Science, Medicine & Technology in Society - (MUSC 1210)

 Date for Entry: (Monday 14th September 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 7th July 2022)

Dear Diary,

    I had to take a fourth year to complete two remaining courses. The semester in which I was required to do this course was not permissible because the space of eight hundred students was already taken. I did attend the first plenary of that semester to find out the information from the course lecturer. 

    I was very scared to do this class at first. It reminded me of the sciences classes in school. There was a lot of coursework to be done including some in groups. There was going to be a tutorial so it felt hard to have to take a second class. I decided that the tutorial should not be on the day of the plenary or the day before. I decided Thursday evenings at 4PM was best suitable.

    The COVID-19 lockdown made us continue the online classes for both plenary and tutorial. As in the thesis class, we used Blackboard Collaborate on the UWI's My-E-Learning platform. It was difficult to find the classes so I missed the first plenary. Even finding some of the tutorial classes was trouble. 

Link(s):

1. Course Outline.

JOURNAL REFLECTIONS ASSIGNMENT.

* Unknown/Forgotten Date *

    This was a last-minute completed assignment. I spent a few late nights into the morning trying to review class sessions to do journal entries. They dropped this assignment on us on the very first plenary after the review of the course outline. There were very strict rules on missing a deadline and even for plagiarism.

Links(s):

1. Journal Reflections.

 

ASSESSMENT.

* Saturday 31st October 2020 *

    There was a multiple-choice assessment to do. I was asked to do it over with some others because we had done the practice test and the actual one had passed its deadline. Those were some really hard questions.

 

GROUP PRESENTATION & SUBMISSION.

* Unknown/Forgotten Date *

    Late down into the semester, the groups had to present to their tutorial class. My group had to discuss water security. I was working with a girl named Aaliyah. We had issues with another girl who was not communicating with us while we tried to get the presentation ready.

    Aaliyah and I had to make the girl do her part and we both had to endure the ‘interesting’ tutorial instructor yelling at us in the middle class. Thank God the tutorial was only an hour long. The class had to take in a tutor to go through this with us. This was not like English tutorials. The interacting persons presented were much different.

    The Turn-It-In submission had to be done the week before class presentations. The other girl was not communicating again and we had to keep on calling her for her accountability statements and entries to the PowerPoint.

    In the remaining six minutes before the deadline, I had to abandon Aaliyah and the other girl and submit the PowerPoint without getting their final things. That submission was very scary because the second it was confirmed submitted on the My-E-Learning platform; the time was twelve on the dot. The closing was midnight and no other submission would work.

    The presentation was done in class the following Thursday after some other groups. It took me six emails until I got the PowerPoint to the instructor’s email. That UWI email could not take a certain amount of size in a document. TOO faulty! Each time I did the emails I had to take out some things from the PowerPoint just to reduce the size. Two other groups were in the same trouble.

    I went first in the presentation. I had my speech prepared on Microsoft open and waited for the discussion to start. Aaliyah spoke after me and then the other girl spoke but not much. We had a ‘disappointment conversation’ afterward but the best part was that both of us were able to achieve eight points out of ten. I felt satisfied with that after the trouble with the group member and the tutor.

Links(s):

1. PowerPoint Submission.
2. Presentation Speech.

 

FINAL EXAMINATION.

* Tuesday 8th – Friday 11th December 2020 *

    I’ve never seen what a final exam question paper looked like for this course. We were told that the exam was modified because of the COVID-19 setting. On Tuesday 8 December 2020, the examination paper was released on My-E-Learning on a separate page from the course’s page. All I did for that day was printed the entire instructions document and began studying the information. I did not work on it right away until the next day. We were given until Friday for submissions on the My-E-Learning’s Turn-it-in.

    Two essay-type questions were given with serval things to discuss. One was a COVID-19 piece and the other was based on energy. I was excited to work on the energy essay first because a majority of my completed studies from the ‘course manual’ included that particular topic.

