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Tips for writing a musicology essay
Some essays
The following essays have been sourced from the Internet. They are not sample HSC essays.
Essay 1
Organs and the Music Lover 
Click on the essay title to link to this site.
Read
the first two or three pages of this essay. Note the
opening statement of intent:
This
essay asks why many music lovers do not like organ music,
and what we can do about it.
Q. Could this topic be addressed in the Music 2 word limit of 1500 words?
A. The topic is too big to be addressed in a short essay.
Q. Would a subjective topic like this be a good choice for an HSC essay?
A. The type of research involved would be more sociological than musicological. As the topic doesn't lend itself to musical analysis, it is not a good choice for an HSC essay.
Q. Would the topic address the criteria used to mark HSC musicology essays?
A. No, it would be difficult for the writer to meet the criteria within the given word limit.
Essay 2
Lester Melrose and the Chicago Blues
Click on the essay title to link to this site.
The intention of this essay is to describe the influence that Melrose had on the development of the Chicago blues style. The writing style is casual and easy to read and the writer has kept to the point.
Read through the first two pages of this essay and consider whether the writer has supported his statements with musical observations.
Refer to paragraph 3:
“Melrose’s chief contribution to modernising the blues was to establish a sound with full band arrangements. With ensemble playing, a rhythm section, and even some electricity, these clearly prefigured the Chicago electric blues sound that would begin to explode in the late 1940s.”
After making the above statement, the writer moves on to his next point.
Q.
What would enhance the discussion at
this point?
A. The writer moves on to another point without providing any musical discussion or evidence to support this statement. Audio examples would be helpful at this point, especially if accompanied by a paragraph of discussion showing the differences between the blues styles.
Essay 3
A deconstructive reading of George Crumb’s Black Angels Click on the essay title to link to this site and then enter Black Angels in the Search box.
This essay has a greater focus on the music itself, than the other two we have read.
Q. How has the writer structured the musical discussion?
A. The writer defines the term deconstruction and then provides a detailed description of each movement of the music.
It may have been more interesting if the writer had selected the musical examples to illustrate the main argument of the essay.
Scroll down to the first and then second musical examples.
Q. Consider the musical discussion surrounding these examples and whether it addresses the relationship between the concepts of music within the context of the essay.
A.
While the first example makes quite detailed and accurate
references to a number of the concepts of music, the second
one makes reference only to dynamics and rhythm.
In discussing the excerpt about anger, reference could be made to
the treatment of tonality, use of dissonance, tone colour and texture in
addition to dynamics and rhythm.The observations that are made are quite
obvious and the opportunity is not taken to enhance the discussion by drawing
out and enhancing the point.
In this essay, the writer provides musical observations and analysis, but does not draw the musical analysis together in a way that addresses the criteria used to mark HSC musicology essays.
In order to address the criteria for an HSC essay, more depth would be required in the conceptual analysis. Rather than indicating the dynamics become louder or the rhythm busier, it would be better to discuss the impact of dissonance, unrelated chord clusters, polyrhythmic density and pitch register in the work.
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