Overview | Music is a subject which uniquely draws together a wide variety of skills which are able to help in creating the confident, able and responsible student universities are looking for. For some it may be a stepping stone to studying Music at University or Music College, and then perhaps onto a career in music. For the majority it will be an enjoyable subject at which they succeed and gain a high grade at AS and A2 giving them the basis for understanding and enjoying music into the future. Edexcel’s Advanced GCE in Music comprises six units and contains an Advanced Subsidiary subset of three AS units. The Advanced Subsidiary GCE is the first half of the GCE course and consists of Units 1, 2 and 3. It may be awarded as a discrete qualification or contribute 50 per cent of the total Advanced GCE marks. The full Advanced GCE award consists of the three AS units (Units 1, 2 and 3), plus three A2 units (Units 4, 5 and 6) which make up the other 50% of the Advanced GCE. |
Examination board | The Sixth Form Music course at Queen Elizabeth’s follows the EDEXCEL specification. Full details of the specification and additional support materials can be accessed here. |
Unit 1- Performing Music Coursework to be completed over the course of terms 1 & 2 in Year 12 | Content summary: This unit gives students the opportunities to perform as soloists and/or as part of an ensemble. Teachers and students can choose music in any style. Any instrument(s) and/or voice(s) are acceptable as part of a five to six minute assessed performance. Assessment: The music to be performed for this unit is internally chosen and assessed at the centre, recorded by the centre and externally moderated by Edexcel. |
Unit 2 - Composing Coursework to be completed over the course of terms 1 & 2 in Year 12 | Content summary: This unit encourages students to develop their composition skills leading to the creation of a three-minute piece in response to a chosen brief. Students also write a CD sleeve note to describe aspects of their final composition and explain how other pieces of music have influenced it. Assessment: In September of each year Edexcel will publish on its website (www.edexcel.org.uk) a document entitled Unit 2: Composing. Section A will contain four composition briefs from which students will select one as the basis for a three-minute composition. In Section B students will answer three questions to provide information that could be used for a CD sleeve note to accompany their composition. |
Unit 3- Developing Musical Understanding Examination to be taken in the Summer of Year 12 | Content summary: This unit focuses on listening to familiar music and understanding how it works. Set works from the anthology provide the focus for the first two sections, through listening and studying scores. It is recommended that students familiarise themselves with each work as a whole, before learning how to identify important musical features and social and historical context. In the third section, students use a score to identify harmonic and tonal features and then apply this knowledge in the completion of a short and simple passage for SATB. Assessment: Assessment is through a 2-hour examination paper set and marked by Edexcel.There are three sections: - Section A: Listening
- Section B: Investigating musical styles
- Section C: Understanding Chords and lines
In section A, candidates listen to excerpts of the prescribed set works which are related to the areas of study Instrumental music and Vocal music and answer questions based on them. In section B, candidates will choose to extend one of the AS areas of study andanswer a two-part question on it. Finally Section C will assess candidates’ ability to use a score to analyse simple harmonic and melodic features in unfamiliar music and their ability to complete a short exercise filling out a passage for SATB from a given soprano part. |
Unit 4- Extended Performance Coursework to be completed before the start of May of Year 13 | This unit gives students the opportunity to extend their performance skills as soloists and/or as part of an ensemble. Teachers and students can choose music in any style. Any instrument(s) and/or voice(s) are acceptable as part of a 12-15 minute assessed performance of a balanced programme of music. Assessment: The music to be performed for this unit is internally chosen and assessed at the centre, recorded by the centre and externally moderated by Edexcel. |
Unit 5 -Composition & Technical Study Coursework to be completed before the start of May of Year 13 | This unit has two sections: composition and technical study. The composition section further develops students’ composition skills, leading to the creation of a final three-minute piece in response to a chosen brief. The technical study section builds on the knowledge and awareness of harmony gained in Unit 3 section C through the medium of pastiche studies. Students must complete two tasks in this unit choosing from either one composition and one technical study or two compositions or two technical studies. Assessment: In September of each year Edexcel will publish on its website the Unit 5: Composition and Technical Study document. Section A contains four composition briefs from which students will select one or more as the basis for three-minute composition(s). Section B contains three technical study topics from which candidates will select one or two. The topics are: - Topic 1: Baroque counterpoint
- Topic 2: Chorale
- Topic 3: Popular song
The candidates will be given the opening bars and be expected to complete these openings in a specified style. |