    I did not get plenty of reading done from the second half of the book’s topics and I did not bother to continue it because I had already done the reading on the pandemic and Epidemic sections for the COVID-19 essay. So, the work in the book was done and it was time to go online for further research.

    Just like the “Writing for Academic Purposes” course, I planned the number of words per paragraph like a financial budget and began working on the introduction for the energy. When the night came, I planned out the COVID-19 essay while taking a recess for the next day. One essay would be worked on a day. I did not expect to take so much time on the energy essay but it was fine. The COVID-19 essay was done in one shot. I had a lot of things that needed to make up for it.

    I did not wait for Friday evening to submit. I submitted the work on the My-E-Learning platform and then went out into the gallery. I felt like a prisoner being granted freedom into the world after sixty years of incarceration. We did not have a candidate’s receipts again so the cover page was filled out like the receipt and I had the headers designed as the folder page booklet they give us as writing paper.

Links(s):

1. Question Paper.
2. Responses.
3. Study Notes. ** [For Request by Email.]
4. Scrap Work. ** [Document Misplaced.]

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

“Deadly Pandemic: Coronavirus”

Date for Entry: (Friday 14th August 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 29th August 2022)

Dear Diary,

    This was a composition made from the inspiration of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, the computer lost a copy of the score. I believe it was over twelve pages. There was not much planning as to what this piece was supposed to do apart from describing the fear and seriousness of the infection.

    The painting was done within a day on Thursday 13 August 2020. Six hours in total were required to do the full colouring. In this illustration, I used the flowers in the ground as the coronavirus, and when the pollen and petal blow through the air it spreads the virus.

    The girl holding the flower in her hand would represent a person carrying the virus and being unaware that they were infected. It seemed to me that the same girl ended up looking like Carla from my “Magical Creatures” novel. However, the design for the dress came from thinking of our country’s president Ms. Paula-Mae Weekes.

    Listening to the recording, my mind was suggesting that what was presented should have been a beginning or introduction for the composition but too late now since the score was lost.

 

Link(s):

• “Deadly Pandemic: Coronavirus” –Full Score.
• Hand Drawing & Completed Painting.
• “Deadly Pandemic: Coronavirus” – YouTube Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Agar Tum Na Hote

Date for Entry: (Thursday 6th August 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 23rd March 2022)

Dear Diary,

    My friend Brandon Poonwassie from DCFA degree program was getting married around this time. He made a YouTube video playing the song “Agar Tum Na Hote” on the keyboard and was accompanied by two other gentlemen. One of the two men played drums in the studio.

    I decided that I would listen to the recording and notate it for steelpan like I usually would for the Indian Classical Ensemble on Monday nights. It came up to three pages and a portion of one day to complete this exercise. It was emailed and I hope it is useful.

    Unfortunately, when looking for the video on YouTube I was not sure I it was set as a private or unlisted one. I can only provide a recording of the score from Musescore.

 

Link(s):

1. “Agar Tum Na Hote” - (Score).
2. “Agar Tum Na Hote” (Recording).**

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

“Fountain in the Desert” – (Raag Bhairav)

Date for Entry: (Thursday 23rd July 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 29th August 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Here is another piece of Classical Indian music. I decided to use Raag Bhairavi which is another scale: the second and sixth degrees of the scale are lowered by a semitone. This is also illustrated at the beginning of the video. Again, the tonic (or ‘Sa’) was C.

    I used flute and harmonium as the major source of melody. The tambourine and tabla were given independent rhythmic patterns and were assigned as ostinati. However, the loud gong and bowl gong was replaced by a harp that was used to mimic the sound/feel of a swarmandal.

    As much as I wished, the software could not do the andolan or swing. Hence, use of more acciaccaturas was used as a substitution apart from instances where the true acciaccaturas were required.

    The drawing and painting were both done on Thursday 23 July 2020 in the afternoon at home number two. The full colouring took approximately two and a half hours long.

 

Link(s):

• Hand Drawing & Completed Painting.
• “Fountain in the Desert” – YouTube Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Music Degree - FINALS (Yr3; Sem2)

Date for Entry: (Thursday 4th June 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 27th June 2022)

Dear Diary,

    The final examination session took some time to come. The COVID-19 lockdown kept us on pause from classes and even the semester itself ended later than expected.

