What features of contemporary art music does the WJEC Into the Twenty-first Century area of study expect you to recognise and analyse in its set works?
Into the Twenty-first Century area of study: the features of contemporary art music including complex rhythm and metre, post-tonal and eclectic harmony, extended techniques, varied textures and the mixing of styles, analysed through set works by Thomas Ades and Sally Beamish.
A WJEC A-Level Music study of the Into the Twenty-first Century optional area of study: complex rhythm and metre, post-tonal and eclectic harmony, extended techniques and varied textures, analysed through the Thomas Ades and Sally Beamish set works for the Appraising exam.
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What this dot point is asking
This is one of the optional areas of study in the WJEC Appraising exam. It asks you to recognise and analyse the features of contemporary art music through its set works: works by Thomas Ades (a large-orchestra, high-energy idiom) and Sally Beamish (intimate, character-led chamber writing). You should be able to describe the rhythm, harmony, texture and instrumentation of this music using correct terms.
The answer
Contemporary rhythm and metre
Post-tonal and eclectic harmony
The harmony of this music is post-tonal and eclectic: it does not rely on functional tonic-dominant tonality but mixes dissonance, tone clusters, modal and tonal references, and quotation or pastiche, often with sudden shifts of style and mood. Composers draw freely on past and popular musics, so a passage may move from harsh dissonance to a tonal allusion within moments. Describing the harmony means noting this mixture and freedom rather than searching for keys and cadences.
Texture, instrumentation and extended techniques
Comparing the set works and listening
The two set works contrast strongly: Ades (Asyla, Ecstasio) is large-scale, high-energy and dance-driven, with layered ostinati, vivid orchestral colour and extended techniques; Beamish (String Quartet No. 2, Opus California) is intimate and character-led, exploring contrasting textures and lyrical and rhythmic ideas within the string quartet. In the exam you may be played an extract and asked to identify and describe the contemporary features (changing metre, ostinato, cluster, extended technique, eclectic mixing), so listening for rhythm, texture and colour is essential.
Examples in context
Model paragraph (contemporary energy in Ades). Ades builds energy from rhythm, layering and colour rather than from tonal argument. In Ecstasio the music pulses like a dance floor: ostinati pile up in shifting metres, cross-rhythms drive against one another, and a large orchestra is deployed for sheer kinetic colour, with extended techniques adding edge to the sound. The harmony is eclectic, dissonant clusters rubbing against fleeting tonal references, and the effect comes from accumulation and momentum, layers added and stripped away, rather than from cadences and keys. The form is shaped by these changes of texture and intensity. Describing such a passage means naming the changing metre and layered ostinati, the post-tonal eclectic harmony, the large colourful orchestration and the extended techniques that together create the contemporary, dance-driven energy.
Try this
Q1. Name two contemporary rhythmic features you might hear in this area of study. [2 marks]
- Cue. Changing time signatures (metre) and layered ostinati (also cross-rhythms and polyrhythms).
Q2. How does the harmony of this music differ from Classical tonality? [2 marks]
- Cue. It is post-tonal and eclectic, mixing dissonance, clusters and tonal references rather than functional tonic-dominant harmony.
Q3. Analyse the contemporary features of a set work, with reference to rhythm, harmony, texture and instrumentation. [20 marks]
- What the marker wants. A located analysis of the complex rhythm and metre (changing metres, ostinati), the post-tonal eclectic harmony, the varied texture and inventive instrumentation (large orchestra in Ades, string quartet in Beamish), and the extended techniques that create the contemporary sound.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of WJEC exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
WJEC 202120 marksAnalyse the contemporary features of a set work in the Into the Twenty-first Century area of study, with reference to rhythm, harmony, texture and instrumentation.Show worked answer →
A set-work analysis question rewarding precise detail on contemporary technique tied to the music.
