Assignment One – Formative Feedback

Student name: Suncica Lazic

Student number: 516098

Course/Unit: From Present to Past

Assignment number: 1

Type of tutorial: Written

Overall Comments:

You have followed the rubric and presented several pieces of researched written work. This is a good start to the course. Further work on logs, detail and presentation, as discussed below, will ensure that you continue to develop successfully during the course.

Assessment potential: Assignment 1

You may want to get credit for your hard work and achievements with the OCA by formally submitting your work for assessment at the end of the module. More and more people are taking the idea of lifelong learning seriously by submitting their work for assessment but it is entirely up to you. We are just as keen to support you whether you study for pleasure or to gain qualifications. Please consider whether you want to put your work forward for assessment and let me know your decision when you submit Assignment 2. I can then give you feedback on how well your work meets the assessment requirements.

Feedback on assignment Subject based knowledge and understanding, context, communication Project 4 – Notes on a contemporary composer and their music (c.500 words)

Research and critical evaluation skills:

You have clearly done a lot of research for this project. After reading in your reflective account that you had misread the rubric and originally written over 6000 words, I sincerely sympathise with your experiences during this assignment. I urge you to take a positive from this and to keep it in mind as you continue with your studies, always reminding you to read the requirements of the assignment several times before beginning work, then during the assignment and also again finally before submitting work.

You have drawn from a good number of sources and have formatted your bibliography in a clear and appropriate way. This is really good to see at this stage in the course. Well done.

I wonder whether there were more sources that you haven’t included? For instance, there are no recordings of the composer’s works listed. Don’t be afraid to include everything you have researched in a bibliography, after all, you’ve done the hard work, make sure it’s documented here for tutor/assessors to see.

Communication:

You have made good use of the word count and communicate your ideas and knowledge clearly in your writing. In terms of formatting assignments, you only need to state your name, student number and assignment title at the top of the first page rather than on every one. Also, there may be a problem with the layout of the text. I’m not sure whether your assignment was originally formatted as in my screenshot below (it may be a conversion problem between Mac/Windows) but what I received needs to be revised so that paragraphs aren’t indented and are in continuous lined prose. This is also an issue that appears in your reflective account too. Let me know if there are any problems with this and we can try to find a solution.

Subject based knowledge and understanding:

Your writing on the John Tavener was enjoyable to read. You have succinctly described his life, influences and works and have included how, and why, his music developed during his life using appropriate musical terminology, showing good subject knowledge.

Your personal reflection on Tavener’s work regarding the influences and sounds of the Orthodox Church were also very applicable and interesting. Continue these personal and critical reflections during your studies, and as you write up your blog entries.

Project 2 – Music in Film (c.300 words)

Research and critical evaluation skills:

You have drawn your information from a relatively small number of sources, however, on this occasion, the quality of your sources has made up for this. Always keep the quality and reliability of your sources in mind during your studies, it is of great importance.

Once again, don’t forget to add all your bibliographic sources (there are no film or audio recordings referenced again).

Communication and Subject based knowledge:

You have made excellent use of a relatively small word count here, including details of the composer’s use of instruments, creation of atmosphere, development of themes and leitmotifs and the overall effect of the music in the film.

It was really pleasing to see good use of musical terminology to critically assess the use of music.

You have covered a lot of ground and shown very good subject knowledge, especially in the identification of the scales used and that the characters share a theme, but each represented by differing instrumentation (a common device employed by Morricone).

It would have been useful to also expand on how and why the use of ostinato is used to ‘great dramatic effect’; always remember to back up any point made with a specific example/description.

Also, you mention the sense of location and time established by the music and this is a fascinating area (diagetic vs non-diagetic music) in which further research of Morricone’s score can provide additional interesting insight.

Research Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis , stylistic awareness Your reflection on this first assignment was good to read. You are clearly enjoying your studies and I hope that you now manage to find a balanced ongoing way of working.

Any further issues, please do get in contact. With regard to research, you have demonstrate good research abilities in your assignment, however it is really important to be able to display this in your supporting projects, exercises and listening and learning log, more on which below.

Listening & Learning Logs or Blogs Stylistic awareness, context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis Stylistic awareness:

You have explained that you have fallen behind slightly and not been able to provide your listening learning log on this occasion as you still have to type up and present your notes. If you can rectify this and send me everything with your next assignment I will be able to comment on the content. Don’t forget that your log doesn’t have to be online only. You are quite welcome to present the log entries, thoughts, reflections and supporting projects as a word processed document if that is something that is more convenient for you.

If you do create an online blog to present your work, remember that the navigability is of great importance. Whatever way your log is presented, it needs to be clear to read and browse. The log is very useful for me to gauge your work and help guide your learning. It is forms the ‘Stylistic Awareness’ part of the assessment criteria (attached) which makes up 25% of the total mark should you put your work forward for assessment. If you need any guidance on this, please let me know.

Suggested reading/listening Context Part Two looks at music in the twentieth century and you will find a very diverse range of compositional styles. For the assignment, you are required to look closely at a style of your choice. Try to listen to some examples from each of the suggested styles, and choose the one which interests you most. This doesn’t have to be the style you like listening to most! If you can get access to scores, try to follow along as you listen.

Pointers for the next assignment

• Suggested listening/reading as above

• Decide on a format for your log and aim to get it up to date for submission with Assignment 2

Tutor: Chris Lawry

Date: 24th February 2017

Next assignment due: 30th April 2017