    All examination question papers were sent by email from the lecturers or by UWI’s My-E-Learning platform. We were expected to type notate our responses and submit them as prescribed by the instructions.

    This time around, there was no provision of the candidate’s receipts. I made the effort to create cover pages that provided the same information from those receipts. Durations for the exam were now set for some days.

THESIS FINAL SUBMISSION.

* Friday 17th April 2020 *

This was a "year long" course. The thesis was submitted on the UWI's My-E-Learning platform. There is an entire entry created on the details of that course at an earlier date. The project itself was a straight 100% 'coursework'.

Link(s):

1. Thesis (Submission) - Daryl-Ali-Humn3099-2020.

MUSIC EDUCATION 2.

* Thursday 4th June 2020 *

This was the first ‘COVID-19’ examination for the semester. I did not expect to witness the experience of an open book exam by UWI. That felt very unusual. I cannot recall the duration given for the exam until the deadline. For each question given in the exam, I created a box highlighting it.

    Two lessons were asked of us to prepare. I saw that Mr. Sharma added the “I’m gonna live so” arrangement for a voice that he had the little Sunday Schoolers sing in church. I was thankful for the idea in Assignment 3 of planning the work into different quotas. That helped me to complete this exam comfortably.

Link(s):

1. Music Education 2 – FINAL Examination Response.

 

CHORAL TECHNIQUES.

* Friday 12th June 2020 *

This examination came in by the UWI My-E-Learning. The moment I opened the document, I went thought the question three times in order to clarify my vexed feeling. I did not answer or start working on it immediately. I left that exam to do for the next day because of the type of questions asked. The responses were typed and sent in on the day of the exam.

Link(s):

1. Question Paper.
2. Final Examination Response.** [Not Available.]

x

Daryl Zion M. Ali

“Elephant Circus” – (Raag Bhairavi)

Date for Entry: (Friday 29th May 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 29th August 2022)

Dear Diary,

    This was my first attempt at creating a piece of Classical Indian music. The raag of choice was Bhairavi with the scale's second, third, sixth and seventh degrees lowered by a semitone. I tried to illustrate this with the notation at the very beginning of the video. The tonic (or ‘Sa’) is C.

    The two main instruments were the flute and the sitar. A tambourine was added to create a rhythmic pattern and this pattern was used as an ostinato. Since I did not know how to write for the tabla, I made an independent rhythmic pattern for the tambourine that gave the difference between the sound of the big drum and the smaller drum.

    Since Musescore does not operate under the Indian Classical style of music, there was no way to create a tanpura effect. Instead, a loud gong was used to indicate the beginning of a new cycle in teen taal. A bowl gong in between would also be heard.

    During the composition at 0:47 in the video, the use of call and response, or question and the answer was utilised. I did not want the two instruments doing the same melody. I wanted them interdependent like some sort of conversation. Most likely it felt like Trinis talking and finishing what the other person was saying.

    The dates of the drawing and the painting were not recorded. The painting was done on a night immediately after the day of the drawing. The next day after painting the elephant I saw a very gruesome and hurting story from CNN about people killing elephants in a foreign land. A mommy elephant and the young children were killed. I wished I had inserted the little baby elephant when I saw it in my mind but I did not know how to draw it.

Link(s):

• Hand Drawing & Completed Painting.
• “Elephant Circus” – YouTube Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Harmonium Individual - Performance Music 6: (Yr3, Sem1)

 Date for Entry: (Monday 27 January 2020

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 23rd March 2022)

Dear Diary,

    This particular class did not carry many sessions when the COVID-19 lockdown came. Whenever a new piece was introduced, the entire composition was given to me instead of small portions. I was glad that Sir was able to trust me in sending all the music in one go. I had all of them transcribed at the end of each session. 

