A Search for Balance: The Development of a Performance Assessment Form for Classical Instrumental Music in the Tertiary Context

Abstract

The amalgamation of conservatoria with universities in Australia has brought about consideration of assessment strategies in tertiary classical music performance recitals. Traditional conservatorium performance assessment differs from the university academic assessment model particularly as regards the inclusion of marked criteria. Traditional assessment tends to favour a global response via free examiner comments whilst academic assessment favours marking through the use of pre-set criteria. The first gives an overall appraisal from the perspective of the individual examiner and the second applies a set of measures that aims to provide detailed feedback on specific aspects. This chapter examines several different types of performance assessment forms and discusses their relative benefits. Recommendations are then provided for the creation of an assessment form where the most positive elements are combined. This is demonstrated through the provision of space for free examiner comments and a correlated overall mark together with pre-set criteria and no correlated mark. An exemplar is provided with a range of criteria and a Likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) for application in classical instrument performance recitals.