AQA GCSE Unit 1: Listening to and Appraising Music – Preparation and Practice

KSKS45 AQA GCSE Unit 1: Listening to and Appraising Music – preparation and practice

Alan Charlton is an by Alan Charlton author, composer and examiner and has written numerous books and articles on music education. He Introduction taught for a number of years at Bedford This article is designed to support students taking the AQA GCSE Music Unit 1 examination paper, Listening to School, initially as a composer- and Appraising Music (42701). It will look at the different types of questions that are typically set, and suggest in-residence, ways in which they can be prepared for and approached. Practice questions, based on extracts on Spotify, are and has a PhD in provided to practise and refine students’ knowledge and aural skills. composition from the University of Bristol. General features of the paper

The Listening to and Appraising Music paper examines how effectively students can identify musical elements through listening skills. As well as aural perception skills, they need to display a good understanding of the terminology for the five AQA Areas of Study (the elements of music). The paper lasts an hour, and candidates answer a question paper based on recorded excerpts played on a CD.

A typical example of how the questions were distributed can be seen in the 2012 paper, in which there were 18 recorded extracts, each of which was played between two and four times, depending on the difficulty of the questions asked. These were divided into 12 questions (each worth between five and nine marks), further divided into between three and seven shorter questions generally worth one or two marks each. One question, based on a comparison between two extracts, was worth six marks.

The music is based on a range of musical styles and periods from the Areas of Study: the Western Classical Tradition, Popular Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries, and World Music. However, the examination is designed to test the aural perception of the elements of music rather than a detailed knowledge of individual genres and traditions, so this article will concentrate mainly on the former.

Different question types

The types of question asked are all based on AQA’s Areas of Study for GCSE, which are the elements of music: AoS1: Rhythm and Metre AoS2: Harmony and Tonality AoS3: Texture and Melody AoS4: Timbre and Dynamics AoS5: Structure and Form

In the 2012 paper, the first four of these had a more or less equal number of questions, while Structure and Form had the least. Below is an approximate breakdown of the types of question included in the 2012 paper, listed under each element of music. The frequency is given at the beginning. (Note that this is the number of questions, rather than marks, and that categories of question have been slightly generalised for simplicity).

1 Music Teacher March 2015 AoS Question type Frequency Rhythm and Metre identify/complete notated rhythm 4 (total 14 questions) count bars 3 name time signature 3 identify/describe tempo 2 describe/name rhythmic devices 2 Harmony and Tonality identify if major/minor/modal, etc 3 (total 12 questions) identify harmonic device 2 name cadence 2 name chords (major/minor/7th chords) 2 count chords 2 identify key of modulation 1 Texture and Melody describe/name melodic device 5 (total 15 questions) name texture 4 name ornament 3 complete melody 2 complete phrase marks 1 Timbre and Dynamics name instrument/ensemble/voice 10 (total 17 questions) describe dynamics 5 name technique 2 Structure and Form describe/identify form 2 (total 3 questions) identify continuo 1

Although the actual mix of questions of course varies from year to year, this gives a good general indication of what to expect. It is interesting that certain questions are much more frequent that others, for instance questions to do with identifying instruments, ensembles and types of voices.

Dictation, chord and interval recognition

Basic musical notation is tested. Candidates may be asked to write out a short rhythm through dictation, or select, say, one out of four given rhythms. With pitch, they can be asked to write out four or five pitches of a short melody, with the rhythm already provided, or select the correct version through multiple choice. With chords, students can be asked whether certain chords are major, minor or dominant 7th chords, or their relative position, such as tonic (I), dominant (V) or subdominant (IV), but not to identify inversions, etc. Melodic intervals are tested, too: they will tend to be the easier intervals to spot, such as octaves, perfect 5ths and 4ths, rather than, say, augmented and diminished intervals.

AoS1: Rhythm and Metre

Success in the rhythm questions is largely dependent on being able to identify and follow the pulse of the music and to work out which are the strong beats.