    I was asked to record all pieces done in class along with assigned scales and technical exercises for marking. For me, it was a huge amount of video required. The recordings were done by cell phone. I wished there was a time when some of us could say how much they did. Without having access to a harmonium I was allowed to use the Piano. I did all of the harder alankars (exercises) that were given to us.

DHUN EXERCISE.

* Monday 6th April 2020 *

On this day, only the first page was given to me. I had decided to take the Chorus and Verse (Sthayee and Antraa) from Mr. Maharaj and expand them into a full composition. I think that is what Mr. Maharaj was explaining the Dhun to me. On Monday 13th April 220 this entire composition was completed after some days of working on it on the piano. I had the opportunity to try fingerings on Musescore.

    I was wondering if there would have been more explaining for that section but I took the experience from transcribing his pieces for the ensemble and came up with the music submitted for marking.

Link(s):

1. Dhun Composition (Version 4) - Final.**
2. Recording for Grading.**

BHAIRAVI THAAT.

* x *

Bhairavi was the first chosen thaat. I had to play the scale with three different scale patterns. In each of the three chosen patterns recorded, I had to play the same scale at a slow speed, medium speed, and fast.

Link(s):

1. Bhairavi Thaat - Alaankar #3.**
2. Bhairavi Thaat - Alaankar #7.**
3. Bhairavi Thaat - Alaankar #10.**

KALYAN THAAT.

* x *

Kalyan was the second chosen thaat. I had to play the scale with three different scale patterns. In each of the three chosen patterns recorded, I had to play the same scale at a slow speed, medium speed, and fast.

Link(s):

1. Kalyan Thaat - Alaankar #3.**
2. Kalyan Thaat - Alaankar #7.**
3. Kalyan Thaat - Alaankar #10.**

KHAMAAJ THAAT.

* x *

Khamaaj was the third chosen thaat. I had to play the scale with three different scale patterns. In each of the three chosen patterns recorded, I had to play the same scale at a slow speed, medium speed, and fast.

Link(s):

1. Khamaaj Thaat - Alaankar #7.**
2. Khamaaj Thaat - Alaankar #10.**

C MAJOR.

* x *

C Major was the chosen tonic for all pieces with Mr. Maharaj's class. I also had to play the scale with three different scale patterns. In each of the three chosen patterns recorded, I had to play the same scale at a slow speed, medium speed, and fast.

Link(s):

1. C Major - Alaankar #6.**
2. C Major - Alaankar #8.**
3. C Major - Alaankar #10.**

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Caribbean Studies Project - THESIS (MUSC 3099)

 Date for Entry: (Friday 24th January 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 27th June 2022)

Dear Diary,

    The time for the final year came and I knew I would be forced to do this ('year long') course. It was a course I knew that Degree students had to put together a project together like a book called a thesis and I was very scared of it since my certificate days. The thesis was just one of the many reasons why I did not want to do the degree in music. 

    There were no fixed days and times for thesis meetings with Mr. Sharma. He had agreed to be my supervisor for this project. I can recall people telling me to pick a topic that I was "interested in music" or "what is it that interests you the most" about something from my field of study. 

    Truthfully, I had no idea what I was interested in. Indeed, I had to go back to my second year days in primary school to study my entire life. Instead, I discovered questions bringing panic instead of a topic. It made me question why I was into music. It was not something I chose on my own. I only knew that it was chosen for me. And when passion came to the 'brainstorming table', I realised that I was going with the music as a person walking with me for all this time. 

    I did not understand why it would take me so long to find a topic. I felt left behind when others in the class were already with their topic and filling out their forms for topic registration. I even had a whole meeting with Mr. Sharma on just picking a topic alone. He was telling me that it is good to have three really good topics in case the one I chose was already taken or written on. He had to take a phone call in the middle of it so that gave me some time to think of it. All I could think about was Dr. Remy's Music Literature of the Steelpan Course.