Rhythm and metre: complex, often changing metres, cross-rhythms, layered ostinati and driving energy (Ades's Asyla, the movement Ecstasio, evokes dance-club rhythms with relentless, pulsing layers).
Harmony: post-tonal and eclectic, mixing dissonance, clusters and tonal references rather than functional tonality, with sudden shifts of mood and style.
Texture and instrumentation: varied and inventive, with a large and colourful orchestra (or chamber ensemble in Beamish), extended techniques and unusual sonorities.
A top answer cites a located passage, names the contemporary features (changing metre, ostinato, cluster, extended technique), and links them to the work's effect.
WJEC 202312 marksCompare how Ades and Beamish use rhythm, texture and instrumentation in their set works.Show worked answer →
A comparison question testing knowledge of two contemporary styles.
Ades (Asyla, Ecstasio): a large orchestra, driving and complex rhythms evoking electronic dance music, layered ostinati, vivid orchestral colour and extended techniques, with an eclectic, high-energy idiom.
Beamish (String Quartet No. 2, Opus California): a chamber medium (string quartet), exploring contrasting characters and textures, lyrical and rhythmic ideas, extended string techniques and a more intimate but still contemporary language.
A top answer contrasts Ades's large-orchestra, dance-driven energy with Beamish's intimate, character-led string-quartet writing, supporting each with features from the set works.
Related dot points
- Into the Twentieth Century area of study: the features of early twentieth-century music including impressionism (whole-tone and modal scales, parallel chords, blurred tonality, rich colour) and neoclassicism, analysed through set works by Debussy and Poulenc.
A WJEC A-Level Music study of the Into the Twentieth Century optional area of study: impressionism (whole-tone and modal scales, parallel chords, blurred tonality, orchestral colour) and neoclassicism, analysed through the Debussy and Poulenc set works for the Appraising exam.
- Jazz area of study: the features of jazz including swing rhythm, improvisation, the head-solos-head structure, extended and altered chords (sevenths, ninths), the walking bass and comping, blues influence, and the main styles, recognised in listening extracts.
A WJEC A-Level Music study of the Jazz optional area of study: swing rhythm, improvisation, head-solos-head structure, extended and altered chords, walking bass and comping, the blues influence and the main jazz styles, for recognising and describing the style in the Appraising listening exam.
- Rhythm, texture and sonority: describing rhythm and metre (note values, syncopation, dotted rhythms, hemiola, time signatures), texture (monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, heterophonic, antiphonal), and sonority and dynamics (instrumental and vocal timbre, articulation, tempo), applied to listening extracts in any style.
A WJEC A-Level Music study of rhythm, texture and sonority for the Appraising listening exam: rhythm and metre (syncopation, dotted rhythms, hemiola, time signatures), texture (monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, heterophonic), and sonority, dynamics and tempo, applied to any style of music.
- Tonality and structure: identifying major, minor, modal and atonal tonality, key relationships and modulation, and recognising musical structures (binary, ternary, rondo, sonata, variations, verse-chorus, head-solos-head, strophic, through-composed), applied to listening extracts in any style.
A WJEC A-Level Music study of tonality and structure for the Appraising listening exam: major, minor, modal and atonal tonality, key relationships and modulation, and the main musical structures (binary, ternary, rondo, sonata, variations, verse-chorus, head-solos-head, strophic, through-composed), applied to any style.
- Melody and harmony: describing melodic features (conjunct and disjunct motion, range, sequence, ornamentation, phrasing, motif), chords and progressions, consonance and dissonance, and the difference between diatonic, chromatic and modal harmony, applied to listening extracts in any style.
A WJEC A-Level Music study of melody and harmony for the Appraising listening exam: melodic features (conjunct and disjunct motion, range, sequence, ornamentation, motif), chords and progressions, consonance and dissonance, and diatonic, chromatic and modal harmony, applied to any style of music.
Sources & how we know this
- WJEC GCE AS/A Level in Music specification (from 2016) — WJEC (2016)