AQA GCSE Music Study Pieces Supplement

GCSE MUSIC

Study Pieces Supplement CLIVE OSGOOD & DAVID VENTURA

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A FEATURINGUPDATED STUDY PIECESFROM2020

Musicroom Order MSR21029817 | 1 copy purchased by Steve Hackshaw on Feb 28, 2021 at 8:03am CST

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A LEVEL MUSIC SET WORKS FOR EXAMINATION IN 2022

ISBN: 978-1-70510-529-0

Copyright © 2020 by HAL LEONARD LLC International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved

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You should always check the currentrequirements of your examination, sincethese may vary according to exam board.


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Contents

Area of Study 1 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 5

Western Classical Tradition 1650–1910

The orchestral music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven

Area of Study 2 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 16

Popular Music

Music of Broadway 1950s–1990s

Area of Study 3 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 27

Traditional Music

Fusion music incorporating African and/or Caribbean music

Area of Study 4 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 37

Western Classical Tradition Since 1910

The orchestral music of Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók

Contextual Understanding Practice: Model Answers • • 47

3


Acknowledgements

Clarinet Concerto, K. 622By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Copyright © 2020 by HAL LEONARD LLCInternational Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved

Diamonds On The Soles Of Her ShoesWords and Music by Paul SimonBeginning by Paul Simon and Joseph Shabalala

Copyright © 1986 Paul Simon (BMI)International Copyright Secured All Rights ReservedUsed by Permission

Feed Me (Git It)from LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORSMusic by Alan MenkenWords by Howard Ashman

Copyright © 1982 UNIVERSAL - GEFFEN MUSIC, MENKEN MUSIC and TRUNKSONG MUSIC LTD.All Rights on behalf of MENKEN MUSIC and TRUNKSONG MUSIC LTD. outside the U.S. and Canada Administered by WARNER-TAMERLANE CORP.All Rights Reserved Used by Permission

GracelandWords and Music by Paul Simon


Háry János Suite, Fifth Movement (Intermezzo)Music by Zoltán Kodály

Copyright © 1927 Universal Edition A.G. WienAll Rights Reserved Used by Permission

Háry János Suite, Fourth Movement (The Battle And Defeat Of Napoleon)Music by Zoltán Kodály

Copyright © 1927 Universal Edition A.G. WienAll Rights Reserved Used by Permission

Mushnik And Sonfrom LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORSMusic by Alan MenkenWords by Howard Ashman


Prologuefrom the Stage Production LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORSMusic by Alan MenkenWords by Howard Ashman


You Can Call Me AlWords and Music by Paul Simon



Area of Study 1:

Western Classical Tradition 1650–1910

The orchestral music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven

AoS1 5

Portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Johann Georg Edlinger, c.1790.

IAN DAGNALL COMPUTING/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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GCSE MUSIC STUDY PIECES SUPPLEMENT 6

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A MajorK 622, movement 3ContextWolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) is considered one of the most significant composers in the history of classical music and, along with Haydn and Beethoven, the greatest in the Classical period. He wrote a prolific number of important and influential works in the fields of opera, orchestral, instrumental, and choral music.

Mozart showed musical talent at a very young age, composing from the age of five. Alongside his older sister, he was taken around Europe to demonstrate his prodigious gifts. In London, at the age of eight, he wrote his first symphony and his first opera was performed when he was only eleven. Born in Salzburg, Austria, he returned to work there as a court composer before moving, in 1781, to the Austrian capital of Vienna where he wrote his greatest works. He died at the age of only thirty-five in 1791.

Mozart had a strong association with the classical concerto. He was particularly drawn to the dramatic possibilities that the genre offered. As an excellent keyboard player, he also found the concerto to be a perfect showpiece for his performing abilities. Most of his concertos are therefore written for piano and orchestra.

Unlike his symphonies and operas, all of Mozart’s surviving concertos are mature works from his adulthood. As well as 23 piano concertos, he wrote concertos for violin, horn, bassoon, flute, and clarinet. There are also several concertos for more than oneinstrument and a few individual movements.

Concerto

A work that contrasts a single (solo) instrument (or small group of instruments) with an orchestra. It usually has three movements in the order of fast-slow-fast.

Genre

The category that a work falls into (e.g., opera or symphony).

Study piece


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3WESTERN CLASSICAL TRADITION 1650–1910: AoS16

Clarinet concerto instrument ation

• Solo clarinet• 2 flutes• 2 bassoons• 2 horns in A• Violin 1 and 2• Viola• Cello • Double bass

Mozart’s concerto for clarinet was his very last instrumental composition. It was first performed on 16 October 1791, seven weeks before his death. Although it is his only clarinet concerto, it was the culmination of a number of works for the instrument in the last decade of his life, including a clarinet trio and quintet.

