Music is a very wide ranging activity: it provides intellectual, emotional and artistic satisfaction as well as developing the ability to communicate through performance. The skills required are proving to be helpful in many areas of academia and the merits of studying music are well documented. At Hurst the wide range of musical groups and ensembles provide ideal opportunities for developing social skills and integrating with students of all ages. Various key skills are developed in the course content and there are opportunities to study jazz and film music, as well as traditional western styles.
The GCSE Music course follows the Edexcel specification,
It is 60% coursework. This may be completed at any time during the Remove and Vth Form years.
The course is structured in the following way:
Solo Performing 15%
You will perform a solo piece that is assessed by your teacher and recorded for external moderation. If the music is written with a piano accompaniment, it must be performed with it. As a general rule, you will gain higher marks playing an easier piece well than by playing a harder piece badly. Ask advice from your instrumental teacher or from your class teacher. As a guide, anything including and above grade 4 standard is considered by the Board to be more difficult and will achieve the highest marks, if played well. Any style of music and any instrument or voice is acceptable. Whilst there is no minimum time limit, the piece must be long enough to demonstrate your ability. It is therefore important to plan ahead.
Ensemble Performing 15%
You will perform a piece which is an ensemble performance (i.e. 2 or more players). Your part in the ensemble must not be doubled by any other instrument or voice and like the solo performance above, it can be in any style. Similarly, there is no time limit on its duration and it should be of grade 4 standard. You will need to provide a score of your part, so that the examiner can mark it.
Composing - 2 compositions worth 15% each
In this unit you develop musical ideas in the form of compositions and/or arrangements and can choose to write either two compositions, or two arrangements, or one composition and one arrangement. Each of these compositions must be based on a different Area of Study (see Paper 3 below). The combined overall length of the pieces should be between 2 and 4 minutes. Each must be completed under controlled conditions (10 hours per composition completed during supervised class time) and it is not possible for you to compose a group composition. The pieces will be recorded live or from computer and each is to be accompanied by a either a notated score (either handwritten or printed) or a written commentary containing sufficient performance directions. You may choose to write for acoustic or electronic instruments and may use computer software to compose this.
The final part of the course is a listening and written examination which will be held in the summer exam period of the Vth Form. This is marked externally and like other GCSEs, the content will be taught during the course of both years. The musical extracts which this is based upon will be taken from the following Areas of Study, each of which has three set works
Area of Study 1 – western classical music 1600-1899
Area of Study 2 – music in the 20th century
Area of Study 3 – popular music in context
Area of Study 4 – world music
The final written examination has two sections and will last 1 ½ hours.
Section A Questions will be based upon the set works you have studied and will require you to identify key features and recall information on them. Answers will include multiple choice, one-word responses, short responses and free response questions.
Section B Two questions will be based upon these set works and you should only answer one. In this part, you compare the musical features across the different set works. This part lasts 25 minutes and you will not be allowed to bring a copy of the music into the examination.
The quality of your written work will be assessed for Paper 3.
The course requires varied skills and with three teachers, candidates will experience different methods and approaches. Visiting music teachers are also involved in the practical preparations. A performance level of approximately grade 5 on an instrument is helpful as is an A grade at GCSE although neither of these levels should be considered as absolutes and discussion with the Director of Music is advised.
There are three units which are covered in the Lower Sixth. The first is Performing Music (30% of AS 15% of A level). This unit gives students the opportunities to perform as soloists and/or as part of an ensemble. Teachers and students can choose music in any style. Any instrument(s) and/or voice(s) are acceptable as part of a five-six minute assessed performance. Notated and/or improvised performances may be submitted.
The second unit is Composing (30% of AS and 15% of A level). This unit encourages students to develop their composition skills leading to the creation of a three-minute piece in response to a chosen brief. Students also write a CD sleeve note to describe aspects of their final composition and explain how other pieces of music have influenced it.
Unit 3 is Developing Musical Understanding (40% of AS and 20% of A level). This unit focuses on listening to a familiar music and understanding how it works. Set works from the anthology provide the focus for the first two sections, through listening and studying scores. It is recommended that students familiarise themselves with each work as a whole, before learning how to identify important musical features and social and historical context. In the third section, students use a score to identify harmonic and tonal features and then apply this knowledge in the completion of a short and simple passage for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass.
There are three more units which are studied in the Upper Sixth. The first is Extended Performance (15% of A level). This unit gives students with opportunities to extend their performance skills as soloists and/or part of an ensemble. Teachers and students can choose music in any style. Any instrument(s) and/or voice(s) are acceptable as part of a 12-15 minute assessed performance of a balanced programmed of music. Notated and/or improvised performances may be submitted.
The next unit is Composition and Technical Study (15% of A level). This unit has two sections; composition and technical study. The composition section further develops students’ composition skills, leading to the creation of a final three-minute piece in response to a chosen brief. The technical study section builds on the knowledge and awareness of harmony gained in Unit 3 section C through the medium of pastiche studies. Students must complete two tasks in this unit choosing from either one composition and one technical study or two compositions or two technical studies.
