OCR GCSE Music The Concerto Through Time (Area of Study 2) overview quiz quiz

Sonata form (Classical)

Rondo form, ABACA

Strophic verse form

Ritornello form

A full brass section of horns, trumpets and trombones playing the chords

A keyboard (usually harpsichord) plus a bass instrument such as cello

A solo piano playing entirely alone, with no other instruments at all

The timpani and trumpets, which mark out the harmony and the strong beats

Gradual crescendos and diminuendos that swell and fade smoothly

Always playing at a single very loud volume, without any contrast

Sudden shifts between loud and soft, in steps, not gradual

Dynamics that gently rise and fall in a constant, flowing wave

A small group of soloists, in a single movement

Two equal soloists, in four separate movements

No soloist at all, in two contrasting movements

A single soloist, in three movements

A loud orchestral climax where the whole ensemble plays the main theme loudly together in unison

An unaccompanied solo passage where the soloist displays virtuosity on the movement's themes

The slow, lyrical middle movement of a three-movement Classical concerto

A short bass line that is repeated over and over beneath the changing harmony

A walking bass line that moves steadily in even steps beneath the tune

A long sustained drone note held underneath the melody throughout

A broken-chord accompaniment (low, high, middle, high) under a melody

A bass solo in which the lowest instrument takes the main melody line

Small string forces, a harpsichord continuo and stepped terraced dynamics

A harpsichord continuo and ritornello form alternating tutti with solo episodes

A single soloist with a tidy Alberti bass, neatly balanced phrasing and gradual dynamics only

A large colourful orchestra, a virtuoso soloist, chromatic harmony, wide dynamics and rubato

Two sections, AB, with no return of the opening theme at all

A main theme that returns between contrasting episodes, such as ABACA

A single theme stated only once and then never heard again afterwards

A free improvisation with no fixed plan or recurring theme of any kind

It got steadily smaller, shrinking to just a soloist and a handful of strings

It stayed exactly the same size and instrumentation across all three periods

It grew from small strings plus continuo to a very large orchestra with full brass and percussion

It lost its entire string section completely and came to rely only on brass and percussion instead

A single unaccompanied melody, monophony, all the way through the work

A constant unchanging drone note sustained beneath every single section

Only the soloist ever playing, with the orchestra silent throughout the piece

The contrast between full tutti sections and lighter solo sections

Because one single feature, such as the dynamics, always tells you the period on its own with no need to listen further

Because a single feature can appear in more than one period, so several consistent features give a reliable answer

Because a cluster of several features is always much quicker and easier to hear than a single feature on its own

Because the exam rules strictly forbid you from ever mentioning any single feature on its own in your answer

Tchaikovsky

Brahms

Vivaldi

Grieg