This fascination with the instrument was, in part, due to his friendship with the clarinettist Anton Stadler, who not only was a virtuoso performer but also made different types of clarinets. One particular type, known as a basset clarinet, with extra keys, had a range that extended a few notes lower than a standard clarinet, and it was for this type that Mozart wrote his concerto. It was rare even in Mozart’s time, and this concerto is most often played on a standard clarinet.

The clarinet concerto in detailOrchestras from the Classical period were typically smaller than those heard today. This concerto uses fairly modest instrumentation, even for Mozart’s time, and does not include trumpets, timpani, or oboes.

The clarinet is a transposing instrument and this concerto is traditionally played by a clarinet in A. This means that it is written a minor 3rd higher than it sounds and has a different key signature.

Here is the opening of the third movement as it is written and as it sounds:

Third movement opening, written and sounding pitch

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8 GCSE MUSIC STUDY PIECES SUPPLEMENT

Range of clarinet

Mozart makes full use of the clarinet’s wide range, taking the instrument from, at sounding pitch, a low C#, its lowest note, to a C# three octaves higher.

Mozart was particularly fond of the clarinet, which, like the piano, was a relatively new instrument in the late-eighteenth century. He considered its tone the closest in quality to the human voice and was keen to exploit the different characteristics within its range. The strident sound of the upper (clarino) register could be made to contrast with the warmth of the low (chalumeau) register.

Before Mozart’s time, during the Baroque period, the solo concerto had become established as a three-movement form. Mozart’s concertos typically use the following pattern:

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Dynamic markings

Music written before the nineteenth century generally included few dynamic markings. In his clarinet concerto Mozart uses the abbreviations piano and forte with occasional crescendo and sforzando markings (sfp: suddenly loud then quiet). There are many passages with clear shifts between loud and soft passages (terraced dynamics). The dynamic markings usually highlight a change in texture.

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9

1. First movement. A fast “Allegro”, usually in a version of sonata form, with an extended section for the orchestra before the soloist plays. Towards the end of the movement the soloist is given an opportunity to improvise. In concertos, this section is known as a cadenza.

2. Second movement. A slow movement in ternary form (A-B-A), theme and variations form, or sonata form.

3. Third movement. In sonata form, rondo form, or often a combination of the two, called sonata rondo.

The study piece is the concerto’s third movement, although you might wish to listen to the other movements to help you understand the context. The opening first movement, in the home key of A major, features a lively “Allegro” sonata form in Common time (four crotchet beats in a bar). The second movement, in the key of D major, is a slow 3/4 “Adagio” in rounded Binary form (A-B-A1).

Third movementThe concerto’s third and final movement is an “Allegro” in compound duple metre (6/8), meaning two dotted-crotchet beats per bar. This time signature was common for the last movement of an instrumental work in the Classical period. The tempo and time signature look back to a gigue, a fast dance that typically rounded off a suite of dances in the Baroque period.

Overall structureThe structure of the last movement is a sonata rondo, a mixture of two common structures from the Classical period: sonata form and rondo form.

WESTERN CLASSICAL TRADITION 1650–1910: AoS1

Rondo

A musical form where the main theme (ritornello or refrain) returns between contrasting sections, known as episodes (ABACABA).

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The following table outlines the movement’s different sections, showing how they fit within both sonata form and rondo form. It shows the movement’s principal themes and its important use of related keys:

Sonata Form

A musical form, in three sections, which makes important use of keys:

• Exposition — introduces the first subject in the tonic key, followed by the second subject in the dominant or other related key. • Development — transforms ideas from the exposition, taking them through keys that are more distant from the tonic key.• Recapitulation — returns to the music of the exposition, which this time is altered to stay mainly in the tonic.

There is usually a transition linking the first and second subjects, and a coda to end the movement and reaffirm the tonic key.

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Bars RondoSonata form

Key Principal themes

1–56ARitornello

A major

57–72 A major

73–113 E minor

114–137ARitornello

Development A

138–187CSecond episode

Development F# minor

188–213BFirst episode

A major

214–246BFirst episode

A minor

247–301ARitornello

A major

301–353 Coda Coda A major

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Exposition1st subject

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Hemiola

A rhythmic device where three beats are heard in the time of two, giving a sense of a shift in metre. Hemiola is from the Latin for “whole and a half.”

