
As a counterbalance to this sometimes intensely emotional period of development, mathematics in Class 9
emphasizes stringent logic and this is paralleled in the music curriculum in learning how music is constructed
such as in harmonic progressions or the differences between polyphony and homophony.
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Material for vocal work includes large choral works that can involve parents and staff, folksongs, lieder, light music, political songs, a cappella, accompanied, unison and part singing, musical theatre songs, songs in foreign languages, world music, and popular music including rapping and other forms of chanting.
Year 10 Students in Class 10 study historical and cultural influences in music in more depth than in Class 9 and have further developed their ability to form objective judgments. The imagination of the ‘anagnorisis’ of Odysseus, the ‘ego-directed hero’ who becomes aware of the reality of situations through the schooling of his observations applies to students of this age. Epic poetry in the Birth of Literature Main Lesson, provides the background for students to listen to, perform and create diverse styles of music that tell a heroic story. The balance between form and content is a theme that the students engage with in studying, creating and performing pieces of music and songs. For example, the phenomenon of the Fibonacci series, introduced in the mathematics Main Lessons, could be taken up in music in the study of musical forms apparently based on these ratios for instance in the music of Bela Bartok and Claude Debussy. Musical forms are studied in greater depth, including fugue and Sonata Form and its relationship to the life of the human being. Laws that can be understood through thought provide a firm foundation to learning in harmony and counterpoint. Ecological studies including the consideration of the earth as Gaia, a living organism, are developed in the idea of artistic ecology; respecting and cultivating music from different cultures including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music, thereby creating a healthy whole. As part of the Main Lesson program, the students undertake a review of the history they studied in Class 5 but this time looking at ancient cultures by including primary and secondary sources and archeological interpretations. They learn about ethnomusicology as a science and weigh imbalances in the cultural life of the planet including a consideration of the challenges of globalization in its impact on musical diversity. Steiner particularly emphasized instrumental music for the students of Class 10. As their learning becomes increasingly abstract, instrumental music provides a health-giving way of harmonizing thinking, feeling and willing and this balance is discussed with the students as part of the study. Both smaller and larger ensembles, playing diverse styles, provide the students with opportunities to increase awareness of their role in a musical performance through appropriately manipulating the elements of music. They also reflect on others’ performances and consider whether the artistic intentions of an artist have been realized. The students sing in a combined choir and can perform large choral works with parents and teachers and a wide range of vocal music from various genres. The students play a more responsible role in cultural/musical events, such as planning and staging concerts, learning about ticketing, advertising, stage-managing and front of house. They learn about the planning required to take music into the community for instance, performing at hospitals and Aged Care centres.
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Years 9-10 Content
Note on numbering: In this and similar tables, the first digit refers to the school year group or groups;
eg 9/10 = both Years 9 & 10. A number in brackets after the elaboration title indicates the class.
The second digit refers to the content description, and the 3rd to the elaboration of the description.
Where there is more than one point per elaboration, these points are indicated with a, b, c, etc.
Content Description Content Elaborations
9/10.1 Explore with developing musical awareness and skill, through practice, sensitive rehearsal and performance the elements of music, through singing in unison and in parts
9/10.1.1a Continuing to develop vocal tone through understanding and using vocal techniques such as twang, retraction, breath support, laryngeal tilt etc., within an expanding repertoire of music.
9/10.1.1b Sight-singing more fluently with and without Tonic Sol-fa notation. 9/10.1.c Singing small and large choral works in up to SATB scoring,
being responsive to the rehearsal and performance requirements including a common expressive goal, appropriate intonation, vowel blending/timbral shading and consonantal word endings.
9/10.1.1d Extending ability to perform stylistically, individual and choral repertoire including world music, art songs, political songs, popular music, music for theatre, opera and operetta, songs in foreign languages, a cappella and accompanied.
10.1.1e Planning and executing vocal performances including choice of appropriate repertoire by considering the target audience.
