Eduqas A-Level Music (A660): complete guide to performing, composing and the appraising exam

Eduqas (WJEC) A-Level Music, specification A660, is assessed through three components: two practical, Performing and Composing, and one written Appraising exam. The practical components are taken in one of two options, weighting either performing or composing more heavily. This page is the index: below is a map of the three components, the two options, the three areas of study with the set symphonies, the elements you analyse by ear, and the exam skills that run across the course.

The three components and two options

Eduqas splits the A-Level into Performing (Component 1), Composing (Component 2) and Appraising (Component 3, the written listening exam). You choose one option for the practical work, and you must take the same option in both Component 1 and Component 2.

• Option A (performing weighted). Component 1 Performing: 108 marks, 35 percent, a recorded recital of at least three pieces including at least one solo, totalling 10 to 12 minutes. Component 2 Composing: 72 marks, 25 percent, two compositions (one free composition and one composition to a brief), totalling 4 to 6 minutes.
• Option B (composing weighted). Component 1 Performing: 72 marks, 25 percent, a recorded recital of at least two pieces, totalling 6 to 8 minutes. Component 2 Composing: 108 marks, 35 percent, three compositions (a free composition, a composition to a brief and a technical study), totalling 8 to 10 minutes.
• Everyone: Component 3 Appraising, a written exam of about 2 hours 15 minutes, 40 percent, 100 marks, taken with recorded audio.

The performing exams are recorded and assessed by a visiting examiner; the composing folios are marked by Eduqas. This lets you weight the larger practical component towards your stronger skill.

The three areas of study and the set works

Component 3 is built on three areas of study. Area of study A is compulsory and carries the two set symphonies; you then choose one area from group B and one area from group C.

Area of study A: The Western Classical Tradition (the Development of the Symphony 1750 to 1900). The growth of the symphony from the Classical period to the late Romantic, its style, structures and orchestra, anchored by two set symphonies: Haydn's Symphony No. 104 in D, the London, and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A, the Italian.

Group B (choose one).

• Rock and Pop. Song-based popular music, its forms, harmony, instrumentation, production and the development of styles from the 1950s onward.
• Musical Theatre. The Broadway and West End tradition, song types, the work of leading composers and the role of song in drama.
• Jazz. Jazz styles from early jazz to the present, improvisation, harmony and the roles of soloist and rhythm section.

Group C (choose one).

• Into the Twentieth Century. Impressionism and the music of the early twentieth century (for example Debussy, Poulenc and their contemporaries), with new harmony, colour and form.
• Into the Twenty-First Century. Recent art music, its new techniques, textures and influences.

The elements you analyse

Every listening answer is built from the elements of music: melody, harmony, tonality, texture, rhythm, metre, tempo, dynamics, articulation, structure and sonority (instrumentation). Eduqas expects you to apply these precisely to the set symphonies, to unprepared extracts, and in the extended essays.

The skills that run across the course

The exam rewards secure knowledge of the set content applied through listening.

1. Set-work analysis. Answer prepared questions on the symphonies, locating features on a skeleton score.
2. Unprepared listening. Describe extracts you have never heard against the elements, with and without a score.
3. Dictation and score work. Complete or follow a melodic, rhythmic or harmonic line on a printed score.
4. The extended essay. Argue an evaluative answer on the symphony's context or on a chosen area with named musical evidence.

How to study Eduqas Music

Music rewards practical fluency and disciplined listening in equal measure.

1. Learn the set symphonies as a story. Fix each symphony by its structure, key scheme, themes, scoring and signature moments, so you can identify them by ear and on the score.
2. Use precise vocabulary. Name a device (a pedal point, a dominant pedal, a tierce de Picardie, a hemiola) rather than describing the music vaguely.
3. Learn the chosen areas by style. Fix the style features of Rock and Pop and your chosen twentieth or twenty-first century area so you can describe unprepared extracts.
4. Rehearse the essays. Plan and write the extended answers quickly, arguing with evidence.
5. Record and refine. For Performing and Composing, rehearse, record and improve, keeping to the durations, the number of pieces or compositions and the brief.

The course, dot point by dot point

Each part of the course has overview guides, dot-point answer pages and quizzes. Browse the full set at /a-level-eduqas/music/syllabus.

For the official specification

Eduqas publishes the full specification (A660), the set-work list, past papers and mark schemes at eduqas.co.uk. Always revise from the current specification and Eduqas's own past papers, because the set symphonies and question style are board-specific.