Music Teacher March 2015 2 ‘Count the number of bars’ An example of this question could be: ‘The excerpt is in 4/4. How many bars are there before the voice enters?’

Students need to know how many beats make up a bar, and thus need to understand the commonly used time signatures (eg 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 2/2).

They could then count in their heads along with the pulse (eg for 2/4: one, two, two, two, three, two, four, two’ etc), or simply count the number of beats (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, etc) and divide this number by the number of beats in a bar to get the correct answer. It can also be helpful to count bars on one’s fingers.

‘What is the time signature of the extract?’ This question can be answered by (silently) tapping along to the pulse, and listening out for the strong beat. The number of beats in the bar is the number of taps before the next strong beat. This figure can be checked by counting from each strong beat (‘one, two, three, one, two, three’ etc), confirming that each ‘one’ falls on a strong beat.

The most important factor here is to ascertain whether the music is in 2 (or 4) or 3: according to the AQA mark scheme for 2012, 4/4, C, Common Time, 2/4 and Split Common Time were all acceptable for an extract in 4/4, and 3/4, 3/8 and 3/2 for an extract in 3/4. Students may also be asked whether an excerpt is in simple or compound time: if it has a ‘straight’ feel to it, it is probably simple time, whereas more lilting, skipping, dance- like metres will probably be compound time.

‘Identify/describe the tempo’ This type of question might ask for an Italian term, or be a multiple choice on say, three different metronome marks. It could be approached by tapping along to the pulse and assessing how fast it is. It can be useful to compare the pulse with walking speed. Normal walking speed (andante or moderato, very roughly about 70–90bpm) can be taken as an ‘average speed’ for music, so significantly quicker than this (running speed or above) would be a fast tempo (eg allegro, more than 90bpm), and significantly slower would be a slow tempo (eg largo, less than 70bpm).

Other questions on tempo might ask whether the music is slowing down (rallentando), speeding up (accelerando) or in a flexible tempo, where the pulse fluctuates (rubato). Again, these can be answered by tapping along to the pulse and assessing if and how it changes.

‘Describe/name the rhythmic device’ There are a handful of rhythmic devices that can appear in questions, such as rhythmic augmentation and diminution, syncopation, anacrusis and hemiola. With augmentation, a melody or rhythm will appear to be played much slower (normally half speed) later in the extract, while with diminution, it will be appear to be repeated much faster (usually twice the original speed). Syncopated rhythms sound ‘jazzy’: accented notes that fall in between the main beats give the music a ‘jerky’ feel. An anacrusis is an upbeat, usually to a melodic phrase: a useful analogy for the sort of effect it produces is to imagine someone taking in a quick breath before starting to speak. Hemiolas mostly appear in Baroque music: a pulse in two will appear to speed up to a quicker three in a bar just before the end of a phrase.

‘Identify the correct rhythm from the following/complete the rhythm’ This is obviously a question where candidates who are confident in reading musical notation will have an advantage. For the less confident, there are still ways to rule out certain options of the multiple-choice version of this question: 1. Count the total number of notes in the relevant part of the recording and compare this with the total number of notes in the answers (remembering that two or more notes tied together will sound as a single note). 2. Listen out for series of notes using the same note value (eg five short notes the same length, or three medium length notes of equal length). Do these correspond with any of the given answers? 3. Tapping along to the pulse can help keep your place when following the music, which can narrow down the options. For instance, this may help you hear on which beat a rest occurs, or the particular beat on which there are faster notes, which you can then compare with the possible options. 4. A tie marking normally indicates a syncopation: listening out for the exact beat(s) on which syncopation occurs can help reveal the correct answer.

3 Music Teacher March 2015 AoS2: Harmony and Tonality

‘What is the tonality of the extract?’ This type of question usually asks students to identify whether the key of the music is major or minor. The most obvious way to approach this is to ascertain whether the music generally sounds ‘happy’ (major) or ‘sad’ (minor), paying particular attention to whether the tonic chord is itself major or minor. For the purposes of the AQA specification, most classical and pop music extracts will be tonal. An alternative is amodal tonality: typically, this is often associated with folk music, world music and plainsong chant.