    That course was something I wish I could have expanded on because I knew I liked making books from small. I could hear my thoughts from within saying, "Pick a topic you could talk on plenty." It made a lot of sense. I had a lot of work to work on and if it was a topic I could "talk on plenty" I would have exactly what to say, where to find the information either at home or in the library and how to structure the whole project. The bonus on it was that steelpan is a major aspect of the Caribbean and it still is a section of music that requires expansion.

    It was not easy convincing Mr. Sharma after his long phone call, to accept what I had written down in my copybook as the topic. We came up with two other topics and after I got some time to work on the wording, he reviewed them. By the end of my individual steelpan class with him the next week, I had my topic registration form filled out and he had to sign it, along with his copy and my copy. As soon as he signed it and I got into the car, I asked daddy to take me down to the 'Big UWI' to submit the three forms immediately ( **** September 2019). 

Link(s):

1. Course Guide.
2. Approved Topic Registration Form.**

SEMINAR #1.

* Unknown/Forgotten (Saturday November 2019) *

    We were asked to attend an online class for the thesis. I was very excepted because it was the first online class I was attending. The platform was called Blackboard Collaborate. I found the software very professional and really high-quality. This was a part of UWI's My-E-Learning. The PowerPoint slides were amazing. I appreciated all of the decorations. This plenary was not stressful or as scary as I thought it would be. 

Link(s):

1. PowerPoint Lecture Slides - Seminar #1.

SEMINAR #2.

* Saturday 12 October 2019 *

    The second semester was to be done in person in a classroom in the Humanities Building. I cannot recall the time it began. The entire class in a complicated group from all other creative fields were assembled. We met Dr. McCollins and Mrs. Marshall who ran the course in person. 

    This plenary literally gave us insight into everything expected in the project. Towards the end of the seminar, Mrs. Marshall gave us back our topic registration Forms. They kept a copy that was supposed to be theirs and I received the copy for Mr. Sharma and my personal copy.

Link(s):

1. PowerPoint Lecture Slides - Seminar #2.

MID-YEAR "SUBMISSIONS"/REVIEW.

* Friday 20th December 2019 *

    This was the submission of a form that the supervisor had to fill and I had to submit it in Mrs. Marshall's cubical down at the 'Big UWI'. On Thursday before, I had enough of someone provoking and damaging me all semester long. 

    The semester and exams were over so I went to set up my little table in school to do some painting in the Cheesman Building. I want the distraction from everything that had happened to me. This was a wish of mine to be able to sit in school and do the painting. All the pieces would go towards my composition assignments for the composition course with Mr. Sharma.

    Surprising an art school don't have a place for their painters to paint. I listened to the piano pieces for the exam going on inside Lecture Room 3. Did not know it was an exam until I heard applause.

    As the exam came to an end everyone exited the building and then I saw Mr. Sharma and Mrs. Ramlal looking down at me. He told me that the submission for the thesis mid-term review was supposed to be done and we didn't go through it. Didn't even know I had to do that. The moment the joke came I could have exploded. 

    So when they left me: I packed up my stuff, went all the way home, got my flashdrive with the project, and got back to school at the scheduled time that same day. I had an hour to wait to get back to school in the office's waiting area for the student there to finish. 

    The project was looked at with everything that was done and Mr. Sharma filled out his supervisor's form. It did not take more than an hour to do. As soon as that was over, I went down to the 'Big UWI' immediately again and submitted that form to Mrs. Marshall. Overall, I'm not sure how many students would have done this but it did seem like an important exercise to see if the student was doing their work.

SEMINAR #3.

* Unknown/Forgotten Date (February 2020) *

    This was the final seminar for the course. It was a very lengthy and energy-consuming one. It was a review of everything discusses in the previous seminars and also some other guidelines on the submission and the content of our projects. My hand was writing as fast as it could while the two ladies spoke. Their advice and comments were not in the slides. 

Link(s):

1. PowerPoint Lecture Slides - Seminar #3.

FINAL SUBMISSION.

* Friday 17th April 2020 *

    The date above was the deadline for the thesis. However, for me, I was at home number two in the shed having a review of my thesis (on Thursday 16th April 2020). I decided to convert the Microsoft file into a PDF and then have it submitted to the appropriate portal of UWI's My-E-Learning platform. 

