‘Music Technology Beyond the Classroom’ Elective Excursion
The girls in the Year 8 and 9 Music Technology elective class had spent many weeks composing original pieces of music to be played on the Federation Bells. This was a challenging task, because the bells were tuned to many unusual notes and sounds, and they had to adapt their ideas to make them work on this unusual instrument. All the composition work was done on a computer at school, and then performed live at Birrarung Marr on 16 November. There was also an opportunity for the girls to play the bells live from an iPad App, which was very exciting.
After the Federation Bells experience, the girls then walked to the Scots’ Church, to witness and learn how the organ operates. After Dr Robin Batterham the assistant organist at The Scots’ Church, had demonstrated his musical skills, the students went in groups to tour the inside of the multi-million dollar organ. There were thousands of different pipes varying in size and shape. To finish off Dr Batterham performed a modern piece which he thought was relevant to the current world events affecting people today. In organ music there are three lines (or staves of music) instead of the usual two we see on piano music. This is because there are keys on the floor which are played with your feet. The students would like to thank Mr Kidd and Mrs Bezaire for taking them on a city musical experience.
By Carla Di Pierro and Isabella Murphy, Year 8
Tintern’s Concert Band performs to great acclaim at Federation Square
Our Year 7, 8 and 9 students were exemplary musical ambassadors for our school last Thursday 19 November. The Concert Band performed in the Novice Band section at the Victorian School Music Festival at Deakin Edge. Adjudicator, David Jones from Brisbane, was highly complimentary about the very mature sound that our band produced. He felt that their intonation was excellent and they produced beautifully rich and sonorous tone colours. He commented on the well-developed technique of our musicians and the attention paid to detail in the music, which is a particular credit to the ensemble’s conductor, Mrs Lisa Clarke. Mr Jones then spent some time working on stage with our students in a live tutorial session. Our students responded very well to working with a new conductor, once they got used to him. He challenged them to watch him carefully for subtle changes of phrase shaping and variations in tempo. Mr Jones so enjoyed the responsiveness of the group that his parting comment was, “I could conduct this band all day!”
I was very proud of our students, as were the many Tintern parents who were able to attend the performance at 5.20pm, which was very convenient for those who worked in the city. Well done!
Not only did the Concert Band perform on Thursday afternoon. The night before they were entertaining parents of incoming Year 7s at the Information Evening and they were back on stage in the CM Wood Centre on Sunday at ‘Munch with the Musos’! We thank this dedicated team of musicians for their commitment to the ensemble and also thank their parents for the wonderful support of their musical endeavours.
Music and fabulous food to Munch – who could ask for more?!
A bumper crowd of well over 300 students, staff, parents, family and friends packed the CM Wood Centre on Sunday morning for our annual Friends of Music ‘Munch with the Musos’ event. Now in its eighth year, this event is a relaxed and festive musical occasion. It is unique for the fact that it brings together our boys and girls from the Junior and Middle Schools, in particular, who work together to present a delightful array of musical treats, many with a Christmassy flavour (yes, it’s only around the corner!). Many thanks to the music staff who prepared the students for these performances.
Setting up and running such a tremendous undertaking would not be possible without our hard-working team of parents on the Friends of Music Committee. President, Tim Oldmeadow, was a jovial host on the day and the FOM team made special mention of the wonderful support provided by Kathy Green, departing parent of Year 12 student, Brendon Green. Kathy has given many years of loyal service to the school in many ways, not the least of which has been her 10 years with the FOM Committee. We thank Kathy for her good humour and no-nonsense approach to all tasks to which she turns her hand.
Little Archive winners at the MCC/FREEZA Battle of the Bands
On Friday 20 November, at EV’s Youth Centre in Croydon, the Maroondah City Council and FREEZA ran a schools’ Battle of the Bands event. Our own ‘Little Archive’ (Brendon Green, Rory Shepherd, Zoe Stephenson) represented Tintern and were up against ‘Infamy’ from Aquinas College, ‘Sea of Trees’ from Ringwood Secondary College and two more bands from Melba and Norwood Secondary Colleges. We were thrilled to receive the news late on Friday night that the three judges, with a tough decision on their hands, had decided to award first place to ‘Little Archive’! Judging criteria included presentation of the band, musicianship, originality of material, interpretation of covers and potential of the act. For their efforts, our group were awarded a recording deal at new local recording studio, Realm in Ringwood. Congratulations Zoe, Brendon and Rory – we’re very proud of your efforts and can’t wait to hear the tracks you lay down at the studio!