‘Name the harmonic device used at...’ The main harmonic device to look out for is a pedal (also called a drone), a long held note in the music, with other elements that change (such as a melody or a chord progression) against it.

‘Name the cadence used at...’ The AQA specification highlights five cadences: perfect, imperfect, plagal, interrupted and tierce de Picardie. The most common cadence is the perfect cadence (V-I), which tends to sound final, like the full stop at the end of a sentence, usually concluding a musical phrase or a section. An imperfect cadence (I-V) tends to make the music sound incomplete, implying a subsequent, answering The first four of phrase. It is perhaps the musical equivalent of a colon in the middle of a sentence. these can also be identified by The plagal cadence (IV-I) sounds like an ‘amen’ at the end of a hymn. listening to the The interrupted cadence (V to a chord other than I) usually has a ‘surprise’ effect, with the music taking movement of the an unexpected twist. bassline. The tierce de Picardie is usually only found at the end of a movement, providing a surprise major ending to music that had up until then been in the minor.

‘Name the chords used at...’ This question could simply be asking whether certain chords are major, minor or dominant 7th, or ask for Roman numerals, such as I, IV and V. Another version of the question asks the candidate to name the chord (eg G major), having given the tonic key (eg ‘The extract is in C major. Which chord is used to open the second phrase?’).

To answer these questions effectively, students will need a reasonable grasp of basic harmony, and in particular the sounds of chords I, IV, V and V7. Chords (which will almost certainly be in root position for questions such as this) can also be worked out from listening to the bassline.

‘To which key does the music modulate to at....’ The alternatives usually given for this question are relative minor (or relative major if the extract is in a minor key), dominant and subdominant.

The relative minor/major can be roughly ascertained by listening to whether the feel of the music goes from ‘happy’ to ‘sad’, or vice versa.

To distinguish between whether the music has modulated to dominant or subdominant, one could very quietly hum the tonic note until the modulation occurs, and then work out to which scale degree the bass has moved.

AoS3: Texture and Melody

AQA list more melodic terminology in their specification than they do for rhythm and harmony. This can be broken down into: intervals type of melodic movement (conjunct, disjunct, etc) ornaments and decorations (appoggiatura, pitch bend, trill, etc) modes and scales (diatonic, pentatonic, blues scale, etc) transformative melodic devices (augmentation, inversion, etc) other melodic devices or features (ostinato, improvisation) phrasing

Music Teacher March 2015 4 It is a good idea for students to understand how the various different terms are grouped to help answer exam questions: an ostinato is a melodic device, for instance, but ‘diatonic’ isn’t; an appoggiatura is a type of ornament, but augmentation is not.

‘What can be heard in the melody at...’ This is often a multiple-choice question, with the options chosen freely from the categories above. More specific forms of this question, for which the candidate normally needs to write in the answer, can include: ‘Name the melodic device at...’ ‘Name the ornament at...’

Most questions of this type can be successfully answered without knowledge of music notation, providing students have been given clear demonstrations of what each feature sounds like. Some are more obvious to spot (pitch bends, trills) than others: demonstrating each of them at a piano or keyboard is the best way to Singing is good practice for this, for introduce them. instance by asking the class to sing the ‘Name the interval at...’ notes of the scale For these questions, students will need to have practised interval recognition. The traditional method is for the going up and down to the numbers teacher to carry this out on a keyboard, or to ask students to sing intervals back to them. An alternative is online one to eight, then tests: search for ‘interval recognition practice’ on the internet. asking them to sing different scale degrees by calling ‘Complete the melody at...’ out numbers (eg For these questions, students will need to employ the following: 1, 3, 1, 4, 5, etc). being able to recognise upward or downward movement Traditional tonic sol- fa is another version being able to recognise melodic intervals of the same thing. being able to recognise the different scale degrees (tonic, supertonic, etc or notes 1, 2, 3, etc of the scale)

For those making educated guesses, the completed melody is unlikely to contain strange-looking accidentals or be excessively angular.

