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Help with choosing songs for IB Music!


hisham.nsier

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Hey All.

For my group 6, I'm taking IB Music SL this year, testing in May 2015. For my IA I am doing solo perfomance, and need some help choosing this piece.

 

Really quick, please, only people who took IB music or have strong musical backgrounds answer!!

 

I am for sure doing: Canzonette by Tchaikovsky and Summer (from 4 seasons) by Vivaldi, both on the violin. I want to choose a piece to do on the piano, because I think it will be good to show IB that I can play multiple instruments. I don't take private lessons for the piano, but I did when I was a kid so I self teach.

 

I want to to Moonlight Sonata (1st movement) on the piano for my 3rd solo perfomance. My question is, do you guys think that IB will accept it? What I mean by that is one of the criterion is selection of the works, and whether or not the piece I chose is a good enough level. Do you guys think Moonlight Sonata is a good piece to do?

 

Thanks ahead of time 

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Hi, I did IB Music HL and achieved a 7.

 

You're fundamentally misunderstanding the selection of the works criterion. There's no bar set by the IB for the level of the pieces required. The main purpose of criterion A (selection) is twofold:

  • How contrasting the works chosen are (i.e. from different genres and eras)
  • How appropriate the works chosen are to the student's technical proficiency 

This tells us something about what works should be chosen. The 'good enough' level for the performance is simply dependant on how proficient you are at your instrument. If you believe you are good enough to perform the piece, then it is a good piece to choose. You will score lowly on criterion A if you choose pieces that are too hard for your current skill level. You will know better than anyone else if you're good enough to learn Moonlight Sonata at a performance level.

 

The contrasting bit of the criterion is the most important. You will score a 0 on Criterion A if you have no contrasting elements in your CD. This means selecting works from different genres or eras. For instance, if I only recorded music from the Romantic period, I would score a 0 on Criterion A, no matter how well I played the pieces. Instead, I'd make sure I play a lot of contrasting pieces. The goal is to prove yourself to the IB that you are a diverse musician. So I'd pick maybe a Romantic period piece, a Classical period piece, throw in some jazz or ragtime, some renaissance period stuff, maybe even some world music, or even 20th century serialist music...! The idea is to pick pieces from lots of different eras, and make sure you're not picking pieces above your skill level.

 

That's the first criterion in a nutshell. The remaining 3 criteria mainly concern how well you actually play.

Edited by Leaf
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