VCE Performing Arts

Music

Course Description 

Students develop and refine musicianship skills and knowledge and develop a critical awareness of their relationship with music as listeners, performers, creators, and music makers. Students explore, reflect on and respond to the music they listen to, create and perform. They analyse and evaluate performances, and learn to incorporate, adapt and interpret musical practices from diverse cultures, times and locations. 

Students study and practise ways of effectively communicating and expressing musical ideas to an audience as performers and composers. The developed knowledge and skills provide a practical foundation for students to compose, arrange, interpret, reimagine, improvise, recreate and critique music in an informed manner.  

Unit 1: Organisation of music 

In this unit students explore and develop their understanding of how music is organised. By performing, creating, analysing and responding to music works that exhibit different approaches, students explore and develop their understanding of the possibilities of musical organisation.  

They will prepare and perform ensemble and solo musical works and develop technical control, expression and stylistic understanding on their chosen instrument/sound source. The course is divided into three main areas of study.  

Areas of study 1: Performing - Students focus on practical music-making and performance skills by preparing and performing solo and ensemble works.  

Area of study 2: Creating - They develop appropriate methods of recording and preserving their music whilst creating a folio of brief creative responses.  

Area of Study 3: Analysing and responding – Students develop skills in identifying how music is organised and the components of this organisation. They also develop skills in aural analysis and respond to a range of excerpts in different styles and traditions. They further develop their auditory discrimination through identifying and recreating music language concepts. 

Unit 2 – Effect in Music

In this unit, students focus on the way music can be used to create an intended effect. By performing, analysing and responding to music works/examples that create different effects, students explore and develop their understanding of the possibilities of how effect can be created.  

They will prepare and perform ensemble and solo musical works and develop technical control, expression and stylistic understanding on their chosen instrument/sound source. The course is divided into three main areas of study.  

Areas of study 1: Performing - Students prepare and perform solo and group works that convey meaning and/or emotion to an audience through practical music-making and further development of performance skills. 

Area of study 2: Creating - Students assemble and compose a folio of brief musical responses using a variety of sound sources demonstrating their understanding of the possibilities of creating effect in music. 

Area of Study 3: Analysing and responding – Students further develop skills in analysing how effect can be created in music and how the treatment of elements of music, concepts and compositional devices contribute to this effect. They also develop skills in aural analysis and respond to a range of excerpts in different styles and traditions. Further skills are built in auditory discrimination through identifying and recreating music language concepts. 

Unit 3 – Music Contemporary Performance 

In this unit students begin developing the performance program of solo and ensemble material they will present in Unit 4 relevant to the performance examination specifications. They will analyse and compare the works of others in a wide variety of music to enhance their own approach to interpretation and performance. 

Students identify challenges relevant to works they are preparing for performance and endeavour to address these challenges. They also study music language concepts such as scales, harmony and rhythmic materials that relate to contemporary music. 

Areas of Study 1: Performing - students perform regularly and use these performances to explore and build on ways of developing technical skills and interpretation approaches relevant to the styles of the selected works.   

Areas of Study 2: Analysing for performance - Students focus on the processes of analysis and practices that they undertake to develop their performances. This includes investigating how interpretation and a sense of personal voice may be developed in performance 

Areas of Study 3: Responding - Student focus on was to discuss a performer’s interpretation and manipulation of music elements and concepts in works, and identify, recreate and notate music language concepts from examples presented.  

Unit 4 – Music Contemporary Performance 

In this unit, students continue developing the performance program of solo and ensemble works that they will present at the end-of-year examination. They continue to analyse and compare the works of others in a wide variety of music to refine selected strategies to optimise their own approach to interpretation and performance.  

Students further develop strategies to address the technical, expressive, and stylistic challenges relevant to works they are preparing for performance. They will also continue to develop their music language concepts such as scales, harmony and rhythmic materials that relate to contemporary music. 

Areas of Study 1: Performing - students perform regularly and use these performances to consolidate their development of technical skills and interpretation approaches relevant to the style(s) of the selected works  

Areas of Study 2: Analysing for performance - Students focus on the processes of analysis and practices that they undertake to develop their performances. This includes investigating how interpretation and a sense of personal voice may be developed in performance 

Areas of Study 3: Responding - Student focus on was to discuss a performer’s interpretation and manipulation of music elements and concepts in works, and identify, recreate and notate music language concepts from examples presented.  

Theatre Studies 

Course Description 

In VCE Theatre Studies students interpret scripts from the pre-modern era to the present day and produce theatre for audiences. Through practical and theoretical engagement with scripts they gain an insight into the origins and development of theatre and the influences of theatre on cultures and societies. Students apply dramaturgy and work in the production roles of actor, director and designer, developing an understanding and appreciation of the role and place of theatre practitioners.  

Throughout the study, students work individually and collaboratively in various production roles to creatively and imaginatively interpret scripts and to plan, develop and present productions. Students study the contexts – the times, places and cultures – of these scripts, as well as their language. They experiment with different possibilities for interpreting scripts and apply ideas and concepts in performance to an audience. They examine ways that meaning can be constructed and conveyed through theatre performance. Students consider their audiences and in their interpretations incorporate knowledge and understanding of audience culture, demographic and sensibilities.  

Students learn about innovations in theatre production across different times and places and apply this knowledge to their work. Through the study of plays and theatre styles, and by working in production roles to interpret scripts, students develop knowledge and understanding of theatre, its conventions and the elements of theatre composition. Students analyse and evaluate the production of professional theatre performances and consider the relationship to their own theatre production work. Students learn about and demonstrate an understanding of safe, ethical, and responsible personal and interpersonal practices in theatre production. 

Unit 1 - Pre-modern Theatre Styles and Conventions  

This unit involves: 

• Exploring pre-modern theatre styles and conventions through workshops and folio-based tasks 
• Interpreting pre-modern scripts, and performing them to an audience 
• Analysing a professional theatre production 

Unit 2 - Modern Theatre Styles and Conventions 

This unit involves: 

• Exploring modern theatre styles and conventions through workshops and folio-based tasks 
• Interpreting modern scripts, and performing them to an audience 
• Analysing and evaluating a professional theatre production 

Unit 3 - Producing Theatre 

• staging theatre 
• interpreting a script 
• analysing and evaluating theatre 

Unit 4 - Presenting an Interpretation 

• researching and presenting theatrical possibilities 
• interpreting a monologue 
• analysing and evaluating a performance 

Additional Information: 

Students will be required to attend two excursions to see plays in order to complete their analysis outcomes each semester. These will likely be done in the evening and may incur an additional cost. 

For further information: https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/theatrestudies/Pages/Index.aspx