‘Complete the phrase marks at...’ This involves drawing phrase marks over music to indicate the starts and ends of phrases. Some useful hints to answering this include: In vocal music, listening out for breaths, commas or other natural breaks in the text. Rests often indicate the gap between two phrases. Phrases are often a regular length, such as one bar, two bars or four bars. A melody is often made up of phrases of equal length, such as 2+2+2+2. Phrase marks should always begin and end above an actual note (ie not a rest). Watch out for melodies beginning on an upbeat (anacrusis): with these, it is likely that subsequent phrases will also begin on the same beat of the bar.

5 Music Teacher March 2015 ‘Describe the texture at...’ This could be a multiple-choice question or one that requires a written response. It should be possible to answer questions on texture with no knowledge of music notation, providing students have had enough practice in recognising different types of texture. The following flow diagram is a useful way of breaking down textural recognition into small steps:

Does the texture consist solely of chords?

Yes No

Homophonic or Harmonic Is there a single prominent melody line?

Yes No

Is there an accompaniment? Are there two or more melodies of roughly equal importance?

Yes No Yes No

Homophonic or Melody Is the melody line Polyphonic or Contrapuntal Are several different with Accompaniment doubled in octaves? (additionally, it may also be ideas superimposed (if the accompaniment is (rich and imitative and/or canonic) over each other? a long held note, it is full-sounding) melody with drone) Yes Yes No

Layered Octaves Unison

Do two different groups of instruments/voices take turns playing the same musical material (like a conversation)?

Yes

Antiphonal

AoS 4: Timbre and Dynamic

‘Name the instrument/ensemble/voice at...’ This type of question arises frequently. Possible instruments include all the standard orchestral and popular music instruments, as well as the better-known world music instruments from the Caribbean, Africa and India.

To identify a particular instrument, it is a good idea to consider the following:

What general timbre is it? woodwind brass strings – bowed strings – plucked keyboard percussion – pitched percussion – unpitched instruments that use music technology

Is it playing one line of music (ie a melody) or several notes at once, such as chords or melody and accompaniment? (If several, it will probably be a keyboard instrument, guitar or harp, although stringed instruments and pitched percussion instruments can play up to four notes at once.)

Music Teacher March 2015 6 What is its general register? family very high high upper middle lower middle low register register

woodwind piccolo flute, oboe clarinet, alto bassoon contrabassoon saxophone

brass trumpet, cornet horn trombone tuba

bowed strings violin viola cello double bass

percussion glockenspiel, vibraphone, vibraphone, timpani (pitched) xylophone xylophone, marimba marimba

guitars acoustic guitar, electric guitar, sitar bass guitar

Keyboard instruments such as piano, organ, harpsichord and synthesiser, and the harp have wide ranges, so they could play in most registers.

What is the musical genre of the extract? If it is Western classical music, the instruments will probably be standard orchestral instruments and older keyboard instruments such as piano, organ and harpsichord. Depending on its style, popular music will tend to use electric and acoustic guitars, electric keyboards, drum kit, synthesised and sampled sounds. However, note that popular music can also include stringed instruments and jazz instruments such as trumpet, saxophone, trombone. Common world music instruments to listen out for are congas and steel pans (Caribbean), sitar and tabla (India), oud (a type of lute), kora (like a harp) and various xylophones and drums (Africa).

‘What is the type of ensemble/group playing at...’ For Western classical music, this can include: orchestra (chamber orchestra for small, or symphony orchestra for large) string quartet piano trio/quartet/quintet instrument and piano voice and piano

Choirs and groups of singers come in different types, which can be recognised by listening to the age and gender of who is singing, and the musical style: mixed choir male voice choir choir of women’s voices children’s choir chorus in an opera or musical barbershop group gospel choir backing singers

Popular music groups are not standard, but certain instruments such as electric guitars and drum kit are very commonly used. Some songs may include one or more of a string section, horn section and backing singers.

