Contrast

Identified by the Victorian Curriculum & Assessment Authority (VCAA) as a compositional device, “contrast is achieved where significant new musical material is introduced or where significant changes are made to established musical patterns”.

Access the full list of techniques and processes that could be used to explore contrast from VCAA on page 16 of the VCE Music Study Design 2023-2027.

Other ways VCAA suggest you consider ‘contrast’ include the role it plays in the structure of music—or the organisation of music on a micro or macro level—and when comparing performances of the same work for listening and interpretation. Lastly, ‘contrast’ is a key compositional device when creating your own music.

Instrumentation

• this excerpt begins with low strings and percussion, before the entire brass section enters with the main melody, strings and woodwinds adding flourishes, contrasting with the section from 0’47” where the brass completely disappear and are replaced by woodwinds and strings

Melody/melodic contour

• the opening features repeated notes, with the main melody remaining steady but very fragmented, before contrasting ascending and descending melodic movements, while the section from 0’47” features a melodic contour that rapidly ascends and descends in pitch across string and woodwind registers, with fragmentation that has slightly greater length and less definition

Variation

Variation, as defined by the VCAA, differs from contrast: “variation is changes/modifications to established musical ideas and patterns, while retaining significant recognisable features”.

Taking VCAA’s definition, we then have to identify and explore variation as when a section or idea returns but is not identical to when last it was heard. Particularly, that some components of the section or idea are the same or similar, so we can recognise it, however that other aspects are altered to create variety.

Access the full list of techniques and processes that could be used to explore variation from VCAA on page 16 of the VCE Music Study Design 2023-2027.

Instrumentation

• the melodic idea is presented first on a celeste-type or music box-type instrument which has a mournful and innocent character, before a variation occurs and the same idea is performed by organ, shifting the character and mood considerably to become more aggressive and sinister

Dynamics

• the melodic idea on the music box-type instrument and accompanying strings are presented at a soft or piano dynamic, with a sudden and dramatic variation to a loud or forte dynamic as the organ enters