9/10.1.1f Rehearsing and staging a musical theatre performance
9/10.2 Explore with developing musical awareness and skill, through practice, sensitive rehearsal and performance the elements of music through playing instruments individually and in ensembles
9/10.2.1a Playing instruments in groups and larger ensembles such as Senior School Orchestra, Jazz Ensembles, Concert Band, Percussion Ensemble, Popular Music Ensembles etc.
9/10.2.1b Making stylistically sophisticated musical decisions in self- directed small group rehearsals and performances, considering the elements of music with reference to expressive aims.
9/10.2.1c Accompanying groups by playing harmony instruments such as guitar, ukulele, piano, and keyboard.
9/10.3. Create, perform and record music with stylistic awareness by manipulating the elements of music (eg texture, dynamics, expression, style, convention) in order to develop personal musical expression (Include Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander music)
Elaboration 1 (9/10) Creating original compositions using ‘classical techniques’ and notating in traditional notation, either hand-written or using a program such as Finale or Sibelius (not stylistically prescribed, however).
9/10.3.1a Notating multi-layered compositions using conventional notation showing an understanding of score conventions such as instrumental layout for ensembles.
9/10.3.1b Creating and interpreting other types of notation representing musical sounds with a greater awareness of musical style and cultural/historical context.
9.3.1c Understanding the subtleties of text structures and creating music that enhances their expressive possibilities through careful consideration of the elements of music.
9/10.3.1d Understanding and reproducing the characteristics of musical style through considering the elements of music.
10.3.1e Writing contrasting themes, such as appear in Sonata Form and extending musical ideas through fragmentation, repetition, sequence etc.
9/10.3.1f Developing harmonic progressions with the use of added note/extended chords and substitutions.
9/10.3.1g Creating harmonic and polyphonic textures using appropriate textural devices such as homophony, counterpoint (Year 10) and heterophony.
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Content Description Content Elaborations
9/10.3.1h Arranging existing music by manipulating the elements of music to create a different stylistic expression (e.g. rock music to art music or vice versa).
Elaboration 2 (9/10) Creating music using processes and techniques of
popular music production (not stylistically prescribed, however) 9/10.3.2a Improvising and creating original music in groups, experimenting
with the sequencing and layering of sounds in order to create specific musical effects.
9/10.3.2b Manipulating sounds and creating larger musical structures through the use of music technology such as music writing and recording programs.
9/10.3.2c Understanding the subtleties of text structures and creating music that enhances their expressive possibilities through careful consideration of the elements of music.
9/10.3.2d Understanding and reproducing the characteristics of musical style through considering the elements of music.
9/10.3.2e Developing harmonic progressions with the use of added note/extended chords and substitutions.
9/10.3.2f Creating harmonic and polyphonic textures using appropriate textural devices such as homophony, polyphony (Year 10) and heterophony.
9/10.4 Listen to, interpret and evaluate music to create, refine and perform music through a study of the elements of music and an appreciation of cultural and historical context. (including music of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists)
Elaboration 1 (9/10) Aural Training 9/10.4.1a Identifying and describing a wide range of musical instruments
including orchestral, band, popular and ethnic instruments and having awareness of their playing ranges and specific techniques.
9/10.4.1b Recognizing and characterizing all major, minor and perfect intervals and including diminished 5th/augmented 4th
10.4.1c Imagining and performing either major or minor 3rd within an open 5th.
9/10.4.1d Identifying modulations to the dominant/subdominant/relative minor.
9/10.4.1e Identifying and using pentatonic, whole tone, blues scales, Hijaz scale, Ragas, etc for composition.
9/10.4.1f Recognizing and reproducing extended chords including 7ths, 9ths, 11ths and 13ths plus added notes such as 2nds, 6ths and 4ths.
9/10.4.1g Recognizing harmonic cadences (perfect, imperfect, plagal and interrupted).
9/10.4.1h Transcribing melodic, harmonic and rhythmic music from dictation including music in two voices (Class 10).
Elaboration 2 (9/10) (Identifying features of musical style) Year 9 9.4.2a Comparing, evaluating and reproducing features of musical style
with reference to the elements of music (e.g. comparing the music of Beethoven and Mozart, or Handel and Bach; investigating music and ideologies for example in the biographies and compositions of Richard Wagner, Carl Orff, Kurt Weil, Dimitri Shostakovitch, Dame Ethel Smythe, Scott Joplin and in different styles of music such as Flamenco, Aboriginal Dreamtime, Indian Classical etc.).