Unit 6- Further Musical Understanding Examination to be taken in the summer of Year 13 | This unit focuses on listening to music, familiar and unfamiliar, and understanding how it works.Set works from the anthology provide the focus for much of the unit. Between works students should also listen to a wide range of unfamiliar music which relates to the two compulsory areas of study, Instrumental Music and Applied Music. They should learn how to compare and contrast pairs of excerpts, contextualise music and identify harmonic and tonal features. Assessment: Assessment is through a 2-hour examination paper set, marked by Edexcel. There are three sections: - Section A: Aural analysis
- Section B: Music in context
- Section C: Continuity and change in instrumental music
In Section A, candidates listen to excerpts of unfamiliar music which are related to the two compulsory areas of study, and answer questions on them. Questions in Section B relate to the set works in Area of study 3: Applied Music. The questions prompt candidates to identify given musical features from selected set works and comment on how these features help to place the work in a social and historical context. Finally, questions in Section C relate to the Area of study 1: Instrumental Music and assess candidates understanding of continuity and change within the group of set works studied. Candidates will answer one essay question from a choice of two. |
Areas of Study | Areas of study are fundamental to the specification. Each area provides opportunities not only for the study of repertoire but also for the development of musical ideas through composing and performing activities. The specification encourages integration of the various musical disciplines throughout. For each area of study there are set works. The lists of set works have been carefully selected to provide historical and stylistic variety and consistency and equality at each level across the lifetime of the specification. Thus each list within each area of study contains a broadly equal amount of music in terms of demand and duration. The wide range of set works within each area will allow students to make chronological and stylistic comparisons. There are three areas of study: - AoS1 Instrumental Music
- AoS2 Vocal Music
- AoS3 Applied Music
At AS Level students study Instrumental music and Vocal music. AoS1 Instrumental Music - This area of study, which belongs to both AS and A2, is designed to embrace a wide number of instrumental styles and traditions, including full-scale orchestral works and chamber music. Everything is from the western classical tradition. AoS2 Vocal Music - This area of study is designed to help students understand and appreciate the important role, in various places and at various times, of music for voices only or for voices and instruments. At A2 students continue to study Instrumental Music and also study AoS3 Applied Music. The works in AoS1 and AoS2 are largely ‘pure’ music for concert or domestic performance, whereas those selected here are ‘applied’ to a range of other situations with music serving some wider purpose. For example, some pieces are used in dance, while others are for ritual (including worship) or to accompany the moving image in film or television. |
| Course support & enrichment at QE | The Music Department runs a very full and varied extra-curricular programme which supports the performance element of the examination, which itself makes up nearly 40% of the overall weighting. At A2 the free composition element is taught by a part-time professional composer. In addition, some of the boys’ compositions may be performed by ensembles at school concerts. Throughout the course the boys will have the opportunity to enhance their ICT skills through use of both sequencing and score-writing software in the purpose-built music technology suite. As part of the specialist Music College programme some boys in year 12 will have the opportunity to work as music-specific classroom assistants at our partner primary schools. Further enhancing their music and ICT-based skills as well as the experience of working as enablers in a classroom situation. There will also be the opportunity to have one-to-one tutorials with members of staff to clarify skills areas covered, whenever the needs arrive. |
| Progression from A-level Music | University degree courses in Music. These fall into two categories: Music Performance, at music colleges such as the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music, and the more academic-based courses in Music. Career pathways are very varied in the wider world of music. The majority of career pathways lean toward performing. Here there are a huge variety of different genres and styles from orchestral to pop to the West End. In addition pupils could follow other primarily freelance pathways in amongst others composition, arranging, management, music therapy, musicology, academic research and teaching. Other progression routes are also available from the Music Technology A level, as detailed in the separate guide for this subject. |
Recommended wider reading This is particularly relevant for those considering further study beyond A-level | - Holmes T — Electronic and Experimental Music (Routledge, 2003) ISBN 10: 0415936446, ISBN 13: 978-0415936446
- Nyman M — Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (Music in the Twentieth Century) (Cambridge University Press, 1999) ISBN 10: 0521652979, ISBN 13: 978-0521652971
- Alfred Blatter – Instrumentation & Orchestration (MacMillan Publishing Company) ISBN 10: 0028645707, ISBN 13: 978-0028645704
- Bowman D — Aural Matters (Schott, 1995) ISBN 10: 0946535221, ISBN 13: 978-0946535224
- Benham H — A Student’s Guide to Harmony and Counterpoint (Rhinegold, 2006) ISBN 0904226310
- Bowman D — Rhinegold Dictionary of Music in Sound (Rhinegold, 2000) ISBN 10 0946890870
- Cole B — The Composer’s Handbook (Schott, 1996) ISBN 10 0946535809
- Cole B — The Pop Composer’s Handbook (Schott, 2006) ISBN 1902455606
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