i am doing my AS music tech with edexcel and 2 month ago, i spent 2 weeks time to do the sequencing unit which i chose to the venus from the planets by holst. 2 weeks ago, my teacher looked at the syllabus and found out that i could not do more than 48 bars and more then 8 instruments so we rang up edexcel and see if i would be ok(venus has like 120 bars with about 18 parts) because i actually do more than the maximum requirment and they said if i hand that in i would lose marks. it sounded very very silly because i can actually lose marks by doing more work, i was so depress when i heard that because i spent at least 2 hours a day to get that done and i wasted my time.
ok now i have to face another problem as because i want to get a high A for the whole course so now i need to choose another piece and for level 3 which is what i need to do i need to have a piece with
33 - 48 bars
6 - 8 parts
2 or more parts with use of alto/tenor clefs
change of tempo
flexible rhythms
more than 6 sharps and flats
great range of dynamics in different parts
high level of chromaticism
irregular time signiture

it is so difficult to find a piece for it , anyone knows any pieces??

i need to get as many of these as possible, my teacher has been to some music shops already but still couldn't get any piece that fits and he is actually going to a big music shop in london tomorrow so any suggestions would be useful.

It has to be all of that!?!?

doesn't has to be all of that(don't think i can even find one) but as many as possible. it is 40% of the whole course.

and i missed out that it should have highly articulations in all the parts.

What exactly do you have to with it?
Reading that, best bet sounds like a 20th century orchestral work, but afraid I can't think of anything off the top of my head. :s I have heard a snippet of a Janacek piece, will go and look for it in a minute, and that would probably fit at least the parts, length, key signature, accidentals, chromaticism and dynamics but I haven't heard the whole piece or seen the score so you would have to ask someone more experienced.
Britten's War Requiem sounded quite chromatic from the extract I heard, not sure if it would fit the time signature bit though.

Edexcel really annoy me too. They can't add up properly.

EDIT 1: http://www.amazon.com/Janacek-Sinfonietta-...TF8&s=music Number 7 sounds promising?

The piece I had heard before was the one mentioned here, but I can't find the link to the sound clip anymore.

And I think the War Requiem is pick a number....
http://www.amazon.com/Britten-Requiem-Vish...TF8&s=music

Sorry if these suggestions are way off the mark, I only do straight music so I don't know anything about what you have to do for music technology!

EDIT 2: Apologies for using amazon & NPO links (report me if you like...) I don't know of anywhere else where you can listen to free samples of music.

I am doing a Tchaikovsky Nocturne and it's going really well...

Helps that I have Cubase at home, though!

The only reason Edexcel is still going is probably because they're the only examining board to allow people to sit GCSE/A-levels overseas, and they allow the coursework to count. Don't you remember the scandal 6-7 years ago when they were almost shut down?

Whatever advice you get, always get it in writing. Or, at least put something in writing yourself to confirm it.

Steve

Oooo, what happened?
I read something about the Edexcel 2002 scandal on themusicland but it didn't really say what had happened, just lots of people talking about their marks and things

the thing is that if i do more than the maximum, i actually will get mark off so if i have more bars or parts i will be mark off, they are just crazy.

i need to put the score into Sibelius and then put it to Cubase to sequence it.

Erm, ok. Edexcel are a bit weird, but this still sounds insane - even for them!




Have just been looking through my music anthology at the 20th century works.

The Stravinsky has too many parts so that one is out.

If you don't mind missing off a few parts, there is Quartet op. 22 movt 1 by Anton Webern, which is for violin, clarinet, tenor saxophone and piano (so 5 parts if you can count piano as 2 - one for each hand!). It is 44 bars long. Sadly no use of alto clef, but some fairly wacky rhythms and quite a few changes in time signatures. No sharps of flats but looks like quite a big dynamic range and plenty of accidentals!

The Shostakovich string quartet (No. 8 op 110, movt 1) is sadly 126 bars long

Sonata for prepared piano doesn't have enough parts

New York Counterpoint, movt 2 (Steve Reich) has 7 parts, all clarinets, 5 sharps, 3/4 time signature but is 72 bars long

Are you supposed to be doing classical stuff or some sort of pop/tv etc. - 48 bars seems an awfully short limit to put on a piece!
The only other thing I can think of is to look for some 20th century sextets-octets and if you find a longer work just do 1 movement from it.

If I were you I'd stop being annoyed at Edexcel and start being annoyed with your teacher.

The first rule of exams is do what you are asked to do, not what you want to do. If Edexcel only want 48 bars, they only want 48 bars. Your teacher should have made you aware of what was required before asking you to do anything. Of course, in order to do what is required you have to know what is required. I think maybe you still don't.

I think your teacher should go back and look at the syllabus again. You might even take a look at it yourself. It's here http://www.edexcel.org.uk/VirtualContent/25795.pdf and you want to go to pages 29 and 30.

I think you will find that of the eleven criteria you have to do five of them to level 1, another 4 to level 2, and 2 to level 3. Based on what you have written below your teacher seems to think that you have to satisfy all the level 3 criteria in order for you to get a high A for the whole course. I've read the entire specification and I don't agree. Only two of the criteria need to be at level 3. At least, that's how I read it. I suspect your teacher may be getting confused with the music GCSE where you can get higher marks if you perform a grade 6 piece well than if you perform a grade three piece equally well. I really don't think that's what the AS specification says. It says the minimum required is as above (5@1, 4@2, 2@3) because they don't want everyone doing 11 at the lowest level. But I can't find anywhere that says you can get more marks by attempting more level 3 components.

