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):
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):
- 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):
- 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):
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):
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):
- Choral Concert Assignment Instructions.
- Night of Musical Delight (Concert) – Attachment 1-4.
- Night of Musical Delight (Concert) – Attachment 5.
Daryl Zion M. Ali
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