IB Music (Performance) SL

[Moira]

Hi, guys,

So due to botched scheduling, I'm going to be taking IB Music Performance SL next year. The problem is, no matter where I search (including my school's course book), I can't seem to find any real details as to what the course covers.

Can anyone who has taken it or is taking it tell me what you've done (or what your experience has been)?

Thank you!

[yii yann]

Let me just check with you something before I start writing an answer that might be absolutely irrelevant: Do you mean IB Music SL with performance as part of the coursework? Or is there a new subject called IB Music Performance? I tried googling and could only find the normal IB Music.

[Moira]

Sorry for the lack of clarification! It's IB Msuic SL with what I'm assuming is a focus on performance. IB says you can focus on like solo or group performance. I'm not doing the composition aspect.

[ohshawti]

I tested in Music last year! Basically, you are given two prescribed works to study throughout the year that you will then use to answer questions in the exam.

In the exam, you will listen to 3 or 4 (I can't remember exactly) other works, with or without titles/composers given, and also have to answer questions.

The music investigation is the 'IA' portion and you compare two distinct styles of music.

I was in choir so my teacher submitted one of our performances to be graded.

[yii yann]

Sorry for the lack of clarification! It's IB Msuic SL with what I'm assuming is a focus on performance. IB says you can focus on like solo or group performance. I'm not doing the composition aspect.

Oh alright. If you don't have composition, IB Music is a fairly interesting subject to take in IB. As part of SL, you'll be having a few components:

1) Exam paper - 6(?) essay style questions to answer, two of which are on set works that you will study throughout your course. For example, Mozart's Jupiter Symphony and Copland's El Salon Mexico. You answer a specific question one one of the set works, and one comparison question. The other 4 essays all consist of various forms of "describe what you hear". One essay per piece of music. You will get the score for one, the title for another, the composer etc. To be honest, it's fairly standard. My first paragraph for all of these essays were practically the same, just with the values changed. The rest of the essay is a bit more interesting, considering how the composer uses themes, arpeggios, tonality, composition devices, etc.

This is the bulk of what you'll be "studying" over the two years - different cultures of music especially.

All in all its a very tiring, but not particularly hard paper.

2) Musical Links investigation - exactly as it sounds. You take two distinct cultures and compare the similarities and differences in their music. You get some points for creativity in terms of the medium here. Some recorded a "conversation between famous artists from both cultures", some wrote a blog, so on and so forth.

3) Solo performance - Not sure whats the time limit for SL, but for HL Music, we had to play ~20 minutes worth of music, at least grade 6 level to get the top marks.

There you go! That's IB Music SL for you. It honestly isn't too hard, and since you're not doing composition, its even better.

[Moira]

Thanks so much, that helps a lot!