The Centre publishes a range of kits to help teach everything from contemporary 'classical' Australian music, through to film music, jazz, opera, pop and more.
Kit Categories
Featured Kit
Cries and Calls
Designed for junior and senior secondary schools, this kit focuses on the composition process for a small ensemble.
General Classical Music Kits
2002 MLC School Australian Music Day, $160.00
This kit includes explores five works by young composers, each commissioned especially to celebrate Australia's Centenary of Federation. The DVD features performances and analytical investigations by educator/conductor Richard Gill, while the booklet includes analyses from the composer's perspective.
Australian Classical Music, $105.50
A presentation of sixteen Australian works covering a range of contemporary genres and styles. Accompanied by four cassettes, the booklet contains brief biographical material on the composers, a description and analysis of each work, aural exercises and compositional exercises.
White Ghost Dancing – NEW!, $75.00
Our latest kit is designed to accompany the ABC Classics CD of the same name, this kit contains introductory information about the composition of each work, a listening guide, and listening, score–reading and composition activities that will help students to explore and understand the compositional style and technique of Ross Edwards.
Chamber and Instrumental Music Kits
Burning House, $81.75
Satsuki Odamura's CD features music by a range of Australian composers whose approach to writing for the koto differs markedly. The collected works bring together a kaleidoscope of characters, cultures and sounds, with this kit guiding students through analytical layers and viewpoints.
Chamber Music of Ross Edwards, $76.50
This kit looks at three works by Ross Edwards, one of Australia's most prominent contemporary composers. For students unused to score-reading, these pieces are excellent vehicles in getting to know the compositional processes involved.
Clocks : The Music of Elena Kats-Chernin, $94.00
This kit explores the music of leading Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin. Based on the CD of the same name, it assumes a background in music literacy and examines three chamber works: Russian Rag, Variations in a Serious Black Dress and Clocks.
Three Australian Post-1970 Pieces, $66.95
Designed to accompany the acclaimed Synergy Percussion CD, this kit provides musicology, aural, composition and performance activities based on works by Australian composers Nigel Westlake and Martin Wesley-Smith.
Opera and Music Theatre Kits
Boojum!, $86.40
Composer Martin Wesley-Smith and teacher Kim Waldock have written an imaginative set of music activities around Boojum!, Martin-Wesley-Smith's frabjous, fantabulous, nonsensical musical comedy based on Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark.
Confessions to My Dogs, $53.00
Confessions to My Dogs is an extended song cycle written by one of Australia's foremost women composers, Moya Henderson. This kit is an easy and fun way to teach an entertaining and confronting work which will stimulate your students and develop their basic musical knowledge.
Quito, $110.00
Quito is a documentary music drama about schizophrenia by Martin and Peter Wesley–Smith. The Quito kit explores the stage and radio versions of this extraordinary drama using a CD, musical extracts, questions and complete answers for students. Part of the Australian Opera Series.
Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, $149.00
This kit looks at the opera by Colin Bright and Amanda Stewart, and contains newspaper articles, CD, and musical extracts and questions with detailed answers. Part of the Australian Opera Series.
The Eighth Wonder, $120.00
This kit is centred on Alan John and Dennis Watkin's opera about the drama surrounding the construction of our own cultural icon, the Sydney Opera House. It includes extensive background contextual information, together with analysis and activities designed for elective music students in years 7–12 and beyond. Part of the Australian Opera Series.
Other Topics
A Way Back, $75.00
Suitable for Secondary Schools – Jazz–rock inspired piece commissioned by the Australian Society for Music Education, 2005, for performance by school bands. Featuring the Whizzbang Orkestra with Bryn Hills & Damien Woods.
Australian Folk Music, $100.00
This kit presents a broad understanding of the concepts of folk music and its functions and relevance in today's society. There are sections on listening and analysis, composition and performance, including singing, instrumental performance and dance.
Australian Jazz, $105.50
A comprehensive exploration of jazz, this kit looks at the history of jazz in Australia, before then examining the basic musical characteristics of jazz performance and composition. The final section looks at a number of jazz styles through analyses and teaching activities associated with a selection of pieces by Australian jazz musicians.
Cries and Calls, $42.00
Designed for junior and senior secondary schools, this kit focuses on the composition process for a small ensemble. It is based on the project created by Mike Ladd, a collection of street cries and calls taken from typical Australian settings.
Inventing Music, $17.70
In this kit renowned broadcaster and composer Andrew Ford provides a beginner course in composition and suited to those who have not composed before.
Journey to Horseshoe Bend, $90.00
This resource kit is geared towards elective music in secondary schools, and can also be used at a tertiary level. It fits well into current syllabus requirements for the study of Australian music and study of an Australian journey.
Millennium of Choral Music, $49.50
Produced as an exploration kit for high school students, teachers, choristers and conductors in the compositional techniques of choral music. This guide is a brilliant teaching aid and introduction to choral technique and the choral repertoire.
Ngana: Australian Choral Music Kit, $49.50
Choral music in Australia has grown into a vibrant and diverse scene in recent years. This kit explores a huge range of compositional techniques from canons to clusters, word painting to colouristic devices and drones to polyrhythms. It also includes song texts, interviews and biographical information about each of the composers, and solo and group activities for students.
Out of the Blue (Antarctica), $101.50
Using the focal work Antarctica by Nigel Westlake, for solo guitar and orchestra, this kit has been designed to provide information for teachers and students about film music and the techniques of film music composition.
World Music in Australia, $72.50
World Music in Australia looks at various ethnic musics existing in Australia, and deals with important issues such as multiculturalism, authenticity, political issues and equality in education. The kit's second section looks at the diversity of world music in Australia, covering the folkloric, classical and popular traditions.
