I feel I know what to do in parts A, B and C (ii) of the aural test at grade 5 but feel a bit puzzled when it comes to answering questions on period, form and style. I think I'm ok with questions on dynamics, gradation of tone, articulation, tempo change, and major/minor tonality but a bit stumped as to how to answer questions like 'what kind of dance is it?' or 'what period does it come from?' I don't know the difference between 'form' and 'style'. Can anyone give me a quick crash course in this as I've got my exam on Dec 1st and need all the help I can get as I'm still finding the pieces a little tricky - I'm doing Rondo, Bagatelle and New Orleans Nightfall. Any help would be appreciated, you've helped me out before and I thank you for it. It's great to have this encouragement, especially as an older learner. Cheers guys, Drew

Form
- binary form: AB
- Ternary Form: ABA
- Waltz: triple time, can be fast or slow; accent on 1st beat of the bar
- Mazurka: triple time, can be fast or slow; accent can be on any beat of the bar but more often on the 2nd beat
- March: quadruple or duple, can be fast or slow
- Scherzo: fast, playful, rhythmic

Dances
- Allemande: slow or moderate tempo, quadruple time, short upbeat start, smooth semiquaver figurations, imitative texture
- Courante(French): quick, 3/2,3/4 or 6/4 time, upbeat start, normally polyphonic texture and ornamented
- Courante(Italian): fast, running, triple time
- Sarabande: slow, stately, triple time, downbeat start, accent in 2nd beat of bar, regular 4 bar phrases, often has syncopation and hemiola rhythm
- Bourree: lively, duple time, upbeat start
- Minuet: moderate tempo, triple time
- Gavotte: quick, light and lively; duple or quadruple, upbeat or half-bar start
- Gigue: fast, dotted or triple rhythm in compound duple or simple triple or quadruple time; often contrapuntal or even fugal

Characteristics of different periods
- Baroque: mostly polyphonic texture, lots of sequences and imitations
- Classical: mostly homophonic texture, diatonic harmony, balanced phrases (normally 4 bar), simple harmonic accompaniments, simple melodic lines
- Romantic: chromatic harmony, lyrical and expressive melodic lines, richer sound, use dissonance and chromatic notes more freely, wide leaps in accompaniment
- 20th Century: dissonant harmonies but not all, sometimes atonal, chromatic notes freely and widely used, irregular time signatures were common

hope this help... looks complicated and messy lol... the forms is quite a common question but for the dances, dont worry too much... not too common a question...

for the pieces, i also did Bagatelle and New Orleans Nightfall last time... most important thing when you're playing these pieces is to ENJOY, especially when it comes to New Orleans Nightfall when you have to maintain that calm and relaxing outset in the piece so dont rush through! free yourself from nerves if possible... anyway, good luck and all the best for your exam... let us know how it goes...


ShArOn

Sharon above pretty much covered everything you would need to know at Grade 5. Don't worry too much about your aurals - you'd find that it is easier in the exam (it's always been the case for me!) and even if you can't place exactly what period etc a piece is, it's better if you say something. My friend did her Grade 5 exam last year, and in the last test she thought the piece was classical and gave about 4 different reasons why she thought it was classical. When she got her results back, the examiner had noted "excellent knowledge of the classical period, however, the piece was Romantic." She still got a merit!

Out of those 3 pieces, I played Rondo. It's a nice piece - a bit fiddly - remember to put in lots of expression. Good luck!

I played rondo and new orleans night fall. didn't do it for the exam though.

I only learned the period of music, and I was fine with the aurals.
Didn't learn type of dance. Didn't have the time, and I thought it wasn't in the aural syllabus.