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Content Description Content Elaborations
Year 10 10.4.2a Comparing, evaluating and reproducing features of musical style
with reference to the elements of music especially associations with the spirit of Epic literature, the Fibonacci series, logic, ethnomusicological studies, ecology (Gaia) (e.g. ‘A Hero’s Life’ by Richard Strauss, ‘Harold in Italy’ by Hector Berlioz, Symphony no 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven, ‘Music for Strings, percussion and celeste’ by Bela Bartok, ‘La Mer’ by Claude Debussy, ‘Two part inventions’ by J.S Bach, ‘Kakadu’ by Peter Sculthorpe, ‘’The Winds of Heaven’ by Sarah Hopkins, ‘Maninyas’ by Ross Edwards, ‘Ngana’ by Steven Leek, ‘Earth and the Great Weather’ by John Luther Adams, the music of Yothu Yindi, etc.).
9/10.4.2b Analyzing and contextualizing music of other cultures including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music.
Examples of knowledge and skills appropriate for students in Music at Years 9 and 10
This section (knowledge and skills Years 9 and 10) is based on the ACARA music curriculum as it
corresponds in many ways with that document.
Rhythm
Regular and irregular time signature and beat subdivisions; triplets and duplets; further time signatures.
Complex metres, required note groupings: 5/4, 7/8, 9/8
Rhythmic devices including syncopation, rhythmic motif, rhythmic augmentation and diminution Pitch:
Melodies and chords based on major, minor and modal scales; tonal centres; modulation; consonance and dissonance; chromaticism; diminished and dominant 7th chords, added note chords; extended chords; pitch devices including riff, ostinato and pedal note, cadences
Dynamics and expression:
Dynamic gradations; expressive devices and articulations relevant to style such as rubato, ornamentation, terraced dynamics, pitch bending, vibrato, oscillation, filters and pedals
Form and structure:
Structures appropriate to styles and repertoire studied including theme, hook, motivic development, head, sonata form, interlude and improvisation
Timbre:
Identifying instruments and voice types by name and method of sound production (including voice types); use of mutes, pedals, harmonics, digitally manipulated sound, distortion and techniques appropriate to style
Texture:
Horizontal and vertical layers appropriate to styles and repertoire studied; homophonic and polyphonic writing, countermelody and white noise.
Skills:
Singing and playing music in a range of styles including sight-singing
Performing with expression and technical control and an awareness of ensemble.
Planning and executing performances, considering target audience
Improvising and composing music in groups and individually
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Year 9 and 10 Achievement Standard
By the end of Year 10 students enjoy the ability to perform music vocally, instrumentally, as soloists and in
ensembles, for audiences and for themselves. They value the achievements they have made in creating their
own music and in understanding the cultural and historical contexts of the music of others. They have a
broad interest in music and can use appropriate technology in order to assist them in their musical
experiences.
Students analyse different scores and performances aurally and visually. They evaluate the use of the
elements of music and defining characteristics from different musical styles. They use their understanding of
music making in different cultures, times and places to inform and shape their interpretations, performances
and compositions.
Students interpret, rehearse and perform solo and ensemble repertoire in a range of forms and styles. They
interpret and perform music with technical control, expression and stylistic understanding. They use aural
skills to recognise elements of music and memorise aspects of music such as pitch and rhythm sequences.
They use knowledge of the elements of music, style and notation to compose, document and share their
music.
Student performance at Shearwater School Wearable Arts Festival, curated by Year 9 and 10
Fiddler on the Roof
Year 10 Musicals All photos used with permission
West Side Story
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Years 7-10
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking – Critical and creative thinking at the level of a Class 10 student, builds on the
foundation laid in the earlier years where there are many opportunities for critical thinking such as deciding
on alternative solutions in composition exercises, evaluating performances and planning for improvement in
the future or ascertaining the roles of different instruments heard in a piece of music. At this level, there can
be more emphasis on the ability of students to relate musical sounds to symbols and to understand and
imagine larger scale musical structures including for other forms of media such as film. Creative thinking is
found in the enormous range of choices available to composers of music (pitch and rhythm combination, the
choice of instruments, dynamics, articulation); performers of music (how to phrase a song, where to breathe,
what dynamics to use) and listeners (what a piece of music suggests to a listener, how to interpret, decipher
it and respond to it, including notation).