Older film music and musicals tend to use an orchestra or jazz band; more recent scores may incorporate popular music instruments, such as drum kit, guitars and music technology such as synthesisers and samplers.

As world music instruments and ensembles are so numerous, more general questions about them can be expected, such as identifying the general family an instrument or group of instruments comes from.

7 Music Teacher March 2015 ‘What is the instrumental/vocal technique used at...’ Note that although they are classed Questions such as this will only ask about the more common, standard techniques. Things to listen out for are: under ‘melody’, stringed instruments playing pizzicato pitch bends and strings or brass instruments playing with a mute glissandos are also techniques. Pitch tremolo on stringed instruments, or sometimes keyboard/harp/guitar/pitched percussion bends are typically double stopping on stringed instruments associated with falsetto on male voices the guitar, while a glissando can be vibrato on solo voices played on many instruments, such as ‘What is the dynamic at/describe how the dynamics change at...’ harp, piano, stringed These questions should be among the more straightforward in the AQA paper: candidates just need to be able instruments, trombone and to distinguish between soft and loud dynamics, recognise gradual changes (crescendo and diminuendo) and clarinet. know the appropriate Italian terms.

AoS5: Structure and Form

‘Describe the form of the extract...’ Owing to the shortness of the extracts in the AQA paper, extended forms (such as sonata form, rondo form and so on), are unlikely to appear. Questions tend to ask candidates to label, say, four or five phrases with the letters A and B (eg AABAAB) to show that they understand how the music is constructed.

Other possible questions from this element include being asked about particular structural conventions, such as the ground bass and continuo group in Baroque music, the use of cadenza passages in a concerto, verse/ chorus form and call-and-response techniques in popular and world music.

Practice questions

These questions are intended to be worked through and discussed as a class, perhaps with students attempting them individually before the teacher discusses them. The excerpts should each be played three or four times, with longer questions maybe requiring further playings.

Note that these these are practice questions designed to teach students to spot specific musical features, and so some differ in format from questions that would appear in the exam. After working through these questions, the next step would be to attempt some past papers.

The excerpts are all on the Spotify playlist on the online resources for this article. Note that some excerpts begin some way into the track (timings are given), and that all the excerpts finish before the end of the track – again, timings are given for this.

Practice questions on individual areas of study

Practice exercises on AoS1: Rhythm and Metre Q1: Sibelius (a) The following letters represent the rhythm of the first six bars of the extract, where rhythm B is slightly different from rhythm A. Rhythm A and rhythm B last one bar each.

A A B A A A

Which of the following is rhythm A?

i) ii) iii) iv)                            

Music Teacher March 2015 8 (b) What is the time signature of the extract?

(d) Which of the following metronome marks is closest to that of the extract? 1. 80 bpm 2. 112 bpm 3. 140 bpm

(e) Circle the correct answer. The first full chord played by the brass instruments occurs in:

bar 7 bar 8 bar 9 bar 10

Q2: The Beach Boys (a) The idea first sung by a solo voice, then by several voices, is heard five times at the beginning of the song. Which one of the following is the rhythm of this idea? i)  ii)                           

iv) iii)                      

(b) This same repeated rhythmic phrase contains which one of the following? 1. augmentation 2. rubato 3. hemiola 4. syncopation

Q3: Haydn (a) What is the time signature of the extract?

(b) Which one of the following rhythmic features occurs in the opening two bars of the extract? 1. anacrusis 2. diminution 3. ostinato 4. hemiola

Practice exercises on AoS2: Harmony and Tonality Q4: The Beach Boys (a) The following table represents each bar of the Beach Boys song, showing where there is a chord change. Write in Roman numeral notation (I, IV, V, etc) the chords to which the music moves in the boxes under letters b) to e) below. The chords for a) and f) are given for you.

Bar no 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

vocal solo other instruments voices enter enter question a) b) c) d) e) f)

chord - I I

(b) Describe the tonality of the extract.

