CCEA A-Level Music AS Unit 3 Responding to Music: a complete overview of the Areas of Study, the aural test and the written paper

What this unit demands

AS Unit 3 Responding to Music is the examined listening and analysis unit of the AS year. It tests the third musical activity, listening and appraising, against three compulsory Areas of Study and through a test of aural perception. The unit asks two linked things: that you know the stylistic features of orchestral and vocal music well enough to identify and describe it, and that you can hear and notate musical detail accurately.

This guide ties together the three Areas of Study, the aural test, and the harmonic and analytical language that underpins them. Each topic has a matching dot-point page with practice questions; this overview shows how they fit and how the unit is examined.

The three Areas of Study

At AS the unit covers three compulsory areas, balanced between instrumental and vocal music:

• Music for Orchestra 1700-1900. Orchestral music across the Baroque (strings and continuo, terraced dynamics, the concerto grosso), the Classical period (balanced periodic melody, the symphony, sonata form, the standard orchestra) and the Romantic period (a large orchestra, chromatic harmony, rubato, long lyrical melodies).
• Sacred Vocal Music (Anthems). The English anthem for church choir, the distinction between the verse anthem (soloists alternating with choir) and the full anthem (full choir throughout), word setting and word painting, and choral textures.
• Secular Vocal Music (Musicals). The music of stage musical theatre: song structures (verse-chorus and the thirty-two-bar AABA form), the dramatic function of songs (ballad, up-tempo number, character song), ensemble and chorus writing, and pit-orchestra accompaniment.

The test of aural perception

The aural test plays extracts and asks you to identify and notate musical detail: intervals, chords, cadences (perfect, imperfect, plagal, interrupted), keys, metre and rhythm, melodic and rhythmic dictation, textures, instruments and devices, and errors against a printed score. Reliable dictation works from pulse and metre, to rhythm, to pitch against the key, with a final check. These skills are drilled, not guessed.

The analytical language

All three areas rest on the musical elements (melody, harmony, tonality, rhythm, metre, texture, timbre, dynamics, articulation, structure) and on working harmony: diatonic chords with Roman numerals and figured bass, keys and modulation to closely related keys, and common devices (sequence, imitation, pedal, ostinato, suspension). Following a score accurately underpins both the written analysis and the aural error-spotting task.

How this unit is examined

A typical AS Responding to Music profile:

• Aural recognition. Intervals, chords, cadences, metre, texture, instruments and devices identified from extracts.
• Dictation. Notating short melodies and rhythms accurately.
• Style identification. Naming the period, genre or style of an extract with evidence from a range of elements.
• Description and analysis. Describing how composers use the elements in the Areas of Study, with accurate vocabulary.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and listening-style questions across the unit. Plan your answers, then check them.

1. Name the three compulsory Areas of Study at AS. (3 marks)
2. State three features that identify Baroque orchestral music. (3 marks)
3. What is the defining difference between a verse anthem and a full anthem? (2 marks)
4. Name the two most common song structures in musical theatre. (2 marks)
5. Name the four cadences and the chords that define each. (4 marks)
6. In what order should melodic dictation be tackled? (2 marks)
7. What does the figured bass "6" indicate about a chord? (1 mark)