Area of Study 1 Western Classical Music 1600 to 1910: appraising the Baroque, Classical and Romantic styles and their three set works.

What this Area of Study covers

Area of Study 1, Western Classical Music 1600 to 1910, is the first of the four compulsory areas in Component 3: Listening and Appraising, the 90-minute written exam worth 35 percent of the GCSE. It asks you to listen to and appraise music from three great style periods: the Baroque (around 1600 to 1750), the Classical (around 1750 to 1820) and the Romantic (around 1820 to 1910). CCEA sets three set works as case studies, but the exam also plays unfamiliar extracts in the same styles, so you must learn the features of each period, not just memorise the set works.

The three set works are Handel's "For Unto Us a Child is Born" from Messiah (Baroque), Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4, third movement (Classical) and the fourth movement of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (Romantic). You describe them using the musical elements: melody, harmony, tonality, structure, texture, timbre, tempo, metre, rhythm, dynamics and articulation.

The Baroque style (Handel)

Baroque music, heard in Handel's chorus, is built on a continuo texture with busy, contrapuntal writing where vocal lines imitate each other. Listen for terraced dynamics, sudden changes between loud and soft in blocks rather than gradual swells, because the harpsichord could not crescendo. Vocal writing uses melisma, many notes sung to one syllable, and word painting, where the music illustrates the words, such as the melody rising on the idea of being raised up. The harmony is diatonic and functional, the metre regular, and ornaments decorate the melodic line.

The Classical style (Mozart)

The Classical period prizes balance, clarity and elegance. In Mozart's Horn Concerto the texture is mostly homophonic, a clear melody over a simple accompaniment, rather than the dense counterpoint of the Baroque. Phrases are balanced in regular two- and four-bar units that sound like question and answer. The orchestra is smaller than the Romantic one, strings-led, and the solo horn is featured in a concerto that contrasts soloist with orchestra. Dynamics now include crescendo and diminuendo because the music was written for instruments that could swell, and the harmony remains diatonic and clear.

The Romantic style (Berlioz)

The Romantic period favours emotion, drama and colour. Berlioz's fourth movement, "March to the Scaffold", uses a large orchestra with expanded brass and percussion, including timpani, to create a vivid, programmatic story. Listen for extreme dynamic contrasts, rich and sometimes chromatic harmony, and a recurring melody (the idee fixe) that represents an idea returning through the work. Textures are fuller and timbres more varied than in the Classical style, with the orchestra used as a dramatic, storytelling instrument.

Appraising an extract in the exam

Try this

Q1. What is basso continuo and which period does it signal? [2 marks]

• Cue. A continuous bass line played by a chord instrument (harpsichord or organ) plus a bass instrument (cello); it signals the Baroque period.

Q2. Name one way the Romantic orchestra differs from the Classical orchestra. [2 marks]

• Cue. The Romantic orchestra is larger with expanded brass and percussion; the Classical orchestra is smaller and string-led and more balanced.

Q3. What are terraced dynamics? [2 marks]

• Cue. Sudden changes between loud and soft in blocks, without gradual crescendo, typical of Baroque music played on the harpsichord.