    Indeed, it was an early submission. My work was already reviewed with Mr. Sharma the evening before and he told me to "keep checking over and if you really want to submit early then the choice is yours." I asked for his opinion because I wanted to submit it on time. 

    I did not want something to go wrong such as glitches or an overload of students on the platform causing a delay with their uploads on the deadline mentioned above. I decided to enjoy the rest of the evening. One short surprise scare was that Dr. Remy told me I spelt Mr. Funk's name incorrect without the K. I didn't bother. The project was complete and was finally over with until the deadline at 4PM was met.

Link(s):

1. Thesis (Submission) - Daryl-Ali-HUMN3099-2020.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Steel Orchestral Techniques - (MUSC 3103)

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 22nd January 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 27th June 2022)

**image of textbook cover.

Dear Diary,

    This course took place in the Pan Theatre/Studio 3 of the campus instructed by Mr. Sharma. It would be my second course in there are the fundamentals of Steelpan Arranging in the Certificate programme. We were given copies of the course textbook and a baton. They were to be paid for from the second class which I did. I really did like the coloured paper of the course textbook. It was a nice add as compared to all the other compiled textbooks that were handed down to us in previous classes.

    This course would have been a practical one where each member would have a change to practice conducting different full band excerpts. When one person was up in front, we were expected to be paying attention of direction/instruction by Mr Sharma and playing the music at the same time. Whenever other students were conducting, I had my book and pencil to the side in case other notes were needed. I just wrote them out in my course textbook instead for easy lesson finding.

    I can remember that I was the first in class to go up and do the conducting. I wasn’t scared but really excited to try. There were two times in class that I was called on. The third would have been the mid-term assessment. Other events occurring from this course would be reflect on below.

Link(s):

1. Course Outline.

 

MID-TERM ASSESSMENT.

* Wednesday 11 March 2020 *

    This was the day after my birthday and that crazy exam from Mr. Murray. I also had my thesis interview done with Dr. Remy earlier this morning. We had conducting exam today. I was the first one to go up and do the exam. I got to school in all black. A dress code was not given for the exam but I thought that would have been suitable for the exam because it would given the class members playing more focus to my face and hands.

    There were four pieces to do: (1) an excerpt from lesson one, (2) an excerpt from lesson two, (3) an excerpt from the fermatas section, and (4) excerpt from the lecturer’s choice. As I conducted, I saw the notes I made from the classes and remembered what to do.

    There were some where I was asked to do the conducting over. The best ones were uploaded to YouTube as an unlisted video by Mr. Sharma for us to do our evaluations. We were asked to review the conducting of ourselves and put a mark.

    Mr. Sharma said that he would also be doing the evaluation and might be emailing some of us for consultation on the type of mark we gave ourselves if it was not close to this grade. Luckily, I was not one of those persons. Not sure if it was a joke or true statement but then I’m not sure of anyone exhibited that instance. The evaluation was submitted (on ****) by email.

    I did not agree with the form given to us in the course outline. I decided to recreate the work and had it submitted. There were two versions of the form done.

Link(s):

• Evaluation of Conducting. ** [Not Available.]
• Conducting Evaluation Form – My Version.
• Pre-Downbeat-Prep – (Conducting Recording).**
• Cononation March – (Conducting Recording).**
• Sie…Bach – (Conducting Recording).**
• Nocturne by Mendelson – (Conducting Recording).**

FINAL ‘PROJECT’/FINAL BAND CONDUCTING ASSESSMENT.

* Forgotten/Unknown Date *

    This course did not have a final written exam. It was a 100% practical coursework class. This kind of assignment just like the choral assignment I was very worried about and did not want to do. Thankfully again, COVID-19 came and forced the assessment to be forced to change.

    Initially, we would have been asked to select a full band piece. To the late parts of the semester some of us in the class went to the office and go scores from a big box of music that Mr. Sharma allowed us to make copies of. I had registered to do “A Whole New World” on his list after gaining approval. When the weekend came, I went to Musescore and rewrote the entire thing because it did not look very professional. These pieces were works done by previous students.