9 Music Teacher March 2015 Q5: Haydn (a) What is the tonality of the movement?

(b) To which key does the music modulate at 0’17? 1. dominant 2. subdominant 3. relative major

Q6: Haydn (a) What is the tonality of the movement?

(b) To which key does the music modulate at at 0’27? 1. dominant 2. subdominant 3. relative major

Practice exercises on AoS3: Melody and Texture Q7: Sibelius (a) Which of the following best describes the texture of the opening of the extract? 1. contrapuntal 2. homophonic 3. octaves 4. unison

(b) The melodic movement of the opening six bars is 1. conjunct 2. disjunct 3. chromatic 4. triadic

(c) Choose the correct term to complete this statement: ‘The melody at the start of the extract is...’ 1. pentatonic 2. whole tone 3. diatonic 4. modal

Q8: Haydn (a) From the list below, circle two ornaments that appear in the excerpt. 1. pitch bend 2. trill 3. acciaccatura 4. glissando 5. blue note

Practice exercises on AoS4: Timbre and Dynamics Q9: Bartók Name the instruments that appear at the following timings (the teacher may need to call out the timings as they are reached):

(a) The percussion instrument at 0'00

(b) The wind instruments that enter at 0'11

Music Teacher March 2015 10 (d) The wind instruments that enter at 1'03

(e) The wind instruments that enter at 1'25

(f) The string technique used on the descending scales at 2'06

(g) The brass instruments that enter at 2'10

(h) The technique they are using, also at 2'10

(i) The technique used in the upper strings from 2'10 to 2'42

(j) The family of instruments at 2'58

(k) The brass instruments that enter at 3'33

(l) The instrument playing the glissandos at 5'30 to 5'53

General Questions: these test all areas of study Q10: Wajahat Khan (a) Which one of the following can be heard in this extract? 1. drone 2. plagal cadence 3. tierce de Picardie 4. dominant 7th chord

(b) Describe the metre at the beginning of the extract.

(d) Which one of the folllowing melodic features can be heard in this extract? 1. arpeggio 2. ostinato 3. sequence 4. portamento

(e) Describe how the rhythm/metre and instrumentation change from 4’50.

Q11: Carnival is We The following is a plan of the excerpt, with each box representing a bar. The section from bars 1 to 15 forms an introduction to the main theme, which begins in bar 16. bar 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 event 4 beats steel trill percussion in pans backing starts enter motive A B A B

bar 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

event linking idea Main melody starts

motive A B A A A

11 Music Teacher March 2015 (a). Write down a term that describes the texture in bars 2 to 3.

(b) With which part of the world is this music most associated? 1. India 2. Caribbean 3. Africa

(d) Complete the missing notes in the melody line from bars 2 to 5. The rhythm is given for you.

            (four beats in)         

(e) What note value are the quick notes of motive B? 1. semiquavers 2. minims 3. quavers 4. triplet quavers

(f) Describe the type of melodic movement in bar 15.

Q12: Palestrina (a) Which two terms below best describe the texture of the extract? 1. homophonic 2. polyphonic 3. melody with accompaniment 4. antiphonal 5. imitative

(b) Identify two melodic features that can be heard in this extract: 1. imitation 2. trill 3. conjunct movement 4. disjunct movement 5. blue notes

(d) By which type of choir is this extract performed? 1. children’s choir 2. mixed choir 3. male voice choir 4. barbershop group

Music Teacher March 2015 12 Q13: Beethoven (a) The extract is scored for a solo piano and orchestra. What is the name for this type of composition?

(b) What is the term for the passage beginning at 12’43?

(d) Which one of the following statements about melody is true for the passage from 13’09 to 13’36? 1. The passage contains many arpeggios. 2. The passage is pentatonic throughout. 3. The passage uses augmentation. 4. The passage uses ostinato.

