Antarctica

Because there are no set works for Music Styles, each question in Section B of the exam will ask you to enter the name of the work you have studied.

In Unit 3, we studied an Australian work (Antarctica) and the other work (Treat her Right).

Practise writing the title and composers of this work for each of the sample exam questions:

Question 1: In Semester one you studied an Australian work. milcmeister, yarnaz and josh. Identify that work.

Title: Antarctica

Section of work studied (if applicable) 1st movement - The Last Place On Earth

Composer: Nigel Westlake

a. Describe the use of **contrast** in this work and how it is achieved.
 * changes in speed of harmonic rhythm
 * changes of instrumentation to create contrast in tone colour
 * Changes in tonality (key signatures)
 * Changes in dynamic, for example, the solo instrument, such as violin or cello and the tutti sections for example bar no. 15, the antarctica chord.
 * The use of ostinati is more prominent in the tutti sections for example bar 15
 * Changes in texture, the solo section is thin, the tutti section is thick.
 * Contrast is achieved through the use of multiple methods of creating tension including use of dissonance or use of silence.
 * contrast in use of rhythm for example the strict time of the main theme at bar 15 in contrast to the more improvised patterns at bars 18 and 19.

CLAIRE DI LALLO: **//Contrast //** Contrast is determined by the different images in the documentary and Westlake uses a variety of methods to depict the contrasting aspects of this environment: -changes in harmonic rhythm (for instance while the first 14 bars are slow, bar 69 is much quicker to portray the changing landscape) -choice of instrumentation – eg. solo instrument vs. full orchestra -key changes – eg. while the introduction is in D minor, the end is similar but transposed down to C to create a warmer yet familiar ending -dynamically – eg. a sudden crescendo from //p// to //f// in one bar at bar 68 -short vs. long note values – eg. opening sustained string sounds contrasts with section B harp line -changes in texture – eg. solos are thin texture, while the //tutti// sections involve thick texture and layered percussion <span style="display: block; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">-free rhythm and lack of pulse vs. constant rhythmic drive and strong pulse, cross rhythms, ostinati <span style="display: block; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">-changing metres – eg. bar 18 shift to 6/8 marks beginning of Section A

b. Describe two contextual influences on this selected work. **__ THE FOLLOWING RESPONSE WAS COMPLETED BY LEIGHTON H. TRIPLOW; __** // These responses were completed after classroom ‘discussions’. They should be more accurate than previous responses and are more suited to the end of year exam format. //  Two contextual issues in Antarctica by Nigel Westlake were writing music to suit visual imagery and composing with a specific player in mind. These are detailed in the subsections below; The original version of the music was composed in 1991 for the IMAX film ‘Antarctica’. Nigel Westlake was writing the music specifically to convey the visual imagery of the Antarctic environment. Hence, the way the music has been composed and the musical changes that exist are determined largely by the changing visual imagery presented in the film. The first camera angle zooms in on a small ship that is making its way along the massive coastline of sheer ice cliffs. To convey the barren landscape here, Westlake has used a sparse texture. The strings play a long, sustained D pedal note with ‘senza vibrato’ for a cold yet consistent sound. Above is a thin guitar line which represents the fragility of humans in this sparse, desolate environment. To show the adventurousness and danger of Antarctica, the music also changes with the visuals. The tempo is much quicker and has a driving quality as sustained by the complex, quick rhythms in the mounted bongos. Their consistent semiquavers and demisemiquavers propel the section of music forward. At this point, the ‘Antarctica chord’ is introduced. This is a chord based on quartal harmony that creates a hash, open sound. It is used to convey the grandeur of the ice cliffs shown in the particular scene. The whole ensemble playing adds to the adventurous quality. The brass players in particular are asked to play with a ‘brassy’ sound. The result of this is a stridency that accurately conveys the danger of the Antarctic environment. A guitar cadenza passage represents the mystery of Antarctica. It plays an improvisatory, free line which gives a sense of the unknown. Many of the extended chords played have a dissonant quality, reflecting the eeriness and chilling mystery of the icy continent. ** Contextual issue 2: Collaboration and writing for John Williams ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">Nigel Westlake admired the skill and virtuosity of Australian guitarist John Williams. When the change to rework the original piece ‘Antarctica’ as a guitar suite surfaced a year after it was composed for the IMAX film, Westlake wanted to write specifically for John Williams. The work’s guitar solo part has been constructed explicitly for Williams, and this can be seen in the music; <span style="display: block; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-indent: -18pt;"> · A guitar cadenza is included after a thick ensemble setting which gave Williams the ability to show off his skills with freedom. The solo passage is very technically demanding, and was clearly written for a professional. The section features tricky rhythmic figures, an extensive range of notes, and the ability to exploit a range of tone colours <span style="display: block; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-indent: -18pt;"> · The guitar cadenza is to be played freely. One particular section is marked ‘ad lib’. This suggests that Westlake trusted Williams’ musical ability and capacity to create the effects the composer was after <span style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-indent: -18pt;"> · There is a frequent use of rasguedo chords, a common strumming technique in Spanish music. The chords were included because Williams had the capabilities to create a coloured sound. It demonstrates that Williams was able to exploit a range of different tone colours within the solo line in the guitar suite <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">Westlake and Williams also collaborated and discussed guitar fingerings during the construction of the work. This helped make the piece more idiomatic for guitar overall.
 * __ (DATE OF RESPONSE; 12TH OF OCTOBER 2010) __**
 * __ Antarctica (Movement I) //'The "last" place on Earth'// __**
 * A word from the editor... **
 * Introduction **
 * Contextual issue 1: Writing for a documentary on Antarctica **

