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NSW Curriculum
NSW Education Standards Authority

11–12Music Extension 11–12 Syllabus (2025)

Implementation from 2027
Expand for detailed implementation advice

Content

Year 12

Interpretative practices

Through the analysis of complex repertoire, students deepen their understanding of musical interpretation as a critical and creative process. Students investigate the creation, performance, and interpretation of composed music through the study of ONE significant composer or ONE selected musical style. They examine and evaluate how composers and musical styles inherit and innovate musical traditions to develop their understanding of how works are reinterpreted and recontextualised over time, and how musical meaning emerges from the creative practices of composers and performers in context.

Students compare a range of shorter works and extracts from longer works to critically analyse and evaluate the use of Music context and Music language. Students analyse music from the perspectives of composer, performer and audience by engaging with scores, recordings, interviews and critical commentary, to evaluate how interpretative meaning is shaped by cultural, historical and social contexts. They explore rehearsal, performance and production of selected works to consider how audience reception influences interpretative choices.

Musical sources
  • Analyse the use of Music language in a range of scores, recorded performances and created and composed works

  • Analyse how composition methods, notational language and performance practice evolve over time

  • Use recorded performances and written commentary to investigate how Music context and Music language can influence performers’ interpretations of music

  • Evaluate how Music context and Music language shape musical meaning

Musical practices
  • Examine the ways composers use Music context and Music language to shape expressive intent and guide interpretative choices

  • Analyse the ways performers interpret and realise expressive and musical content to shape meaning for audiences

  • Evaluate the impact of collaborative processes on interpretative outcomes, including rehearsal, ensemble work, conducting and production

Musical contexts
  • Evaluate the ways cultural, historical and social contexts inform interpretative choices

  • Analyse the ways that musical interpretation can reinforce or challenge stylistic conventions and performance traditions

  • Evaluate the impact of emerging technology on the interpretation of music

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