Bars 1–56 (Rondo section A)

The movement is in A major with the main rondo theme (ritornello or refrain) always appearing in this key. The eight-bar theme is a model of classical structure, comprising two conjunct four-bar phrases, and beginning with an anacrusis (upbeat).

Main Rondo theme (bars 1–8)

The theme is first presented by the soloist before being taken over by the orchestra, in a slightly modified form. There then follows an extended section of scalic semiquavers (based on bar 7 of the theme) to show off the skills of the soloist (bars 17–23).

The first of two themes given exclusively to the orchestra (bars 40–43) uses a hemiola pattern in the violins; giving a feel of three-in-a-bar in the time of two beats.

Hemiola (bars 40–41)

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Bars 51–56 are another orchestral tutti.

Bars 57–72 (Rondo section B)

In rondo form, the clarinet‘s lyrical theme here is the start of the first episode (rondo section B). In terms of sonata form, it acts as a transition theme, leading the tonality towards the dominant key.

Transition theme

Bars 73–113

A new reflective theme, ornamented by acciaccaturas, is presented in the dominant minor (E minor). In sonata form, this is the second subject and it is initially heard in the violins.

Second Subject

It is then repeated on solo flute with the clarinet playing the triadic and chromatic accompaniment.

Tutti

A passage in concerto music where all instruments play together, in contrast to a solo section.

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This section, which in sonata form begins the development section, sees the return of the main rondo theme (ritornello), presented just once by the soloist and in slightly altered rhythm. The orchestra then plays an extended version of its tutti theme from bars 51–56.

Bars 138–187 (Rondo section C)

In a typical rondo structure, the second episode (C) is often in a minor key. This is also the case here, where the clarinet presents a new theme in the relative minor of the home key (F# minor).

Second Episode theme

This disjunct theme is immediately repeated an octave lower, demonstrating a different sonority.

A beautiful passage from bar 161 makes further use of the different registers of the clarinet. Wide leaps are followed by phrases in opposing registers, as seen below.

Exploiting the clarinet range (bars 165–170)

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As this development section (in sonata form terms) draws to a close, Mozart develops the opening motif of the main rondo theme in a short passage moving in thirds (bars 178–186). Towards the end of this passage it is, unexpectedly, the solo clarinet which provides the chromatic bass line.

Bars 188–213 (Rondo section B)

In a typical sonata form movement, the moment of recapitulation is marked by a return of the opening music, the first subject. With rondo form, too, we might expect the main theme (ritornello) at this point. Instead, however, it is both themes from the first episode that are repeated. In sonata form terms, these are the transition theme and second subject. The typical order within a sonata form recapitulation is therefore reversed.

There is also an interesting change in texture at this point. Having been predominantly homophonic throughout the movement, the texture becomes more contrapuntal, with regular imitation between the strings and clarinet (bars 196–207).

Bars 214–246The return of the reflective second subject, this time in the tonic minor, is made even more pensive by the use of expressive pauses. There are antiphonal phrases between strings and solo clarinet.


At last we hear the final statement of the ritornello, in an almost exact repetition of the opening 54 bars.

Bars 301–353 (Coda)

The clarinet begins an extended Coda with rising arpeggios before accompanying a new thematic figure on violins. Mozart then repeats the version of the main theme from bars 178–186. The movement draws to a close with a final statement of the main theme and the second tutti theme.

Ritornello

Italian for “little return,” ritornello refers to the return of a theme and was widely used in the Baroque period.

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Contextual Understanding Practice

1. Identify two features that look back to a Baroque gigue in this last movement of Mozart’s concerto. 2 marks

2. This music is normally played by a clarinet in A. Identify two ways in which this affects the way the music appears on the score. 2 marks

3. Identify two ways in which Mozart’s treatment of the orchestra is typically “Classical.” 2 marks

4. Explain how Mozart uses melody and/or tonality to achieve a sense of structure in this movement. 8 marks

AQA GCSE Music Study GuideSupplementary information on this work and full contextual detail on Area of Study 1 can be found on pages 10–55 of AQA GCSE Music Study Guide published by Rhinegold Education.