__** END RESPONSE BY LEIGHTON H. TRIPLOW **__ Contextual issue 1 the suite was inspired and composed for the imax film in 1991, which used a cello. the director did not want guitar as he thought it was not powerful enough to evoke the imagery of antarctica. he had to capture the grandeur, desolation and harshness of antarctica in the work. the guitar represents mankind and the orchestra represents the landscape. the guitar became the narrator. he was also writing it for a wide audience so to make it appealing to the general public he minimised the use of dissonance. he also knew that the orchestra would not have much time to rehearse so he made it almost sight readable.

Contextual Issue 2 Westlake wrote the guitar part of this piece for guitarist John Williams. He was inspired by the 'colour and lyricism' of Williams' playing and worked closely with the guitarist to develop the work. They discussed the work in detail concerning technical factors such as guitar fingering. Williams' technical virtuosity is demonstrated in the work by the inclusion of many technically demanding passages and free rubato sections. This illustrates Westlake's great amount of faith in Williams' musical ability and ideas. David-

Two contextual issues which influenced the composition 'Antarctica' were the fact it was written to portray the harsh and brutal Antarctic landscape and that it was specifically written for Australian guitarist, John Williams.

'Antarctica' was inspired by the music originally composed for the IMAX theatre production in 1991 which used the cello as the film director did not consider the guitar powerful enough to evoke the imagery of the Antarctic environment. When he was commissioned to write a guitar suite, he reworked the original suite for guitar and orchestra as well as using new material which he collaborated with John Williams whose 'colour and lyricism' inspired Westlake.

1. Portrayed the Antarctic Landscape Opening bar: aeriral shot over Antarctica. Large ship emphasising the vast continent compared with fragility of human life in harsh, cold place. Antarctica Chord= prominent and recurring chord. Repetitive. Atonal, harsh, unexpected reflects the daunting landscape. Full orchestra depicts the enormity of the landscape. Built on quartal harmony, chilling and unbearable much like the Antarctic environment
 * Sparse texture to convey cold barranness
 * Harp and Lower strings scored with 'senza vib' to create bare tone colour
 * Guitar represents human- only instrument with changing melodic lines.
 * Bar 69- brass- 'brassy'. Echoes the harshness and danger posed by the environment. Marked 'f' in woodwind, 'ff' in lower woodwind and 'fff' in guitar to create a harsh and strong effect. Instruments in high register to create a harsh sound. Music used to represent the ice cliffs and emphasise grandeur.

2. Collaboration with John Williams is evident in: Opening- thin guitar sound, echoes the atmosphere humans have on this environment Rasguedo- guitar chords are colouristic and mirror flamenco sounds- especially written for Williams.
 * Bar 40- guitar solo, arpeggiated chords, idiomatic guitar writing. Demanding and virtuosic for advanced guitarists
 * 41- Fine and marked 'ad lib.' Westlake composed this deliberately for Williams to play with his own personal taste. The fact it is marked 'ad lib' means that Westlake must have trusted William's personal taste and musical judgements. We know they worked together through fingering and phrasing.
 * Westlake loved how Williams' was able to exploit different Tone Colours on the guitar through