(e) Which one of the following statements about rhythm and metre is true for the passage from 13’09 to 13’36? 1. The passage is in a steady tempo throughout. 2. The passage uses syncopation. 3. The passage uses hemiola. 4. The passage uses rubato.

Q14: Howlin’ Wolf (a) Which one of the following describes the form of this music? 1. ABA 2. 12-bar blues 3. call and response 4. ground bass

(b) The following table shows where changes of chord occur. Write in the boxes underneath, using Roman numerals, the chords used at a, b, c and d. bar 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 lyrics can’t grab something evil warnin’ long sleep way musical guitar solo piano events enters Chord I a) b) V IV c) d) I

(c) What is the term for the short repeated guitar melody that can be heard in bars 1 to 9? 1. arpeggio 2. sequence 3. appoggiatura 4. riff

(d) What is the correct rhythm for this idea (the guitar melody repeated from bars 1 to 9)?

i) ii) iii) iv)                                  

(e) Which two of the following can be heard in the melody of the solo guitar that enters in bar 5? 1. pitch bend 2. diminution 3. ornamentation 4. inversion 5. sequence

(f) Name the wind instrument that can be heard in bars 12 and 13.

13 Music Teacher March 2015 Q15: Magnificent Seven/The Ipcress File Compare the Rhythm and Metre and Timbre and Dynamics of two excerpts of music, excerpt A and excerpt B. They will each be played four times in the order ABABABAB. (total 6 marks)

Hints:

Comment only on what the question asks: features of rhythm/metre and timbre/dynamics.

Listen for whether the music is in a regular or irregular metre; what the time signature might be (or whether it is simple or compound); whether there is rubato, syncopation, cross-rhythm, triplets, etc.

For timbre, try to identify the type of ensemble playing, any individual instruments you can hear, any instrumental effects you can identify; music technology effects such as reverb, chorus, etc.

A good way to answer this question is to draw two columns side by side, each representing one of the extracts, and then compare them feature by feature.

Excerpt A Excerpt B

Music Teacher March 2015 14 Track listing for the questions

All of these tracks can be found on Spotify: the playlist is here, or search for ‘AQA GCSE listening excerpts MT March 2015’.

The relevant track listing and timings are below:

Q1. Sibelius: Symphony No. 3, I Allegro moderato. Suggested recording: Lahti Symphony Orchestra/Leif Segerstam, 0'00–0'30

Q2. The Beach Boys: ‘Barbara Ann’ from Intro: The Beach Boys, 0'00–0'20

Q3. Haydn: String Quartet in G, Op. 64 No.4, II Menuetto (Allegretto). The Lindsay Quartet, 0'00–0'30

Q4. The Beach Boys: ‘Barbara Ann’ from Intro: The Beach Boys, 0'00–0'20

Q5. Haydn: String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20 No. 5, II Menuet. Hagen Quartet, 0'00–0'30

Q6. Haydn: String Quartet in G, Op. 64 No. 4, II Menuetto (Allegretto). The Lindsay Quartet, 0'00–0'30

Q7. Sibelius: Symphony No. 3, I Allegro moderato. Suggested recording: Lahti Symphony Orchestra/Leif Segerstam, 0'00–0'30

Q8. Haydn: String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20 No. 5, II Menuet. Hagen Quartet, 2'00–2'20

Q9. Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra. II Giuoco delle coppie. Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen, 0'00–3'50 and 5'25–6'00

Q10. Wajahat Khan, The Quest, Thumri in Raga Khammaj (track 2), 4'30–5'30

Q11. ‘Carnival is We/Fonclaire’ from Pan Sweet Pan: Steel Orchestras of the Caribbean

Q12. Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli – Kyrie. The Sixteen, 0:00–1:15

Q13. Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 3, first movement. Mitsuko Uchida, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Kurt Sanderling, from 12:30

Q14. Howlin’ Wolf: ‘Evil (Is Going On)’ from Anthology, 0:00–0:35

Q15. Excerpt A: The Magnificent Seven, Calvera’s Return: Allegro brutale, from The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein), 0:00–1:00. Excerpt B: The Ipcress File: Main Title Theme, from The Ipcress File (John Barry) 0:40- 2:00

15 Music Teacher March 2015 Answers

Q1: Sibelius (a) 3

(b) 4/4, C or common time In the actual score, the music starts on the third beat of (c) allegro (the actual indication is allegro moderato) the bar; however, in this question, the (d) 2 112 bpm notation has been changed to start on the first beat of the (e) bar 8 bar, for simplicity.