Personal and social competence – As students develop their individual characteristics, music can be an
important part of their sense of identity. Vocal music enables them to experience their bodies in a tangible
and healthy way, and instrumental music provides opportunities for emotional expression that is so important
for adolescents. Musical practice also provides opportunities to develop discipline through learning an
instrument and carrying out a performance or composing, notating and performing a piece of original music.
Social competence is developed through working musically with others in duos or small groups. Composition
in small groups, particularly, requires a great deal of awareness of one’s own and others’ strengths and
weaknesses and the need to listen to ideas from other people.
Ethical behaviour – Music requires a respectful approach, not just in terms of respecting the creations of
other people, such as compositions or musical performances but also in respecting the music as having a
being of its own. An example would be the ‘magical’ silence engendered at the end of a piece of music. Here
students can develop the ability to allow the music to disappear in its own time and not destroy the change of
mood. It is also important for students to understand that some musical ideas, like language structures,
cannot just be copied but are a personal expression of individuals. In the senior years, students can engage
in questions of ecology and human geography through a study of music. The business aspects of the ‘music
industry’ can be studied including concepts such as intellectual property and attitudes towards
commercialization of music.
Intercultural understanding – Through learning music in conjunction with human geography, different parts
of the world and different periods of time can be brought to life. Students can gain the ability to imagine other
life situations apart from their own. Music has a unique ability to transport the listener or performer to another
culture or era. The senior students develop their ability to recognize and analyse particular musical
characteristics.
Literacy – Through their engaging with song and lyrics, students have the opportunity to appreciate
language both as interpreters and creators. Setting texts to music requires an understanding of metre and
emphasis as well as the need to make artistic decisions about meaning. Through developing their singing
technique, students become more and more aware of consonants, vowels and pronunciation.
Senior students also learn the specialist language for discussing and understanding music known as the
Elements or Concepts of music. This develops their capacity for choosing appropriate language as a means
of communicating and deepening understanding and appreciation.
Numeracy – Ernst Bindel suggests that in musical experience there is inside each of us an unseen
mathematician busily calculating the ratios and proportions that enable us to have an aesthetic experience of
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music. In order to distinguish pitches, we have to make these calculations, however unconsciously, so to
train ‘the ear’ is to work with number at a profound level.
Senior students, in their study of string and vibrating air columns use number ratios to understand the
phenomena of acoustics. They also relate these findings to the proportions of the human body. Musical
structures with their divisions into bars and sections also deal with number.
Information and communication Technology (ICT) competence - Senior students learn how to use
recording equipment, electronic keyboards and other electronic sound sources. They learn how to use
programs such as Garage Band and Abelton for recording and mixing music and Sibelius or Finale for
notating music. They will also access the internet to find texts and audio recordings that help them to
experience music from other times and cultures. They may use programs such as Skype to access pre-
recorded or real-time tutoring and performance opportunities.
Cross Curriculum Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures – Students may engage with Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander music in their music lessons, learning to sing and play songs and chants as part of
stories or festivals. Senior students may learn to place this music in cultural and historical contexts.
Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia – In studying and experiencing music from Asia, senior
students will learn about the involvement that Australia has in the region and the influence of Asian culture on
Australian musicians, such as Peter Sculthorpe and Ross Edwards.
Sustainability – Having been exposed in a pictorial and emotionally rich way to the ideas of sustainability as
younger children, students can approach them more intellectually in the upper senior years, through
conscious care of instruments, consideration of photocopying and paper usage, noise pollution and the
dangers of very loud music. The deeper issues of sustainability are also addressed in musicological studies
as important considerations of music and culture.