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16

Area of Study 2:

Popular Music

Music of Broadway 1950s–1990s

AoS2

Musical theatre company Mithe playing Little Shop Of Horrors from Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, directed by Steven Deville, Belgium, 02 Feburary 2012. CHRISTOPHE KETELS/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


17POPULAR MUSIC: AoS2

Study piece

Little Shop of Horrors, three numbers from the 1982 Off-Broadway version.The three songs to be studied in detail from the 1982 Off-Broadway original cast of Little Shop of Horrors are:

• Prologue/Little Shop of Horrors (overture)• Mushnik and Son• Feed Me (Git It)

Context• The rock musical Little Shop of Horrors made its first appearance as a film in 1960. It was only in 1982 that it hit the stage in Broadway, just away from the main street in Manhattan in the small, intimate atmosphere of the WPA Theater.• In 2003 the musical had a Broadway revival in a larger theatre. • It is a comedy horror show with a bizarre storyline featuring the growth of a flesh-eating plant! The plant tries to take over the world encouraged by a love-sick florist named Seymour.• The music was composed by the American composer Alan Menken (b. 1949). He has written many scores for Broadway (e.g., A Christmas Carol, 1994) and for Walt Disney Animation Studios, among them Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Pocahontas (1995). His honours include nine Academy Awards (Oscars) together with Grammy and Tony awards.• The show’s lyricist was Howard Ashman (1950–1991), a frequent collaborator with Menken on Broadway and for Disney.

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If you are using any audio to support your learning, it is important to note that the 1982 Original Cast Album of Little Shop of Hor-rors makes significant changes to the original 1982 Off-Broadway score. Please note that the following analysis and music is taken from the 1982 Off-Broadway original score. This is the version required for your AQA GCSE Music course.


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NGCSE MUSIC STUDY PIECES SUPPLEMENT

• The original musical was lightly scored for piano and synthesisers, acoustic/electric guitar, bass, and drums kit with percussion: bells (glockenspiel), bongo, castanets and mark tree (bar chimes).• There are two lead characters; Seymour (tenor) and Audrey (mezzo-soprano), together with six supporting actors and a vocal ensemble.

Musical stylesMenken’s score is in a soft electric rock idiom broadly from the 1960s, utilising rock ’n’ roll, doo-wop, and early Motown styles. Rock ’n’ roll pervades the musical, especially in the use of electric instruments, drum kit, and bass. Singing is often in a blues style, with back-beat rhythms. Rhythm ’n’ blues tends to be used for some of the heavier and more dramatic songs (e.g., “Feed Me”).

The score has more than a hint of soul style, particularly in solo vocal leads. Soul music, which derived from a blend of gospel and rhythm ’n’ blues, is given an emotional delivery with frequent vocal decorations. Vocals often employ call and response singing with an emphasis on the back-beat and melodic bass lines.

The earlier 1950s doo-wop, which features throughout courtesy of the commenting close harmony trio of Crystal, Ronnette, and Chiffon, is another nostalgic throwback to an earlier era.

The eclectic score also features Latin dance rhythms.

Doo-wop

Originating in American youth in the 1940s and popular in the 1950s and early 1960s, the style was characterised by close harmony singing, catchy tunes (over background vocals singing nonsense words), and interplay of voice parts.

The vocal texture of a lead, usually tenor, with backing singers in close harmony influenced early Motown.



Bar by bar

Prologue/Little Shop of Horrors (overture)

PrologueKey: Eb majorTempo: slow and majestic

A dramatic drum roll bar from the kit toms introduces a series of slow chords from piano and synthesizer lasting four bars (two bars in harmonic sequence, ending on the dominant). A fill on the kit toms and bass joins the two-bar phrases together.

The opening chord progressions repeat while the music drops in volume as a male voiceover intones the spoken warning of dire events. The chord progressions appear a third time, but on the fourth bar the harmony twists away to land on a major chord based on the seventh note of the scale, D. This D major chord acts as the dominant to lead powerfully (fp then crescendo) into the main song.

Little Shop of HorrorsKey: G majorTempo: “Up tempo” easy rock

The music segues (follows straight) into a fast-moving accompaniment of repeated quaver chords for a four-bar intro consisting of alternating bars of G major with Am7 and D7(sus4). These are played on piano and guitar over a syncopated bass line.

This allows the three female “street urchins” (Crystal, Ronnette, and Chiffon, named after girl bands from the 1960s) to get into position for the opening song. Its words warning of horror to come, the song is sung in close parallel harmony.

Fill

In pop music and jazz, a brief improvised flourish to fill the gap between theend of one phrase and the beginning of another.

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Opening vocal entry

The doo-wop singing style from the 1950s and 60s conveys the characters’ street-wise excitement. Throughout the show the girls are called upon to comment on the action.

The “A” section of the ABA structure progresses with two-bar repeats culminating in the minor plagal cadence of Cm6–G on the words “No-Oh-Oh-No,” set on the off-beats. These eight bars are then repeated.