Class Z Collective Sample response

Contextual issue 1: Written for documentary on Antarctica This music was originally composed in 1991 as music for a documentary on Antarctica. In 1992, Westlake reworked the film score as a Suite for guitar and orchestra. The original creative intention of the music can be heard clearly in the ways Westlake has deliberately created music to depict the isolated and barren Antarctic environment. For example the opening scene features an aerial shot of a ship making its way through the Antarctic waters. The camera angle emphasises the vastness of the ocean and humans' fragility in this wide landscape. Westlake's score captures this by using a sparse texture with solo guitar (in the suite version) playing a thin, improvisatory melody over a drone on lower strings. Shortly after that Westlake writes the Antarctica chord which is based on quartal harmony for tutti fff, to represent the huge ice cliffs of Antarctica. This chord is repeated as an ostinato to emphasise the coldness and vast size of the Antarctic ice cliffs and mountains. As the camera zooms over the ice plains a sense of adventure is created by an increase in tempo, a driving ostinato on mounted bongos and a direction from Westlake to play 'brassy' for a brighter and harsh sound, to emphasise the harsh Antarctic environment.

Contextual issue 2: Writing for Australian guitarist John Williams I n 1992 Westlake was commissioned to compose a work for the TSO so he reworked the film music as a guitar suite specifically for the Australian guitarist John Williams. Westlake collaborated with Williams and they discussed fingerings. Evidence of their collaboration can be clearly heard in the music:
 * the use of several technically demanding virtuosic solo guitar passages which indicate Westlake was writing with Williams in mind.
 * the cadenza passages marked 'ad lib' suggest a high level of trust in Williams' musical judgement
 * Westlake included considerable coloristic writing for the guitar, including use of rasguedo technique, which showed his exploitation of Williams' ability to use a variety of tone colours in his playing. Contextual Issues, by Pepi   Issue 1: Written for Documentary on Antarctica   In 1991 Nigel Westlake was commissioned to write the music for a documentary on Antarctica. In 1992 he reworked this score for the tasmanian symphony orchestra to play in a suite for guitar and orchestra. The opening scene in the documentary shows a large ship on the brink of a huge expanse of ice. The accompanying music is sparse; guitar solo and a lower string drone with senza vibrato. his creates a thin, atmospheric texture, depicting the vast antarctic landscape and human vulnerability within it. This builds up to the 'Antarctica chord', a tutti chord based on quartal harmony, which therefore makes it disonant,harsh and brutal sounding. This chord then repeats as an ostinato in various instruments to reinforce the cold grandeur of the icecliffs and snow capped mountains in Antarctica.   Issue 2: Writing for Australian guitarist John Williams   The guitar part was written specifically for the australian guitarist John Williams. Westlake admired his lyrical playing and therefore the piece is interspersed with ad libitum, slow passages.Similarly Westlake includes techniques like rasqueado to feature in the guitar part, which Williams is very proficient at. There are also many virtuosic passages like fast, running semiquavers in the guitar part which reflects Williams technical ability. Westlake trusted Williams' musical judgement very much, working throughout the composition process with him, to write the guitar part- even discussing guitar fingerings

** Question 2: ** In Semester one you studied an Australian work. Identify that work.

Title:

Section of work studied (if applicable)

Composer:

Discuss the //‘Australian-ness’// or otherwise of this work.

By Kim Falconer Westlake is a contemporary Australian composer who has been influenced by other contemporary Australian composers, such as Peter Sculthorpe. Growing up and receiving his musical education in Australia has impacted on Westlake's compositional style, and he has both consciously and unconsciously reflected elements of Australian culture in his musical language. Sculthorpe made a deliberate break away from European tradition in an endeavor to create a more 'Australian style' by using Asian and Aboriginal infuences in his work. Westlake was influenced by Sculthorpe to create a uniquely 'Australian' sound. Antarctica shares some common characteristics with the Australian outback in that both are sparse, desolate, barren places. Like Sculthorpe, Westlake's score focuses on these aspects of the Antarctic environment. We can see these influences in Antarctica by the way Westlake has used:
 * the opening bars create the effect of a barren, desolate landscape with their use of a thin texture, a monotonous drone and quite a dry tone colour created by the strings using no vibrato. An Australian sound is achieved by the use of a drone and thin/sparse texture in the opening.
 * The opening section also features a figure on the harp which creates an ominous effect and emphasises the fact that, like the Australian outback, Antarctica is a dangerous and unpredictable environment for humans.
 * Like Sculthorpe, Westlake uses the Asian influence of the gong in his instrumentation.
 * Another Asian influence is seen in the use of rhythm. In 'Antartica', Weslake has used energy to create energy and he also uses a wide range of rhythmic devices- sudden changes in metre and rhythmic patterns portray the unpredicable nature of this wild environment and remote landscape.
 * <span style="color: #008000; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Westlake also makes use of the interval of a fourth throughout the composition. For instance, the 'Antartica chord' is built using quartal harmony.The dissonant sound that the quartal harmony creates is reflected in the imagery of the pointy/sharp Antartic iceclifs.The 'Antarctica chord' is dissonant, which is influenced by the move into using non-functional harmony in the 20/21st century.

