I really am going to do rubbishly in this A2 listening exam

We're doing music for small ensemble and keyboard music. I'm actually dreading this exam; I'm sure I'm going to screw it up completely!

You'll be okay, Nicki! Don't go in with such a negative perspective. You CAN do it - you're incredibly musical and we all know you are!

Something I've really found with exams is that if you go in thinking "I can't do this", well - you won't be able to! But if you make yourself think "Yes, I can do this", even if it's a false confidence, results go up because you're not liable to go into panicky mind-blank mode.

You CAN do it.

I agree with cellocase - for my grade 8 piano I was telling myself I couldn't do it and came out with a low-ish mark, so don't do it! You'll get a geat result, and because the marks are cumilative it doesn't matter if you mess up one paper - you'll have the other papers to push your grade up So keep smiling, and you'll be fine

It does when I need an A, and probably need an A this year to get an A overall (retook one unit, but don't know the results), and my written paper revision isn' going well.

I know exactly what you mean about the Irish singer. i did that paper as a mock and i was like ummmm which composer would write this random irish song. for original performance i said it was performed in a folk concert.


Do you think that the Wagner Prelude to Tristan und Isolde will come up as a comparision question?? its sooo long and complicated


Quoting from ages ago about music for large ensembles and sacred vocal music.
I have to agree that sacred vocal music is the best and the pieces are soo lovely espicially the Gabrieli and John Taverner's The Lamb. I'm definitely carrying on with sacred vocal next yr.

The music for large ensemble pieces aren't very nice, personally speaking, except for the Debussy and perhaps the Bach.

Don't be depressed... I've just looked up the grade boundaries, and for the 2 year course you need 68% on average to get an A in the listening.

Where did you get that info from?

If you go on the Edexcel website, and go onto Qualifications -> Subject index -> music -> GCE music, and click on last summer's examiners' report - on the last page of the report you'll find a table with the grade boundaries for the separate modules

Ooooooooooooo!

Thanks, I've been looking for those for ages!

Hi everyone

Ive got my exam on monday and am struglling with the transposition.

Eg - horn in D has to be written at concert pitch
so if it's starting note is a G above the stave, what note do I write down on the paper???

Can't get my head round it so any help would be great

Thanks!

If you have an instrument, for example, in the key of X, you have to play X on the instrument in order to make it sound the C above it... hope that makes sense So if it's a horn in D, if you play D on it then the sound that comes out is the C above the D you're playing. From that you can work out the interval you have to transpose all the notes

Ok thanks for your help!

For the non-oral paper (not sure what to call it!), is there any point actually learning about the list A pieces?! As long as you can find all the necessary features (e.g. suspension) in the list B pieces, is there any point in learning the list A pieces at all?

My teacher didn't even tell us we needed to know the list A pieces....

That pretty much answers the question then! It does look like there are some features that can only be found in the list A pieces, though. I'll just have to learn those ones.

Well, when I did mine, out of the 4 words, at least 2 I could do (from the B list)

You've got a point, but I'd probably rather be safe, and find examples for all the definitions.

Are there any resources we can use which tell us about the definitions they might ask us? getting closer to freaking out now....especially as I have another 5 modules that week!

There's a list somewhere on an examiners report.
I've got 8 exams in 4 days next week! That's all my AS levels between Monday and Thursday...and yet I'm still online...

I have a whole list of them - I'll PM you them if you like

May I have them as well?

Does anyone know where I can find an example of a hemiola in the New Anthology from music for large ensemble of sacred vocal music??

I'm not sure about hemiola in music for large ensemble but i know that in sacred vocal music it is in bar 31 in Tavener (the first piece of the prescription)

hope this helps

Excellent! I couldn't find one anywhere so thanks!

Sorry to put the dampers on, but remember to spell the right Tavener when you're quoting in the exam. Easy way to remember, TaveRner has an R in the middle short for renaissance. Tavener without the R is the modern one. If you only write down the composers name and bar number the examiner is going to be looking in the wrong place.

I haven't got the music in front of me, but I don't remember there being one in the Tav. There are are quite a few in the first movement of the Bach, mostly at the end of the phrases where all the voices are singing.

