Students will complete an Online Quiz that will be accessible through the unit’s iLearn site during Week 4 of the semester. The Quiz will be open for the whole of Week 4, from 12.01am on Monday March 24^th, to 11.59pm on Friday 28^th.

The Quiz consists of 40 multiple-choice questions, and each question pertains to the unit’s required readings and/or lecture material from Weeks 1-3.

More detail about the functioning of this Quiz will be given in due course.

Criteria for Assessment

• Correct answers to questions.

Your task is to transcribe a series of rhythm patterns that will be given to you each week, from Weeks 2 to 11 of the semester. By the end of the semester you will therefore have a portfolio of 10 transcriptions.

You will be presented with a different rhythm pattern (delivered aurally) in each lecture during this period, and you are asked to make a transcription on the spot and hand it to you lecturer immediately. The patterns given to you will be comparatively simple at the beginning of the semester, but will increase in complexity throughout the semester, as your aural skills and rhythmic understanding develop.

You may use any system of notation that you choose for each week’s transcription. You may use conventional notation, any system that is presented to you during the course of the unit, or that you have encountered in your further research, or you may devise your own system. The most important requirement is that your transcription in each case accurately reflects the critical features and characteristics of the given rhythm pattern, in accordance with the terms and guidelines given to you in the unit’s lecture material. It should also be clear and easy to interpret.

Your transcription each week will necessarily be hand-written/drawn, although you may choose to do it on music manuscript paper, lined writing paper, or a blank white sheet. Please ensure, however, that you present each weekly submission on a single page of A4 paper with your name on it. This will allow your lecturer to scan each week’s submission, and present you with scanned copies of each, both before and after marking. You will them be able to build these returns into a portfolio through which you can track your own development through the semester.

Your lecturer will collect your submissions in each week’s lecture, and will hand them back the following week, marked, and with a brief explanation of correct and incorrect interpretations. Your lecturer will also send you scans of your each week’s submission, both marked and unmarked, for your portfolio (provided you submit each week on a single page of A4, for ease of scanning).

Each week’s exercise will be marked out of 10, adding up to a mark out of 100 for the semester’s portfolio. That marked will be reduced to a final mark out of 20 for the weighting of the assessment task within the unit.

Criteria for Assessment

• Accuracy of representation with regard to the musical example notated

• Effectiveness of the notation in communicating the important musical qualities, including easiness to read

Topic: Complete a comparative study of the use and function of rhythm in any two of the musical cultures or genres studied in the first eight weeks of this unit. Consider the way rhythmic structures and formulae influence the overall shape and result of musical performance in the respective cultures, including (if relevant) the way in which non-performers respond to or interact with the music.

If either or both cultures use any form of written transcription or vocable mnemonics within their learning processes, please include discussion of these in your study. Make reference to the central terms and concepts addressed in the unit lecture material and required readings that address your chosen topics. Use notated examples (indigenous or otherwise) to support your arguments.

This is a research essay, which means that you are required to do your own research for it. Your research will almost certainly take you outside areas directly addressed in the unit material, and that is the point of a research essay. The unit cannot possibly cover all there is to know, so by conducting research for this essay, you will gain a broader perspective than the unit material alone can give you. Furthermore, the nature of the material you find may vary widely according to the specific cultures that you choose to research. For this reason, I do not define the essay topic too closely, as that may place inconvenient limitations upon your research.

If you intend to conduct internet research for this essay, please first read the document “Guidelines for Internet Research” that is available on iLearn (and note the list of websites I ask you not to use!!) Please ensure that the internet sources you use do not outnumber your text sources. (And note that a journal article accessed through JSTOR is a text source, not an internet source; it has been published in a journal at some time. The internet is not where such articles are based, it’s only how you access them.)

Please also read the document “How to Write an Essay” that is available on iLearn. Make sure that you understand the point of writing your essay, and the principles and processes that should guide you.

Please ensure that you understand the meaning of plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty. The University’s policy on academic honesty can be seen at: http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html. A pdf of this policy is also available on this unit’s iLearn site.

Any student engaging in academic dishonesty in any form will be given zero marks for the assignment, and will not be given an opportunity to resubmit.

Criteria for Assessment

• Demonstrated understanding of the central characteristics of rhythm and rhythmic structure, as relevant to your chosen topic

• Demonstrated understanding of the relevant material and terms of reference used in this unit’s lectures

• Appropriate and interesting discussion of the application of the central rhythmic ideas, as relevant to your chosen topic

• Evidence of engagement with the relevant required readings, and further support readings, to support your ideas

• Evidence of having read and understood the documents “How to Write an Essay” and “Guidelines for Internet Research”

Clarity of expression, correct referencing and spelling

Note: This exercise will be conducted in Exam Week, the week following the final lecture of the semester. The exact date and time will be set and advised by the Examinations Unit. (Please note, this assessment is not an “exam”, but it is scheduled through the Examinations Unit in order to avoid clashes of students’ time with other exams.)

The task is to undertake and present a creative project that employs and builds upon any of the rhythmic ideas and concepts studied in this unit. The task invites students to use any of these rhythmic ideas as a foundation for their work, and to extend upon them in a creative manner. Students may apply the rhythmic principles to the musical instrument(s), movement structures, or other creative media of their own preference.

Students will work in small groups of two or three, to ensure that rhythmic cooperation ("teamwork") is an important part of the presentation.

Students will present their completed projects by way of a performance during exam week. Each performance should be a minimum of three minutes, and a maximum of five minutes in duration. The performances will be recorded on video, which allows me to make detailed observations on your creative work, and give you constructive feedback.

Each student (individually) is required to submit an accompanying support paper (c.500 words) which outlines the project in terms of the rhythmic ideas that are at its origin (and the cultural origin of these ideas), and exactly how the project has developed these ideas. Each student should also outline their own individual role in, and contribution to, the collaborative project. Each paper should include notated examples of the source material, in both original and developed forms.

Please discuss your project with your unit convenor before you begin substantial work on it, to ensure that your ideas are appropriate.

Criteria for Assessment

• Clear musical representation and acknowledgement of a cultural/rhythmic source from amongst the unit subject matter

• Creative treatment of the original ideas, including sensitivity to the original ideas

• Sound rhythmic relationships between the individual collaborators to each project

• Clarity and concision of performance presentation in music, movement and/or relevant media