Edexcel A2 Music 2011

Anyone got any past/example questions for the applied?

I feel pretty fortunate with the A2 paper tbh: I spend a lot of time playing jazz and improvising, so I'm fairly comfortable with the aural questions; I'm used to the essay layout - being an A2 psychology/philosophy student, and my teacher has been ridiculously helpful in giving the class plenty of listening questions and several sets of notes on the pieces.





- Bach's Cantata #48, 'Ich elender Mensch' (NAM 28) was intended for performance in the course of a Lutheran service in an important German church. What aspects of the work indicate its origins? (13 marks)

- 'Disturbed' and 'disoriented' are expressions which have been used to describe Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Describe elements of 'Der kranke mond' (NAM 40) which support such a view. (13 marks)

- On the Waterfront (NAM 43) concerns the struggle of an individual against powerful vested interests set in a bleak urban landscape. What aspects of Bernstein's treatment of rhythm and orchestral texture help convey an appropriate mood for the film? (13 marks)

- 'Flying Theme' (NAM 45) is one of the most memorable sections of Williams' score for ET. What aspects of the melody and structure contribute to the music's staying power? (13 marks)

- Which aspects of Tom McElvogue's (jig) and New Irish Barndance (reel) (NAM 61) are typical of Irish folk music? Are there any aspects which are less typical of Irish folk music? (13 marks)

Apologies if you already have these.

If you go to the edexcel site and go to GCE Music post-2008 there's some brilliant PDF files that have details on ALL the set works.

http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gce/gce08/music/music/Pages/default.aspx

Go to 'Teacher Support Materials' and it's all there.

Really?!?! Oh god

And I know you weren't asking me, but thought I'd join in the discussion; I did the Ritornello composition brief and sang for my performance a Bach piece, a Mozart piece, a Faure piece and a Sondheim piece. Hate how short singing pieces are, everyone else only had like 2 pieces!!

Does anyone have a model answer for the applied section?

Doesn't matter which set work just want to see what they expect. Thanks

There's a revision guide that has full model answers with different marks though I'm not sure if you can access it without buying it

I've got full marks from my teacher on my last few, basically I've just split it into categories like melody, rhythm, structure, tonality, harmony and whatever's appropriate and picked out a few features of each category that achieves the effect it talks about in the question

E.g schoenberg my first paragraph would be about melody- disjunct, large leaps, erratic = disorientated
then harmony/tonality - no clear tonality, unresolved dissonances, all 12 chromatic notes in first few bars = 'disturbed' feel
So on and so forth until I've run out of relevant points.

I don't think they expect too much apart from just making valid and reasonable points and not putting down irrelevant detail, you could probably bullet point it if you wanted though it might not present your answer in the best way.

Hope that helped a bit!

Speaking of singing for performance, I sang for AS and got full marks, and didn't think it went too well, so it probably isn't considered to be "easy"... (btw I did a jason robert brown piece that was nearly 5 mins then filled in with "there's a fine, fine line" from avenue q ^_^

As for A2, I sang two songs (both from shows, both difficult, tiring and rangey) and played my Uni audition piece of my saxophone which was grade 8 level. I really want to get full marks on performance again (or at least 90% anyway... )

BTW did anyone else do the TV Documentary Composition Brief "where we live" ? I really enjoyed getting ideas for it, but it was such a pain to do!

Thanks it has. How many points you looking at for full marks? Is this with bar ref?

For applied they say 9 relevant and supported points for full marks, for instrumental they say 18 but our teacher recommended you try and go over that if you can because they're not entirely clear about what counts as a "relevant and supported point".

Speaking of singing for performance, I sang for AS and got full marks, and didn't think it went too well, so it probably isn't considered to be "easy"... (btw I did a jason robert brown piece that was nearly 5 mins then filled in with "there's a fine, fine line" from avenue q ^_^

As for A2, I sang two songs (both from shows, both difficult, tiring and rangey) and played my Uni audition piece of my saxophone which was grade 8 level. I really want to get full marks on performance again (or at least 90% anyway... )

BTW did anyone else do the TV Documentary Composition Brief "where we live" ? I really enjoyed getting ideas for it, but it was such a pain to do!

They don't have all the Set Works... 5 Set Works are missing...

My bad - meant to say ALL the details of the pieces there Mind blank

If you go to the edexcel site and go to GCE Music post-2008 there's some brilliant PDF files that have details on ALL the set works.

http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gce/gce08/music/music/Pages/default.aspx

Go to 'Teacher Support Materials' and it's all there.

I'm still not that confident with the applied set works for some reason- really don't know why

Demonstrate how Der kranke Mond by Schoenberg illustrates the disturbed mind of the clown:

- The piece is described as a melodrama. The subject is about a clown whose sanity is in doubt - 'the moonstruck clown'
- the pulse is difficult to make out and there are occasional silences e.g. bar 7 beat 1.
- there is no formal music structure - same music used for all 3 verses - through-composed.
- thin 2 part texture resulting in absence of harmonic support.
- lack of harmonic or melodic tonality - atonal. All 12 semitones are used in the first few bars
- sprechgesang is used, creating a sound slightly off pitch- unconventional.
- extreme range, voice bar 15
- extreme dynamics, bar 14
- extreme dissonance and chromaticism used
- fragmented melody, bar 14
- enormous melodic leaps, flute bar 14
- irregular phrasing creating an off balance feel
- abrupt changes of direction, bar 23.

I learnt these answers from my notes and revision guide and handed this answer in to my teacher -she gave me 10/13. Anyone know how I would aim to get the other 3 marks?

Demonstrate how Der kranke Mond by Schoenberg illustrates the disturbed mind of the clown:

- The piece is described as a melodrama. The subject is about a clown whose sanity is in doubt - 'the moonstruck clown'
- the pulse is difficult to make out and there are occasional silences e.g. bar 7 beat 1.
- there is no formal music structure - same music used for all 3 verses - through-composed.
- thin 2 part texture resulting in absence of harmonic support.
- lack of harmonic or melodic tonality - atonal. All 12 semitones are used in the first few bars
- sprechgesang is used, creating a sound slightly off pitch- unconventional.
- extreme range, voice bar 15
- extreme dynamics, bar 14
- extreme dissonance and chromaticism used
- fragmented melody, bar 14
- enormous melodic leaps, flute bar 14
- irregular phrasing creating an off balance feel
- abrupt changes of direction, bar 23.

I learnt these answers from my notes and revision guide and handed this answer in to my teacher -she gave me 10/13. Anyone know how I would aim to get the other 3 marks?