    A Zoom meeting was held for the class for the modification of this final project. We were given an email first with YouTube recording of steelband performances to listen to first. We were asked to select the piece that we were interested in conducting and there would one separate class for those. I had chosen “Song of Lopinot” by Dr. Jit Samaroo. We were asked several practice questions on the piece and then dismissed. We were told to create a recording and have it submitted for marking along with the same evaluation done as in the mid-term assessment.

    The deadline was removed for submissions at any time to work on thesis later onward. There was also going to be a viva voce section of this assignment like in the Choral modified assignment. This was held on (****) zoom for the week it was done. There were going to be a few students on a particular day having their conducting recording being reviewed by Mr. Sharma and then we were asked several questions on the pieces and from the score. I recall being in Curepe and house two’s living-room doing this part of the exam. Luckily, it was alright. I still wished I had better ways of answering them.

    In my time of “Music Literatures of the Steelpan” course I was happy to have made a copy of the score when I had to do the book report assignments. Those were the two time I visited the Festival Library down by the ‘Big UWI’ where the Republic Bank now stands. I was able to study it with the recording on YouTube for the conducting exercise.

Link(s):

• “A Whole New World” – Full Score. ** [Permission was not granted.]
• “Song of Lopinot” – Conducting Recording.**

x

 

    I was glad that the course worked out well in my favour along with the COVID. Since day one I had thoughts on working on a new version of the curse textbook but I thought of Musescore ad did not find it necessary. I found the book good enough to stand on its own. Who knows, maybe one day I will just decide to go and make a version of my own since I like to make over these kinds of books. 

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Choral Techniques - (MUSC 3102)

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 21st January 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 28th June 2022)

Dear Diary,

    It was somehow mandatory to do this course. A victim again for another semester and now apparently for the whole academic year. The course immediately began on the prescribed time and I sat there in class feeling like there was nothing new but the same class as the last semester. 

    In other words, a similar course with a different name. I did enjoy the score analysis part of it. In terms of assignments, there were too many as the previous vocal class and some conducting to do in the middle. Again, I was thankful for the the COVID-19 being set upon us for the recess I was hoping for (but knew was not possible before the time). 

Link(s):

1. Course Outline.

ASSIGNMENT #1: WARM-UPS.

* Tuesday 5th March 2020 *

    This assignment was difficult to do. I wished I had more experience in vocal works to be able to do this. I had five examples done but they were melodies. I had to do them over. Four out of five new examples were done over last-minute in the Festival Library as I waited for my scheduled time to see Mr. Murray. The class members were asked to schedule their time on a form stuck on the outer side of his office door.

    That meeting determined which Warm-up would be used for the conducting assessment. There was also a conducting and singing aspect of the meeting. I was asked to sing the selected warm-up to make sure I knew it. Then I was asked to conducted. I was tested on mistakes and then asked to comment on his singing.

Link(s):

1. Warm-ups Mistake. ** [For Request by Email.]

 

ASSIGNMENT #2: WARM-UPS CONDUCTING.

*Tuesday 10th March 2020 *

    This was my birthday. It was not so hurtful as the others, thank God. I also had the warm-up conducting where I had to teach the class the selected warm-up and then conduct them. This exercise was recorded in class but the recording was corrupt and could not play. The copy by email gave the same issue. There were several times that Mr. Murray stopped me in the middle of the exam to the point where I got angry. I wanted to just give up on it or demand a zero and walk out the door.

Link(s):

1. Conducting Assessment - Recording. ** [Not Available.]

 

QUEEN’S HALL ‘CLASS’ FIELD TRIP.

* Friday 13th March 2020 *

**group pic

    Mr. Murray was planning for us to have a class field trip to go down to Queen’s Hall for a viewing of vocal music at the Music Festival being hosted there. It was the Wednesday after the conducting exercise but because of Steel Orchestral Mid-Term assessment it was postponed to the Friday.

