AQA A-Level Music composition overview quiz quiz

30 percent

25 percent

35 percent

40 percent

At least 3 minutes in total

At least 6 minutes in total combined

At least 4 and a half minutes

At least 10 minutes in total combined

Jazz improvisation over a chord sequence

Electronic dance music production techniques

Pop production and studio recording skills

The Western classical tradition

A composition in a style and for forces of your choice

A composition that must be submitted with no written notation at all

A composition that may only ever be written for solo piano and nothing else

A live improvisation performed and recorded on the spot without any planning

Choosing which singer takes the lead vocal line in a vocal ensemble piece

The smooth, independent movement of each part from chord to chord

Writing music exclusively for voices rather than for any instruments at all

The loudest and most prominent line standing out at the top of the texture

Reverb

Panning

Imitation

Distortion

Writing music that is consistently very loud from the opening bar to the final one

Writing the whole composition in a single key without ever modulating elsewhere

Copying an existing published piece note for note and submitting it as your own

Composing parts that suit the instrument's range, techniques and practicalities

Orchestration is choosing instruments for a composition; arrangement reworks existing material for new forces

They are simply the same thing described using two different interchangeable words

Arrangement is a technique only ever used within jazz and popular music, and never once appears in the classical tradition

Orchestration just means writing the music to be played louder than it was before

Using a perfect cadence to close a phrase

Consecutive (parallel) fifths and octaves

Modulating to the dominant key partway through

Using a prepared suspension that resolves by step

Repeating one single chord throughout the whole piece

Avoiding all cadences so the music never comes to rest

Cadences and modulation to related keys

Using only the tonic chord and never moving away from it