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NSW Curriculum
NSW Education Standards Authority

11–12Music 2 11–12 Syllabus (2025)

Implementation from 2027
Expand for detailed implementation advice

Content

Year 11

Music for drama, movement and entertainment

Students perform, compose, listen, analyse and respond to a range of music from cultural, historical and contemporary styles, written for dramatic, movement-based and entertainment contexts.

They learn about the ways music for drama, movement and entertainment communicate mood and character and a sense of time and place that supports and advances the narrative integrating musical and non-musical aspects. They also examine how sound interacts with language, movement, staging and visual design, and consider the impact of music in shaping dramatic meaning through stylistic, structural, textural and expressive choices.

Students examine ONE substantial work and ONE smaller scale work, or collection of related pieces, to develop their aural and analytical knowledge, understanding and skills.

Performing
  • Apply technical, interpretative and expressive skills to vocal and instrumental performances

  • Communicate character, mood and narrative through musical choices

  • Apply improvisation and expressive techniques in solo and ensemble performances to enhance storytelling

  • Use technology to enhance musical effect

Listening, analysing and responding
  • Identify aurally and transcribe melodic, harmonic and rhythmic patterns in music from a range of styles and genres using appropriate notation

  • Describe melodic, harmonic and rhythmic patterns and Compositional language in music from a range of styles and genres

  • Analyse scores and recorded performances for features of musical style

  • Examine how composers use timbre, expressive techniques and structural and textural devices to convey meaning

  • Analyse rhythmic and melodic devices that communicate a relationship between words and music

  • Evaluate the relationship between music and storytelling

Creating and composing
  • Create short melodic and harmonic fragments that support storytelling

  • Create musical ideas using musical motifs and themes to communicate character and mood

  • Use technology for musical effect

  • Justify compositional choices to refine musical work

  • Apply Music language to appropriately convey dynamics, articulation and expression in compositions

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