One of the most popular resources in New Zealand secondary school music departments has been given a ‘make-over’ .
The SOUNZwrite Guides produced through SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand Music are used in more than 300 high schools
and other educational institutions throughout the country. Originally, between 1997 and 1999, nine guides were produced.
Each features in detail one work by a New Zealand composer and contains background material and analysis of the piece,
imaginative ideas for classroom activities, assessment ideas and information about related works and topics.
“The guides have proved to be very popular,” Scilla Askew, Executive Director of SOUNZ comments, “and have encouraged
many teachers and their students to become familiar with the wonderful range and diversity of music being composed in
this country. The advent of NCEA in New Zealand schools however meant that the resources became less relevant. With
generous assistance from Music Education New Zealand Aotearoa (MENZA), the Lion Foundation, Unison Trust and the Lilburn
Trust, SOUNZ has been able to undertake a complete revision of the guides.”
The original nine guides have been gathered into three sets of three, one for each of the NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3. The
Level 1 SOUNZwrite guide is now available and features three vocal works: Childhood by Jenny McLeod, Pounamu by Helen
Fisher, and I Hope I Never by Tim Finn in its ENZSO arrangement by Eddie Rayner. The Level 2 guide features Waiting for
the Aeroplane by John Psathas, Rakiura by David Hamilton and Lullaby for Matthew by Gillian Whitehead. Level 3 guide
focuses on The Hanging Bulb by Anthony Ritchie, Overture: Aotearoa and Three Sea Changes both by Douglas Lilburn. The
latter two revised guides will be released in the next few months.
“These nine works cover a range of instrumental, orchestral and choral music by nine outstanding New Zealand composers,”
Ms. Askew continues. “They complement resources about NZ popular music, which the Ministry of Education has distributed
in recent years to NZ schools, and with this revision will continue to be valuable and important resources in schools.”
ENDS