'Australian-ness' is apparent in 'Antarctica' also because Westlake was an Australian composer, who originally composed the piece for the Australian guitarist John Williams. The original film score was also composed specifically for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and Westlake deliberately wrote the score so that it could be performed with minimal rehearsal time, as he knew this orchestra had a busy schedule and needed to get the music to performance standard in only a short time. This lack f complexity in the writing was partly due to Westlake's 'minimalist' style, but also because of this practical aspect. So it is Australian, as he has written very specifically with Australian performers in mind. Westlake and Williams collaborated in regard to fingering and Westlake wrote to exploit John William's strengths as a player. This is particularly evident in the guitar cadenza. The interchange of ideas between two Australian musicians who both grew up and received their music education in an Australian environment is evident throughout the work in the preference for sparse, open textures, and soloistic lines which allow the performers, and particularly the soloist, to work to their natural strengths and communicate their musical ideas.

** Question 3: ** In Semester one you studied an Australian work. Identify that work.

Title:

Section of work studied (if applicable)

Composer:

Describe **two** important characteristics of the style of this selected work. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 17px; line-height: 19px;">﻿ <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;">﻿Antarctica- 1st movement, The last Place on earth- Nigel Westlake <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;">Two characteristics of the style for Antarctica are being examples of 20th century art music and minimalism  <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;">This piece is categorised as 20C art music and the composer Nigel Westlake was largely influenced by Stravinsky, Sculthorpe and other 20C composers. In addition, Westlake used the characteristics of dissonance, non-functional harmony, reduced sense of tonality, use of non-Western scales and varied use of rhythm- which were inevitably some of the main characteristics used in 20C Art Music. Examples of this are seen in the use of:
 * **Dissonance-** Occurs at bars 15-17 and 69- The Antarctica Chord. This is a chord built on quartal harmony instead of using the traditional triadic harmony. This gives the chord and the work a very cold and desolate feeling exploring the expansive nature of the Antarctic environment. The chord does not resolve, rather it repeats itself many times in typical 20C fashion to emphasise the dangerous Antarctic environment. It also helps to create a feeling of perpetual motion and relentlessness.
 * **Varied use of rhythm**- Westlake uses rhythm in a number of ways. He uses free rhythms in Bar 40- during the William's colouristic solo featuring repeated and varied beats as well as using long pauses to emphasise the conclusion of a section. Westlake also exploits the use of rests in between each phrase, and combined with the pause creates a very relaxed and free rhythm. He also uses a number of different ostinati throughout the work, and in each section of the piece there are layers of repeated ostinati. E.g. the opening bars 1-14 leading to the Antarctica Chord use repeated ostinati of triplets in the guitar as well as the repeated quavers in the harp (hard to notate). Similarly, the ostinati in bar 56- 72 uses layers of ostinati to create business and tension as well as maintaining an ominous effect leading up to the Antarctica Chord.
 * Experimental use of TCs. Westlake has used the extremities of the instruments' ranges' and some interesting combinations of instruments to explore different timbral qualities. E.g. The guitar solo at 40 onwards goes over two octaves in range to explore the scope of colours acvailable to the guitar. Also, an unusual combination is at 92 where the marimba, guitar and piccolo play, perhaps to find a colder tone colour as the piccolo has a piercing tone colour and the fact that the instruments ranges combined together goes over such a broad range.

Minimalism.

Antarctica is very minimalist- that is, it is simple, and not very complex in style. It is shown a number of ways throughout the music
 * Large exploitation of repetition- Bare, sustained D pedal point in the opening bars and at the end that continues unabatedly unchanged. Another is the mundane bass drone at 56-68. The repetitive aspects are also shown through the frequent harp pulsations which punctuate on every alternate bar in the opening and closure of the piece. The melodic ideas are usually played more than once as it becomes memorable for the listener.
 * Listenable to a wide range of audience- people wanted to enjoy the music on the first time because they would probably not have time to view the documentary for the second time, as it was released in the IMAX that year. Hence, music was not too dissonant unlike other 20C Art Music. There are in fact many pleasant passages of music such as from 24-40 which conveys the journey. The guitar solo is not too dissonant.
 * Simplistic writing- The film orchestra that played Westlake's music had little time to play the piece so the music had to be almost sight-readable. Many of the passages are repetitive and are not too difficult for professional players. They also fit within one or two hand positions making it easy to perform.

David