Whole School Concert
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References
Bindel, Ernst, 1950/51 The Numerical Basis of Music, Stuttgart
Ewing, Robert, 2010, The Arts and Australian Education, Realising Potential, Australian Council for
Educational Research, Camberwell, Victoria
Frongillo, C.A., 2012, The Importance of Being Musical, The Association of Waldorf Schools of North
America, Chatham, NY.
Gloekler, G., Langhammer, S., Wiechert, C., 2006, Education - Health for Life, Medical and Pedagogical
Sections at the Goetheanum, Dornach
Groh, I., Ruef, .M., 2002, Education and Teaching as Preventative Medicine, Medical Section at the
Goetheanum, Dornach
Howard, M., 1998, Art as Spiritual Activity, Anthroposophic Press, New York
Huseman, A., 1994, The Harmony of the Human Body, Floris Books, Edinburgh
Rawson, M.R., 2010, The Educational Tasks and Content of the Steiner Waldorf Curriculum, Steiner Schools Fellowship publications, Forest Row, East Sussex Riehm, P.M., 1989, in Beilharz, G. (ed) Erziehen und Heilen durch Muzik. Trans. J. C. Ruland, H., 1992, Expanding Tonal Awareness, Rudolf Steiner Press, Sussex Steiner, R., 1964, The Kingdom of Childhood, Rudolf Steiner Press, London Steiner, R., 1980, Waldorf Education for Adolescence, Michael Hall School, Forest Row, Sussex Steiner, R., 1983, Discussions with Teachers, Rudolf Steiner Press, London Steiner, R., 1983, The Inner Nature of Music and Experience of Tone, The Anthroposophic Press, New York Steiner, R., 1987, The Four Temperaments, Anthroposophic Press, Hudson, NY Steiner, R., 1988, Practical Advice to Teachers, Rudolf Steiner Press, London Steiner, R., 1996, Art as seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom, Rudolf Steiner Press, London Steiner, R., 1996, The Foundations of Human Experience, Anthroposophic Press, Hudson, NY. Steiner, R., The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone, lecture 7 March 1923 Schmidt no: S-
5193, Rudolf Steiner Archive, http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA283/English/AP1983/19230307p01.html
Stockmeyer, K., 1991, Rudolf Steiner’s Curriculum for Waldorf Schools, Steiner Schools Fellowship
publications, Forest Row, East Sussex Vaughan, T., Harris, J., Caldwell, B., (2011) Bridging the Gap in School Achievement through the Arts
(summary report), The Song Room, Abbotsford, Victoria Von Heydebrand, .C., 1989, The Curriculum of the first Waldorf School, Steiner Schools Fellowship
publications, Forest Row, East Sussex
©SEA:ASCF MUSIC Curriculum Years K-10 Page 40 of 40 www.steinereducation.edu.au Version: April 2015
Wilson, S.J. The Benefits of Music for the Brain, paper presented at the Australian Council for Educational Research conference, Melbourne, 4-6 August
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The Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework, 2011-2015, SEA publications Australian Curriculum: The Arts Foundation to Year 10, 2013, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and
Reporting Authority, Sydney, NSW Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus, 2006, The Board of Studies NSW, Sydney The Glenaeon Music Curriculum, Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School, Sydney, New South Wales KMEIA – Kodaly Music Education Institute of Australia, Kodaly.org.au, htpp://www.kodaly.org.au, access
date August 2nd 2014 The Mumbulla Steiner School Music Curriculum, Mumbulla School for Rudolf Steiner Education, Bega, New
South Wales. Music Years 7-10 Syllabus, 2003, The Board of Studies NSW, Sydney The Noosa Music Curriculum, Noosa Pengari Steiner School, Noosa, Queensland, Australia The Orana Music Curriculum, Orana Steiner School, Canberra, ACT, Australia The Silver Tree Music Curriculum, Silver Tree Steiner School, Perth, Western Australia The Sophia Mundi Steiner School Music Curriculum, Sophia Mundi School, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Annotated Bibliography A fuller Annotated Bibliography is available to Steiner Education Australia member schools on the Membership area of the SEA web-site.