Q2: Beach Boys (a) 1

(b) 4 syncopation

Q3: Haydn (a) 3/4

(b) anacrusis

Q4: Beach Boys

(a)

Bar no 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

vocal solo other instruments voices enter enter question a) b) c) d) e) f)

Chord I IV I V IV I

(b) major

Q5: Haydn (a) minor

(b) 3 relative major

Q6: Haydn (a) major

(b) 1 dominant

Q7: Sibelius (a) 4 octaves It can be difficult to distinguish between octave and unison textures. Octave textures usually sound fuller and are often played by different instruments. Orchestral bass lines are often played by cellos and double basses an octave lower.

Music Teacher March 2015 16 (b) 1 conjunct

Q8: Haydn (a) 2 trill and 3 acciaccatura

Q9: Bartók (a) side drum (without snares)

(b) bassoons

(d) clarinets

(e) flutes

(f) pizzicato

(g) trumpets

(h) muted/con sordino

(i) trills/they are also muted

(j) brass: trumpets, trombones, tuba: note that they are ‘open’, not muted

(k) horns

(l) harp

Q10: Wajahat Khan (a) 1 drone

(b) free

(d) 4 portamento

(e) the music changes from being in a free metre to having a clear pulse; a rhythmic idea is added to the music; the tabla (drums) enter.

Q11: Carnival is We (a) chordal/homophonic

(b) 2 Caribbean

(d)

(four beats in)            

17 Music Teacher March 2015 (e) 1 semiquavers

(f) scalic, or descending scale

Q12: Palestrina (a) 2 polyphonic and 5 imitative

(b) imitation and conjunct movement

(d) 2 mixed choir

Q13: Beethoven (a) Piano concerto

(b) cadenza

(d) 1 The passage contains many arpeggios

(e) 4 The passage uses rubato

Q14: Howlin’ Wolf (a) 2 12-bar blues

(b) Bar 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 lyrics can’t grab something evil warnin’ long sleep way musical guitar solo piano events enters

Chord I a) IV b) I V IV c) I d) V I

(d) 2

(e) 1 pitch bend and 3 ornamentation

(f) harmonica/mouth organ

Music Teacher March 2015 18 Q15: Magnificent Seven/The Ipcress File Excerpt A (Magnificent Seven) Excerpt B (The Ipcress File) irregular metre, with lots of time signature changes regular metre

fast tempo (roughly 150bpm) compound time 12/8 (or 4/4 with triplets/swung rhythms)

irregular accents and syncopations moderate tempo (80bpm)

cross-rhythms at 0’37 trumpet solo in free time

scored for (symphony) orchestra jazz group with addition of exotic instruments

string section; brass instruments (trumpets, horns, flutes, double bass, vibraphone, cimbalom (accept harp/ trombones, tuba); woodwind instruments; percussion zither/balalaika/harpsichord or similar), trumpet, piano, (timpani, snare drums, cymbals, xylophone, tom-toms, guitar, cymbal/hi-hat bass drum)

prominent solos for trumpet (0’08), piccolo/flute (0’28), timpani (0’32), trombones/tuba (0’38), violins (0’45)

muted horns pizzicato double bass, mute on trumpet, cymbal played with brushes

use of reverb generally forte, with accents/sforzando stabs generally the same dynamic (mf or f)

occasional use of crescendo (eg at the end of the timpani crescendo in the trumpet solo at at 1’54–1’55 solo at 0’35) (dynamics are evened out through the use of compression)

19 Music Teacher March 2015