    However, during my thesis meeting with Mr. Sharma, we got the news that there was the first recorded case of COVID-19 in the country. Mr. Murray sent out an email saying that the field trip was cancelled because of that. This took conversation but lightly in our chat group.

    A lot of others were backing out and took the weekend to themselves and some others were still going. I honestly didn’t bother to care about COVID-19 at the time. Going out and experiencing something like this was never part of my childhood/schooling life so I dressed up and went down to Queen’s Hall with Brandon. We met three students from class who came in some minutes after us. Unfortunately, the programs were sold out by the time we got into the sitting area.

    There were a few different competitions taking place one after the next. The singing competitions for the night took place first. A lot of us in the audience were confused most of the times when the lady made errors in pronunciations of the pieces. Few times we saw Andrew from class accompanying some of the contestants.

    There was a steelpan composition section to be judged but Brandon was ready to leave. We left the Hall and got back up to Curepe. I still have some of the points in my scrap book. Mr. Murray told us to walk with a book to make notes when the judges made comments on some of the performances:

• XXX

    Some of the groups were also called back onto the stage to give feedback. Carl was the conductor for a vocal group and his one was also called down. Not many persons were there in the Hall at that time of the night. But I did have a great time. The COVID-19 masks were not in effect at this time. It felt like I had gotten to go out for my birthday in a way. Discussions on me making a course textbook was also opened up while we waited in the sitting area.

 

ASSIGNMENT #3: REPERTOIRE & SCORE ANALYSIS.

* Monday 16th March 2020 *

    We were asked to select twenty vocal pieces of music and analysis them. It took me a while to finally sit down and begin on the said date above. Since there were twenty of them, I decided to analyse four pieces for the weeks and by Saturday the assignment would have been ready.

    The form for this assignment was taken as an arrangement of my newspaper forms from the “A Season of Steelpan” research books. I thought that the watermark at the back was a lot of distraction from the content just looking back at it. I had tried my best to find YouTube recordings that matched the literature in the score and have it inserted into the document. When the assignment was returned (***) there were only a few comments that made as notes within the file.

Link(s):

1. Graded Score Analysis Submission. 

 

ASSIGNMENT #4: REHEARSAL PRESENTATIONS.

* Tuesday 27th April 2020 *

**email for psalm approval

    This assignment may have been very unbelievable to do in real. We were expected to learn a selected vocal piece of our choice and then be prepared to conduct it. Since the COVID-19 lockdown prevented the assessment to go the way it should have been, we were asked to have a class meeting on Zoom to discuss the assignment.

    This assignment was modified to be a viva voce exercise where the piece would have been emailed for approval as usual but then questions would have been asked on certain points of the music. This exam was conducted on Tuesday 5 of May 2020 as a one of one via Zoom. Each person had their own time scheduled. The questions were alright. Two of them were very difficult for me.

Link(s):

1. “A Psalm of Praise” Score.

 

ASSIGNMENT #5: INTERNAL CHORAL MANAGEMENT.

* Friday 8th May 2020 *

**email of submitted assignment

    The date printed above was the submission date via email. We had to plan an entire choral concert including putting music together, selecting venues, preparing a budget, etc.

    I decided to prepare five documents that separated each of the required portions of work. I thought that might have made the grading aspect easier for Mr. Murray. One document was completed per day. The Saturday was review of all prepared documents of the assignment and then submission late that night. For the purpose of easy documentation, attachments 1 to 4 was saved as one file below. The fifth attachment goes separately.

    I decided to call the event “A Night of Musical Delight.” I had to think of my friend Anton in order to gather a lot of inspiration and assistance to complete this assignment. We were told that the concert had to be “concert programme of pieces – no less than one hour. 40 minutes of the programme must be strictly choral music.” I decided to work on the pieces one time.

Link(s):

1. Choral Concert Assignment Instructions.
2. Night of Musical Delight (Concert) – Attachment 1-4.
3. Night of Musical Delight (Concert) – Attachment 5.

Daryl Zion M. Ali