The only compulsory criteria are "Both sequenced pieces should be no more than 48 bars long and involve no more than eight individual musical parts."

I might be wrong but I would encourage you to get a proper interpretation of the syllabus from Edexcel.

b

i have read that and because last 2 years there was a different teacher and she(well to be fair she was a very very very good music class teacher and helped me a lot in my gcse and music theory) did bach brandenburg concerto no 3 3rd movement which is very very minimum and ended up having the 2 students got D and C in the final grade, i need to have a high grade for me to be easier to get in to the music colleges so i really need to work on that.


in fact my teacher now really has no idea about the course and doesn't really bother to look at it(but again he is a very good alevel music teacher), he doesn't really teach us things and just make me note things from books, that's why i am worrying so much. and the music department was actually being proud that people got D in AS and C in A2 last year ......
i really need to try to higher up their standard in in teaching and attitude in music tech.
but to be fair they got great results in A level and gcse music.

It saddens me that you are not getting more support.

Still, I don't think you need to worry so much. Do what the syllabus says. Go to the link I gave you and read it for yourself. You only need to do two of the level 3 components. If you don't believe me there's a facility on the Edexcel website where you can ask them yourself (by e-mail).

Our son did his Edexcel Music GCSE a year early (in year 4/10) along with five others. The teacher didn't understand the syllabus. I read it (because I may be worng but I think that's what parents do) and found myself saying to Lawrence (our son) "I don't know why you are doing that when the syllabus says it wants this."

"Yeah, dad. But Miss S~~~~~~~~~~ says we have to do this, and she's the teacher."

"I know," I said. "But the syllabus says something altogether different. So, just to humour me, can you do this too?"

He did.

It turned out the teacher had the syllabus all wrong and three of the six candidates (all grade 8 dist. musicians) couldn't take the exam because they couldn't get the correct coursework done in time. Lawrence was OK. He got an A (94%). The teacher was sacked.

The best advice I can give you is read the syllabus and make sure you know what you are doing. I really think that means do a good job on max 48 bars with no more than 8 parts: include two level 3 components, four level 2 components and 5 level 1 components, and you'll be fine.

Here's the assessment criteria (from page 35 of the specification). In each case the marks are followed by what you need to do to achieve them.

The sequenced performance will:
21-25
÷ show a high degree of technical and expressive control that makes full use of
articulation, dynamic range, balance and timbre to produce a musical and
accomplished performance
÷ demonstrate a thorough awareness of stylistic interpretation that is highly
appropriate to the given score and shows an understanding of performance
conventions and characteristics
÷ be entirely accurate in terms of pitch and rhythm.
16-20
÷ show an ability to use technical and expressive control that demonstrates use of
articulation, dynamic range, balance and timbre to produce a convincing
performance
÷ demonstrate a sense of stylistic interpretation that is generally appropriate to the
given score and shows an awareness of performance conventions
÷ contain very few minor inaccuracies in terms of pitch and rhythm.
11-15
÷ show an ability to use technical and expressive control that demonstrates some use
of articulation, dynamic range, balance or timbre to produce a satisfactory
performance
÷ demonstrate a sense of stylistic interpretation which is generally appropriate to the
given score
÷ contain some inaccuracies in terms of pitch and rhythm that will not detract from
the performance.
6-10
÷ show some degree of technical and expressive control that may include basic use
of articulation, dynamic range, balance or timbre producing a performance that
works at times
÷ demonstrate some understanding of stylistic interpretation
÷ contain some inaccuracies, which will detract from the performance at times.
1-5
÷ show little use of technical and expressive control, producing a mechanical and
generally unmusical performance
÷ demonstrates little understanding of stylistic interpretation
÷ contain inaccuracies in terms of pitch and rhythm, which will detract from the
performance much of the time.

Nowhere there does it refer to levels 1, 2 or 3. But, as I said before, I might be wrong. You need to check. If you can ask your parents to have a look at it, do. If you can't ask them, as another teacher who you respect and whose judgement you trust. They may not understand music technology, but they'll probably know how to read a syllabus.

Finally, I know it isn't the primary subject of your query but ...

You seem to think you need a great grade to get into music college. Are you sure? The Royal College of Music (just to take one well known example) requires A-level Music at grade C or above, and one other A-level at grade E or above. As far as entry to the RCM would be concerned, therefore, you only need to get grade E in Music Technology. Of course, you'd need to get a better grade in Music and be a wonderful instrumentalist too, but you don't need an A grade Music Technology A-level to go to the RCM.

I think you need to talk with someone qualified to give you proper guidance.

Best wishes

b

Some great advice here! Really hope you do look at the syllabus for yourself as you sound so keen. Good luck with it!

I learnt the hard way about checking the syllabus many years ago when we all got very poor results in our Biology A-levels. Turned out we simply weren't being taught everything and some subjects were being far too much time than they needed - at the expense of others.

When we left school, a friend needed another O-level to get into Agricultural college, so he got a copy of the O-level Geology syllabus and worked through the textbook himself while working on a farm. He got an A grade! All his others (from school) had been Cs or fails.

Steve