GCSE Music₈₂₇₁

GCSE Music Specification Specification for first teaching in 2016

20 May 2020

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3.1 Understanding music

The areas of study provide an appropriate focus for students to appraise, develop and demonstrate an in-depth knowledge and understanding of musical elements, musical context and musical language. The four areas of study can also provide a rich source of material for your students to work with when developing performance and composition skills.

There are four areas of study:

Western classical tradition 1650–1910
Popular music
Traditional music
Western classical tradition since 1910.

3.1.1 Areas of study 1–4

Listening – unfamiliar music

Students must be able to listen attentively to unfamiliar music from all four areas of study to identify and accurately describe musical elements , musical contexts and use musical language (including staff notation).

Study pieces

For two areas of study ( one of which must be Area of study 1 and the other a choice of one from Areas of study 2–4), students must also be able to critically appraise the music from the specified study pieces using knowledge and understanding of:

the effect of audience, time and place on how the study pieces were created, developed and performed
how and why the music across the selected areas of study has changed over time
how the composer’s purpose and intention for the study pieces is reflected in their use of musical elements
relevant musical vocabulary and terminology for the study pieces.

3.1.2 Area of study 1: Western classical tradition 1650–1910 (compulsory)

For the purposes of this specification, the western classical tradition is defined as art music of (or growing out of) the European tradition, normally notated, and normally intended for public performance.

Listening – unfamiliar music

Students must be able to listen attentively to unfamiliar music from the following styles/genres to identify and accurately describe musical elements, musical contexts and musical language:

The Coronation Anthems and Oratorios of Handel .
The Orchestra Music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven .
The piano music of Chopin and Schumann .
The Requiem of the late Romantic period.

Study piece

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major , K. 622, 3rd movement, Rondo (first taught 2020, first assessed 2022, final assessment 2025).

Beethoven: Symphony No.1 , Movement 1: Adagio molto – Allegro con brio (first taught 2024, first assessed 2026)

Musical elements

The following table contains all the musical elements, for this area of study, that students must know and understand to answer questions in section A (Listening) and section B ( S tudy piece). Marks will also be awarded for knowledge of other terms if relevant to this area of study in section B ( S tudy piece) of the exam.

Element type	Element
Melody	conjunct, disjunct, triadic, broken chords, scalic, arpeggio intervals within the octave passing notes diatonic, chromatic slide/portamento, ornamentation including acciaccaturas, appoggiaturas ostinato phrasing, articulation.
Harmony	diatonic, chromatic consonant, dissonant pedal, drone cadences: perfect, plagal, imperfect, interrupted and tièrce de Picardie identification of major, minor and dominant seventh chords using chord symbols/roman numerals.
Tonality	major, minor, and their key signatures to four sharps and flats modulation to dominant, subdominant in major or minor keys relative major or minor tonic major or minor.
Structure	binary and ternary rondo arch-shape through-composed theme and variations, sonata, minuet and trio, scherzo and trio call and response ground bass, continuo cadenza.
Sonority (Timbre)	instruments and voices singly and in combination as found in music , including that for solo instruments, concertos, chamber groups instrumental techniques such as arco, pizzicato, con sordino.
Texture	harmonic/homophonic/chordal polyphonic/contrapuntal imitative, canonic, layered antiphonal a cappella monophonic/single melody line melody and accompaniment unison, octaves.
Tempo, metre and rhythm	simple and compound time regular anacrusis common Italian tempo terms eg allegro, andante pulse augmentation, diminution hemiola semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, semiquaver dotted rhythms, triplets, scotch snap rubato, pause tempo.
Dynamics and articulation	Gradation of dynamics as follows: pp, p. mp , mf, f, ff including the Italian terms cresc , crescendo, dim, diminuendo including hairpins sfz , sforzando common signs, terms and symbols.

3.1.3 Musical language (Area of study 1)

Students must be able to use the musical language appropriate to this Area of study in the following ways :

Reading staff notation

Students must be able to identify musical elements (as above) when reading short passages of unfamiliar music in staff notation of up to 12 bars.

Writing staff notation

Students must be able to demonstrate the ability to write staff notation within short passages of up to eight bars:

melodically up to four sharps and flats
rhythmically including simple and compound time.

Chords

Students must learn major and minor chords and be able to identify them in aural and written form. Examples of relevant types of chords can be found in the musical elements table above.

Musical vocabulary and terminology

Students must be able to identify and apply appropriate musical vocabulary and terminology to music heard and notated. The appropriate vocabulary required can be found in the table above.

3.1.4 Area of study 2: Popular music

For the purpose of this specification, popular music is defined as mainstream music including a number of musical styles and genres including rock , pop, musical theatre , film and computer gaming music from 19 5 0 to the present.

Listening – unfamiliar music

Students must be able to listen attentively to unfamiliar music from the following styles/genres to identify and accurately describe musical elements, musical contexts and musical language:

music of Broadway 1950s to 1990s
rock music of 1960s and 1970s
film and computer gaming music 1990s to present
pop music 1990s to present.

Study piece

Little Shop of Horrors 1982 off-Broadway version – the following three tracks:

Prologue/Little Shop of Horrors (overture)
Mushnik and Son
Feed Me ( Sudden Changes material is not part of the stated set work)

(first teaching 2020, first assessment 2022, final assessment 2025)

Queen – the following three tracks:

Bohemian Rhapsody
The Seven Seas of Rhye
Love of my Life

(first taught 2024, first assessed 2026)

Musical elements

In addition to the musical elements listed for Area of study 1, students must know and understand musical elements appropriate to this Area of study.