Good luck everyone for the exam on Monday morning!

Check out the Bach. There's quite a few in there. Can't remember where exactly but they're very visible if you look at the first violin part which has some odd looking rests. Try the end of the movement maybe.
I don't remember any in sacred vocal

Edit: I mean the Bach for the large ensemble

Have got the music in front of me now.

Strictly speaking the one you point out in the Taverner isn't a hemiola, but I don't know how strict the examiners will be. The definition of a hemiola is the temporary displacement of accents in triple tiime music from stron-weak-weak to strong-weak-strong-weak etc. As the Tav isn't in triple metre, that isn't possible. The examples in the Bach are b42-44 and 86-88.

Are you talking about the tenor part in bars 42-43 in the Bach? Where it ties over the bar?

That's the right place, though the hemiola is in all parts. If your choir are singing it, its important that all voice parts and instrumental parts feel the change in emphasis. Its a rather exciting effect, poorly understood by a number of amateur conductors.

Wow thanks very much for ur help. If hemiola comes up i'll be thanking you for pointing that out to me. also thanks for the definition coz mine was a little vague.

Okay, so I've written out a list of definitions, and am busy listening to the Brandenburg on Naxos. I've done a couple of listening papers and done okay-ish, not brilliantly but would be As without a problem on last year's grade boundaries.

How else can I be revising music?!


I'm in a wee bit of a panic.....

Thank goodness it's 60% coursework!!

have you tried the Rhinegold listening tests? I'm doing them now

The Brandenburg is GORGEOUS


*Shudders* *thinks of A2 listening papers*

Good luck for Monday everyone!

Thanks, when are your music exams?

19th and 25th....*runs*

Done it- I found it ok.

Nearly went into the fits of giggles when the Thunderbirds came up in my listening paper- I have played both the timpani and the snare drum for that, and know the piece inside out! (the teacher invigilating looked at me oddly when I started grinning!)

Hope everyone else found it ok.

Wow, you got thunderbirds

What kind of stuff did they ask?

Quite sensible stuff, about percussion instruments used and the texture.

The rest went ok, and the anthology questions also were generally easy. So, fingers crossed, fine!

What a relief; it's over and it went quite well
I was dreading the listening + understanding papers, not as horrific as I thought they would be though.

I agree about it being a relief, good that you found them not as bad as you thought they might have been

lets just wait for the results.......

Haha that was fun! I'm rubbish at percussion instruments, I put side drum and 'tuned gongs' (think I made up a new instrument ) The rest of the paper seemed ok though, I even though question 4 was quite nice! The questions on ornamentation didn't involve listening though :s ...weird!
What subjects did everyone do for the anthology paper? The sacred vocal seemed nice, wasn't quite as keen on the film but because I couldn't think of much to say about melody in the essay question, the rest of it was alright.
Glad that one's over... *phew*

large ensemble + sacred vocal (college choice).
This might sound strange, but I prefered the two As papers than my GCSE listening paper .

I did Sacred vocal music and Keyboard Music.(my choice!)
I agree about the ornamentation qtns, I wrote the answers in the "look through" time!
Both the d qtns were fine, which helped.

I did film and keyboard music
What did you all put for the ornaments used in Q3? I got acciacatura for the 1st one, but wasn't sure about the second one...

So did I, it was hilarious!

I knew I put the wrong one, i always get mixed up between appoggiatura and acciacatura. I put a turn for the second ornament. What did people put for the device in the bass?

I did sacred vocal music and popular music and jazz (colleges choice)

How did people find the papers today?? I'm new to this so I don't really know whether this will be in the right place etc etc... lol! xxx

I put alberti bass...I think at least for one question I put that.
I know I put sequence for something.

i'm different to everybody else - i did large ensemble and secular vocal music. I thought the listening was alright, but there were a couple of questions in the anthology that threw me - in large ensemble we had to transpose a horn part which i know i should probably know how to do but i did my theory soooooooo long ago!!! And does ground bass count as a structural device?? I'm the only one in my music class so I was sitting there with two invigilators for my listening all by myself! xxx