The final unit is Further Musical Understanding (20% of A level) and this unit focuses on listening to music, familiar and unfamiliar, and understanding how it works. Set works form the anthology provide the focus for much of the unit. It is recommended that students familiarise themselves with each work as a whole, before concentrating on important musical features, context and/or elements of continuity and change. Between works students should also listen to a wide range of unfamiliar music which relates to the two compulsory areas of study. They should learn how to compare and contrast pairs of excerpts, contextualise music and identify harmonic and tonal features.
Higher Education and Career Opportunities
Music AS and A Level are given full academic status by the Universities. As a career music offers a multitude of opportunities: performing, composing, conducting, writing, broadcasting, teaching and theatrical work.
The aim of the IB Music course at SL and HL is to enable students to develop their knowledge, skill and interests as musicians. It will deepen their understanding of music from their own culture and that of others. Through investigation, listening and analysis, students will have the opportunity to develop practical skills as a performer and/or composer. Students should have gained an A at GCSE level and should have a good theoretical understanding (ideally Grade 5). As with A Level, these requirements are not absolutes and discussion with the Head of Academic Music is advised.
Having completed the course, students at either at SL (Standard Level) or HL (Higher Level) should be able to demonstrate:
At SL and HL Music, all students will study Musical Perception and analysis. This paper is designed for candidates to respond to questions based upon set works as well as commenting on and analysing unheard musical excerpts from a wide variety of periods, cultures and from classical art music, folk music, world music and popular music. They will also be required to compare and contrast two or more pieces of music from two distinct musical cultures. In the form of a Musical Investigation, they should evaluate similarities and differences between their chosen works.
The Creating element allows pupils to compose, improvise or arrange in a variety of styles and idioms. All students will also complete at least two examples of “technical exercises” during the course.
The course is designed to develop the skills required to make high quality recordings of a range of musical styles and to produce performances and compositions using computers and sequencing software. The course is taught in Hurst’s Music Technology studio, in the heart of the Music School, which is fully equipped with the latest Apple Computer Software and recording facilities. There are no specific restrictions, but it is strongly recommended that pupils play at least one instrument to a reasonably proficient level, and have learnt the basics of reading music. If this is not the case, pupils should consider signing up for basic instrumental music lessons, particularly piano, for the Lent and Summer Terms, prior to starting the course in September.The course requires various skills, musical and technical, and small class sizes ensure a lot of one-to-one time.
In the Lower Sixth, Unit 1 is Music Technology Portfolio 1 (70% of AS 35% of A level). Students will learn and use a variety of music and music technology skills in order to complete this unit. MIDI sequencing and multi-track recording as well as arranging skills are all key components assessed through the practical work carried out. Students must complete three tasks which together make the Music Technology Portfolio 1:
Students will also submit a logbook that will provide information on the resources used in each task as well as assessed questions on their creative sequenced arrangement. Unit 2 is Listening and Analysing (30% of AS 15% of A level). This unit provides students with an opportunity to study the styles most common in popular music. Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate this knowledge using aural discrimination skills. Students are required to study the development of popular music styles from 1910 through to the present day. This is not intended to be a comprehensive and in-depth study of every popular, jazz or rock music style, but an overview of the main styles and trends during the development of popular music. Two special focus styles will be selected each year for more in depth study. For the special focus styles, in addition to the main fingerprints of the style, students will be expected to have an extended knowledge and understanding of context. 1 hour 45 minute listening examination, externally assessed, in the summer of the year of entry.
In the Upper Sixth there are two further units – the first of which is Music Technology Portfolio 2 (30% of A level). This unit builds on skills acquired in Unit 1, and extends these to include a composition task. It involves detailed study of Area of Study 3: The Development of Technology based Music. Students must complete three tasks which together make the Music Technology Portfolio 2:
Students will also submit a logbook which will provide information on the resources used in each task. Students will produce an audio CD entitled ‘Music Technology Portfolio 2’, containing three tracks of work as specified in the three tasks above. They will also present a logbook, detailing equipment used. The work is to be done under coursework conditions between the issue of the stimulus material and the submission date. The final unit is Analysing and Producing (20% of A level) where students will be expected to demonstrate their knowledge of music and the principles of music technology through a series of written commentaries, manipulations and production tasks using material provided on an examination paper and recorded on an audio CD. The examination will test students’ musical understanding, their ability to manipulate and correct recorded music and their ability to write commentaries on technological processes. They will also be tested on their ability to produce a balanced stereo mix. This assessment will take the form of a 2-hour examination. Each student will have an audio CD, which will contain a series of music files to be imported into music production software. Each student will also have an examination paper in which some or all of the CD tracks will be notated as conventional staff notation, editing grids or numerical data.
Music Technology is given full academic status by the Universities. The A level can help students on their way to a career in the music industry or to a technology/computer orientated career.
04 February 2012