Draft of the draft...

After much research and deliberation over topic repertoire, I’ve finally narrowed by repertoire selection down to 5 works with a focus on female and Australian composers. My main pieces for this unit will be Sandy Evens “Big Swell” and Christopher Gordon’s “Lightfoot for horn and orchestra”.

There are so many amazing composers and works I have been discovering through this process, looking at Australian composers of the last 25 years. One of the favourite things I’ve come across is a copy of the original score of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Fantasy of a National Anthem. A work in my top 5 selection but probably won’t be using in this unit (I may get to sneak it in at the end). Seeing the original handwriting just reminds you of the composer behind the work and their intentions without edits.

I’ve begun my rough plan for the unit now and nominated resources. These may change as I work through the practicality and lesson sequencing. However some good first options in developing a classroom lead sheet for Evans Big Swell that I’m hoping to work with her on. The supporting works I’ve tried to keep of a similar theme with this and they each use a specific scale in their compositions such as Raga or Octatonic that will help structure composition tasks.

Another resource I’m planning to develop will be a “Composer Insight Summary” document. Thanks to a wealth of resources and composers discussing their works through PHDs or Sydney Symphony Meet the Music programs, I’m aiming to collate their approaches s to composition for these works to help students get an idea also on how to create their own compositions.

Wherever possible I will also be using key melodic ideas from these and supporting works to develop my aural activities from.