Element type	Element
Melody	riff pitch bend melisma hook slide glissando improvisation ostinato blue notes.
Harmony	power chords chord symbols eg C⁷ stock chord progressions eg I VI IV V.
Tonality	pentatonic modal blues scale.
Structure	intro/outro verse chorus break twelve-bar blues drum fill.
Sonority (Timbre)	standard contemporary instrument types eg electric guitar, synthesisers specific instrument types eg sitar, dilruba instrumental techniques eg palm mute (pm), pitch bend, hammer-on (ho), pull-off (po), slide guitar/bottleneck drum kit components and techniques eg rim shot vocal timbres eg falsetto, belt, rap, beat-boxing, scat singing specific instrumental techniques eg slap bass specific instrumental effects eg amplification, distortion specific technological recording techniques eg automatic double-tracking (ADT) and direct input transformer (DIT).
Tempo, metre and rhythm	bpm (beats per minute) mm (metronome marking) groove backbeat syncopation off-beat shuffle, swing /swung .

3.1.5 Area of study 3: Traditional music

For the purpose of this specification , traditional music is defined as music that takes influences from traditional sources including folk music and reinterprets them in a contemporary style, and traditional music from traditional sources and cultures that is performed as intended by the composer.

Listening – unfamiliar music

Students must be able to listen attentively to unfamiliar music from the following styles/genres to identify and accurately describe musical elements, musical contexts and musical language:

Blues music from 1920 – 1950
Fusion music incorporating African and/or Caribbean music
Contemporary Latin music
Contemporary Folk music of the British Isles.

Study piece

Paul Simon Graceland album – the following three tracks:

Graceland
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
You Can Call Me Al

(first teaching 2020, first assessment 2022, final assessment 2025)

Esperanza Spalding – the following three tracks:

I Know You Know
Little Fly
I Adore You

(first taught 2024, first assessed 2026)

Musical elements

In addition to the musical elements listed for Area of study 1, students must know and understand musical elements appropriate to this Area of study.

Element type	Element
Melody	blue notes pentatonic, whole tone, modal slide/glissando/portamento, pitch bend, appoggiaturas ostinato riff melody–scat melisma improvisation.
Tonality	modal pentatonic.
Structure	strophic, verse and chorus, cyclic call and response popular song forms structure–12/16 bar blues.
Sonority (Timbre)	generic families of instruments as found in traditional/world music eg steel drums the use of technology, synthesised and computer-generated sounds, sampling and the use of techniques such as reverb, distortion and chorus drone vocal techniques eg falsetto, vibrato, rap.
Texture	a cappella imitative layered/layering.
Tempo, metre and rhythm	irregular, free skank bubble clave (Bo Diddley type beat) augmentation, diminution anacrusis hemiola bi-rhythm, cross-rhythm, polyrhythm shuffle beat backbeat syncopation off-beat bossa nova samba salsa tango habanera danzón merengue cha-cha-cha rumba.

3.1.6 Area of study 4: Western classical tradition since 1910

For the purpose of this specification, western classical tradition since 1910 is defined as music that comprises modern, contemporary classical music, experimental and minimalist music as well as other forms.

Listening – unfamiliar music

Students must be able to listen attentively to unfamiliar music from the following styles/genres to identify and accurately describe musical elements, musical contexts and musical language:

The orchestral music of Copland
British music of Arnold, Britten, Maxwell-Davies and Tavener
The orchestral music of Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók
Minimalist music of John Adams, Steve Reich and Terry Riley.

Study piece

Zoltán Kodály: Battle and Defeat of Napoleon and Intermezzo from Háry János. (Orchestral version with cimbalom and without vocal parts.)

(first teaching 2020, first assessment 2022, final assessment 2025)

Bartók: Hungarian Pictures – the following four movements*:

Movement 1: Evening in the Village
Movement 2: The Bear Dance
Movement 4: Slightly Tipsy
Movement 5: Swineherd’s Dance

(first taught 2024, first assessed 2026)

*Please note that Movement 3: Melody is not to be included.

Musical elements

In addition to the musical elements listed for Area of study 1, students must know and understand musical elements appropriate to this Area of study.

Element type	Element
Melody	ostinato motifs melisma.
Harmony	chromatic dissonant pedal.
Tonality	pentatonic whole tone modal tonal ambiguity.
Sonority (Timbre)	specific families of instruments use of technology, synthesised and computer-generated sounds instrumental techniques eg vamping.
Texture	drones imitative layered/layering.
Tempo, metre and rhythm	irregular, free augmentation, diminution anacrusis hemiola rubato bi-rhythm, cross-rhythm, polyrhythm syncopation off-beat.

3.1.7 Musical language (Areas of study 2–4)

Students must be able to use musical language appropriate to their selected area of study in the following ways.

Reading staff notation

Students must be able to identify musical elements (as above) when reading short passages of staff notation of up to 12 bars.

Chords and chord symbols

Students must learn major and minor chords and their associated symbols and be able to identify them in aural and written form. Examples of relevant types of chords and symbols can be found in the musical elements tables above.

Musical vocabulary and terminology

Students must be able to identify and apply appropriate musical vocabulary and terminology to music heard and notated. The appropriate vocabulary required can be found in the tables relevant to the area of study.

3.0 Subject content

3.2 Performing music