MusicQ&A by dot point

Choosing at least one of the five optional areas of study (Popular Song, Instrumental Jazz, Religious Music of the Baroque, Programme Music, Innovations) and a transferable method for learning its styles, context and signature features for Section A and Section C.

Area of Study 3, Developments in Instrumental Jazz 1910 to the present day: the evolution from early jazz through swing, bebop, cool, modal and fusion, and the signature features (improvisation, swing, extended harmony, the rhythm section) of each.

Area of Study 6, Innovations in Music 1900 to the present day: the major twentieth- and twenty-first-century developments (Impressionism, atonality and serialism, neoclassicism, minimalism, electronic and new timbres) and their signature features.

Area of Study 2, Popular Song: the blues, early jazz song, swing and big band, their context and development, and signature features (the twelve-bar blues, blue notes, swing rhythm, AABA form, big-band scoring).

Area of Study 5, Programme Music 1820 to 1910: Romantic music that tells a story or paints a scene, its genres (the symphonic poem, programme symphony, concert overture) and signature features (the idee fixe and leitmotif, thematic transformation, descriptive orchestration, chromatic harmony).

Area of Study 4, Religious Music of the Baroque: the sacred music of Bach, Purcell and Handel, its genres (cantata, oratorio, anthem, mass) and signature features (counterpoint, fugue, ground bass, continuo, word-painting, choruses and arias).

Composing to the OCR-set and learner-set briefs: interpreting a brief's requirements, developing musical ideas with coherence and craft, and structuring, scoring and refining a composition that satisfies the brief.

The Bach chorale harmonisation technical exercise (Composing A): harmonising a given melody in four parts with functional harmony, correct cadences, good voice-leading and Bachian style, and the common rules and errors.

The composing components (Composing A, H543/03, and Composing B, H543/04): their briefs, technical exercises, durations and weightings, and how the two routes differ, as the framework for the composing assessment.

The two-part counterpoint and ground bass technical exercises (Composing A): writing a second independent line against a given part with good contrapuntal motion, and composing varied music over a repeating bass with implied harmony.

Triads and seventh chords, their qualities and inversions, Roman-numeral and figured-bass labelling, and functional harmony (tonic, subdominant, dominant function and common progressions), as the harmonic vocabulary for analysis and the composing exercises.

Harmonic devices and dissonance, the pedal point and drone, suspensions, passing and auxiliary notes, sequences, chromatic chords (secondary dominants, diminished and augmented sixths) and their resolution, as examined in analysis and used in the composing exercises.

Keys and the major/minor system, the four cadence types and their function, and modulation to related keys (dominant, subdominant, relative and tonic minor/major), as the tonal framework for analysis and the composing exercises.

Aural recognition of harmony, hearing major and minor chords, sevenths, cadences and modulations, and tracking harmonic rhythm and the bass line, as required by the listening questions and the harmonic dictation.

Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven as the central composers of Area of Study 1, their instrumental output, characteristic styles, and Beethoven's role in extending the Classical style towards Romanticism.

Sonata form (exposition, development, recapitulation) and the other Classical structures, the minuet and trio, scherzo, rondo, sonata-rondo and theme and variations, and the multi-movement plan, as examined in Area of Study 1.

The Classical orchestra (its instrumentation and the rise of the piano) and the characteristic textures of the era (melody-dominated homophony, the Alberti bass, periodic phrasing and orchestral tutti), as examined in Area of Study 1.

The Classical style (c.1750 to c.1820) and its main instrumental genres, the symphony, the solo concerto, the sonata and the string quartet, as the context for Area of Study 1.

The Section A unfamiliar-listening skill: describing extracts you have never heard against the elements, identifying style and features, and comparing an unfamiliar extract with the prescribed work or another extract, within the printed number of playings.

Harmonic dictation and chord recognition: hearing the bass line, chord quality and cadences, and completing missing chords or a bass on a printed extract, the harmonic aural skill of the Listening and Appraising paper.

Melodic and rhythmic dictation: hearing and notating pitch (contour, intervals against the key) and rhythm (metre, beat subdivision, bar-counting), the score-completion skill of Section B and the wider aural demands of the paper.

The Section C extended essay: answering two essays on two different areas of study, structuring an argument with named musical evidence, evaluating, and meeting the quality-of-extended-response criterion within the timing of H543/05.

The assessment of interpretation and communication in performing (realising the score's markings, conveying style and character, shaping phrasing and dynamics, and projecting to an audience), and how to build a convincing, stylish performance.

Preparing and recording the recital: building a contrasting programme of suitable difficulty, the focused study in Performing B, rehearsal planning, and the recording and documentation requirements of the non-exam assessment.

The assessment of accuracy, fluency and technical control in the performing components (note and rhythm accuracy, continuity, tone, intonation and command of the instrument), and the practice strategies that secure them.

The performing components (Performing A, H543/01, and Performing B, H543/02): their recital requirements, durations, weightings and structure, and how the two routes differ, as the framework for the practical performing assessment.

An integrated method for analysing an extract: working systematically through the elements, prioritising the most significant features, and organising the observations into a coherent appraisal under the timed conditions of H543/05.

Precise description of the melodic, rhythmic and textural elements (contour, intervals, sequence, syncopation, metre, tempo, and the named texture types) using the vocabulary OCR rewards in unfamiliar and prescribed-work questions.

Precise description of the harmonic, tonal and structural elements (major/minor and modal tonality, cadences, modulation, chord quality, pedal and dissonance, and the standard forms) for unfamiliar and prescribed-work questions in H543/05.

The elements of music (melody, harmony, tonality, texture, rhythm, metre, tempo, dynamics, articulation, structure and instrumentation/sonority) as the analytical vocabulary for describing and appraising music in H543/05.

A movement-by-movement method for analysing the prescribed work: its structures and key schemes, themes, instrumentation and harmonic devices, prepared in the detail Section B's structured listening questions demand.

The dictation and score-completion tasks in Section B (completing missing melody, rhythm or harmony on a printed extract from the prescribed work), and a reliable method for hearing and notating pitch and rhythm under exam conditions.

Relating the prescribed work to its Classical context and to unfamiliar Section A extracts: using the set work as a reference point to identify and compare the style, structures and devices of Classical music heard cold.

The prescribed work for Area of Study 1 (a named Classical work studied from the score, currently Haydn's Symphony No. 103 'Drum Roll'), what it requires, and how Section B of H543/05 examines it through structured listening and dictation.