A slideshow with score excerpts and musical excerpts. A listening activity based on John Peterson's Five Islands composition ideal for stage 5 learning under Australian Art Music in the NSW syllabus.

2. FIVE ISLANDS
 Tonal idioms
 Continuous music with
fast tempos and layered
repeated figures
 Complex metres such
as 13/8
 Programmatic work
picturing five small
islands near Port
Kembla
 Each piece suggests
different pictures from
rolling sea to bright
sunshine, to solitude
and loneliness

3. BASS ISLAND
 Lively and exuberant
tempo
 Arch form: ABCDCBA –
Coda
 Modal tonality to suggest
an historical link
 Energetic rhythm, driving
music forward
 Underlying rhythmic
pattern that is heard
throughout and unifies
the piece
 Discordant major
seconds
 Modal tonality –
Mixolydian modes based
on A, F#, B and E
 Tonic and dominant
pedal notes
 Sustaining pedal to add
resonance
 Ornamentation with
quintuplets and trills
 Clear articulation
markings.

4. IDENTIFY THE NOTES USED IN THIS
EXCERPT

5. MIXOLYDIAN MODE IN A
TONE-TONE-SEMITONE-TONE-TONESEMITONE-TONE

6. B SECTION

7. MIXOLYDIAN MODE IN F#

8. SECTION D

9. FOCUS QUESTIONS
1. How does this piece demonstrate the composer’s
compositional style of continuous music?
2. What is the tonality of section A and how is this
established?
3. How does the melody of section B differ from that of
section A?
4. What is the mood of the music? Which musical elements
contribute to this mood?

10. MARTIN ISLAND
 Gently flowing tempo
indication and evokes a
mood of
apprehension, loneliness and
isolation
 Tonal qualities of two
adjacent notes C and Db
 Three sections, first two are
repeated.
 First section has C as a tonal
centre
 Second section has Db as a
tonal centre
 Soft dynamic markings
 Built around a 5 note
motive, constant repetition
creates a feeling of
apprehension
 Other motivic ideas or
chordal passages are heard
against it played by the right
hand
 Dissonant intervals and
changes of texture for variety
 Legato articulation with
different phrasing conceals
natural accents to aid flow
 Use of sustain pedal

13. FOCUS QUESTIONS
1. What musical means does the composure use to create a
mood of loneliness and isolation in the A section?
2. What musical means does the composer use to achieve
the change of mood?
3. How is the tonal argument resolved in the final bar?

14. BASS ISLAND FOCUS QUESTIONS
1. The lively exuberant tempo, 13/8 rhythmic pattern that is heard thrghout
seem to make the music rush on continuosly
2. Mixolydian mode based on A is established with low As in bars 3,4 and
5 and a repeated A in the bass in bar 6
3. B is mostly legato, lyrical melody with a little syncopation, whereas A
has a chordal type melody with repeated notes and some staccato

15. MARTIN ISLAND FOCUS QUESTIONS
1. Hypnotic repetition of the insistent quaver motive, repetition of right
hand motives at original pitch and at the octave, a smooth melodic
contour that rises and then falls, legato articulation, discordant
intervals in the chords or between the hands mainly soft dynamics, use
of the sustaining pedal.
2. Pitch rises to a tonal centre a semitone higher, use of tonal Db
chord, nearly all three note chords in the right hand making the texture
thicker
3. A fragment of the motive rises up to Db and then sinks back again to C
with a pause above it.
4. Energetic, fast tempo, repeated driving rhythms, energetic
discords, lyrical melodies