A level AOS 1 Vocal Music

Example question 5:

Describe how this extract from a large scale work for choir and orchestra, captures the meaning of the text. Relate your discussion to other relevant works. These may include set works and wider listening.

(20 marks)

Text:

Then sing aloud to God our strength.

Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

Take a psalm, bring hither the timbrel,

Blow up the trumpet in the new moon,

Blow up the trumpet in Zion,

For Babylon the Great is fallen.

Alleluia!

Question 5 writing recipe

Question 5 is by far the most challenging part of the written paper. I’m a big fan of the ‘mark a minute’ rule but students can’t be expected to do this 20 mark question in that time. When Edexcel added the extra 10 minutes to the 2hr exam, it was for question 5. I advise students to gather and listen for 20 mins and then write up their findings for 10-15 mins.

Completing Question 5 in that time is still a massive challenge when you consider that students have to analyse an unfamiliar work across all the elements, make decisions about genre, period and likely composers, identify salient points in relation to the question and make meaningful connections with other repertoire. AND when they’ve done all of that… have sufficient time to write it legibly in elegant prose.

This is where I’ve got to with my approach to preparing students for this question:

• Use set works and related wider listening as a foundation. Broaden and deepen this further with additional AOS playlists.
• As you complete the study of a set work, follow up with a closely related, but unfamiliar, work in the style of question 5. Move further and further away as students’ writing and repertoire knowledge develops over time.
• Model the analysis process, live in the classroom. Verbalise your thinking so students can adopt your method and systems. Remind students that in the exam they can stop and start the recording at any time, using the silence to make DRSCHMITT analysis bullet points and obvious connections with a set work from the same AOS and related reference works.
• Play the ‘A-Z of adjectives’ to get students to connect with the composer’s intentions and the information provided in the question. Get them up at the white board scribbling descriptive terms that connect with what they’re hearing…aggressive, brash, courageous, dramatic, energetic, fiery… etc.
• Play ‘Oooo… this really reminds me of…’ to get students into the habit of stepping back from the detail and taking a ‘big picture’ listen to connect with a historical period, style and genre. e.g. ‘Oooo… this really reminds me of Ravel, Debussy and aspects of Vaughan Williams’ work in its use of modality and parallelism’ - type thing..

The structure of the essay then comes together as follows:

• Opening couple of sentences based on ‘big picture’ connections
• Methodical sentence writing that works through each of the elements, starting with the most striking e.g. the use rhythm and metre
• Using adjectives to reflect the composer’s intentions and a reference to another work to connect with genre, provenance and/or a specific musical feature.

Sentence formula: The ‘adjective’ use of ‘element or device associated with that element’ in the ‘location and forces’ has ‘impact the thing has’ in a similar way to ‘dollar composer’ in the ‘location’ of ‘named work’.

e.g. The haunting use of wordless soprano voices in the opening moments of this work, is evocative of the fragility of the frozen landscape being depicted. Vaughan Williams uses a solo soprano in a similar way in the Prelude of ‘Sinfonia Antarctica’ as does Holst in his use of female voices in the closing section of Neptune in ‘The Planets’ suite.

Suggested playlist uses for students:

• Listening to the set work itself, with or without the score, to get to know it in the first instance, and self-testing knowledge of devices and structural detail later on
• Listening to other movements, sections, songs from the same work to get a sense of where the set work sits as part of something larger
• Becoming familiar with similar works from the same period to compare handling of elements with the set work
• Becoming familiar with works that influenced, or may have been influenced by, the set work, to get a sense of provenance, time and place

Suggested playlist uses for teachers:

• Guiding students through repertoire and helping them make connections that will inform their question 5 and 6 writing
• Live, interactive elements-driven analysis of a section of the set work. Everyone on their feet at the whiteboard, scribbling and analysing
• As above, using an unfamiliar work in preparation for question 5
• Choosing a handful of extracts to play short clips to test student’s knowledge of wider listening repertoire
• Using prominent melodic lines to improve melodic dictation skills
• Setting collaborative question 5 essay writing tasks
• Setting time constrained question 5 essays in test conditions

Wider listening playlists:

(cover picture by Dominik Van Opdenbosch on Unsplash)