The “B” section moves to C major. Four-bar phrases are repeated three times with alternating harmonies of C and G and breaks (short instrumental solos) that produce a lighter accompaniment. The girls shout a warning of “look out, look out, look out, look out” at the end of the first phrase.

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which are linked by quaver patterns in the bass.

Bass quaver patterns

Gradual additions are made to the dominant triad notes, creating a climax in the seventh bar with a held Sus4 chord. A bar’s break then ends with Ronnette’s rising scalic lead-in (repeated quavers on the words “come-a come-a come-a”) to the return of the “A” section.

This time the opening music has slightly more urgency, as the Am7 chord beginning the second bar has been brought forward a half beat to the end of the previous bar. The bass line is also lighter and more syncopated than before.

The song concludes with the minor plagal cadence of before, but now it is repeated three times leading to a held Eb major chord in the accompaniment. This acts almost as an interrupted cadence to leave the mood up in the air, holding the action in suspense.

Mushnik and SonKey: C minorTempo: Medium fast Latin

Mushnik, the owner of the flower shop where our bumbling hero Seymour works, is worried about losing his new profits from the alien plant Audrey 2 if Seymour were to leave. Mushnik therefore suggests to Seymour that he could adopt him as a son. Mushnik is Jewish and the composer Alan Menken (who, with his librettist Howard Ashman, came from a Jewish family) wanted to reflect the importance of family in Jewish tradition.

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The song is preceded by some discussion, which is parlando (spoken rhythms over a musical accompaniment, not heard on the recording). The song proper begins with Mushnik’s lead-in with the words “how would you like to be my son?”.

Mushnik’s entry, “How would you like to be my son?”

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Mushnik’s melody in the verse is mostly conjunct. On the words “own adopted boy” and “up my family tree” there is a hemiola.

Harmonically, much use is made of chords whose root notes are a semitone apart. So, the first chords move up from C min to Db major to Dm7(b5). At the end of the verse the Ab7 chord precedes the dominant chord of V7 with a sharpened 5th.

After repeating the first eight bars of the verse the music moves to a chorus section on the words “Mushnik and Son.” This is suitably legato, moving in crotchets, but is more disjunct, featuring frequent use of rising or falling 7th leaps and sequences. It also moves through the relative major (Eb).

A second verse section sees Seymour gradually persuaded. Upon the return of the chorus, both characters now sing together. The end of the chorus is adapted to form a short coda, with vocals alternating with instrumental tango rhythms and leading to a held vocal chord of C minor under which the band plays a rising chromatic scale and a final punctuating chord.

There is a Jewish tango influence throughout, notably in the melody of the chorus (with its rhythm of e q e q q ) and in the repeated downward scale in the bass at the end of sections. The accents in the accompaniment on the second quaver of the bar (e.g., on the castanets) create a tango feel together with the bass syncopations.

Jewish Tango

Jewish tango as a hybrid genre developed as a result Eastern European Jewish emigration to South America, specifically to Argentina (which occurred from the sixteenth century) where tango was very popular. The strict dance tango is moderate in speed with down-beat crotchets and an accented final quaver in the bar. However, Jewish musicians merged strict Spanish elements of tango with Polish folk dances used by the klemzer bands at weddings and dances to incorporate mixed and syncopated rhythms.

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Feed Me (Git It)Key: CTempo: Heavy rock four in a bar with middle section in 12/8.

The music preceding this heavy blues rock provides a contrast, with its gentle vocals from Seymour and light piano accompaniment featuring spread chords. Seymour is musing to himself when he is interrupted by the plant (Audrey 2), with its initial “Feed me!”. The alien plant starts a longer conversation, demanding to be fed and that its meal must be blood.The heavy blues of this song, a dialogue/duet, enables some powerful singing in the style of the great blues artists such as Little Richard, creating the sense of a strong plant with a hint of violence.

It begins when the plant’s words “feed me” are accompanied by two downbeat heavy, accented quavers in the bass on C. These quavers are the rhythmic anchor throughout. At first, there are improvised electric guitar and Hammond organ (synth) fills between the downbeat quavers.

As the plant begins properly to sing, it uses the blues scale with slides, syncopations, and short melismas, sung in a soul style. Subdominant 7th harmony appears, to continue the blues idiom, and the plant becomes more insistent, with the blue notes of Bb and Eb emphasised. The phrasing is extended by introducing a 2/4 bar before the words “grow up big and strong.”

After a long spoken section (with the repeated bass quavers underneath) the plant continues with a second verse, singing in a blues style and listing the possible benefits for Seymour. Drums and bluesy piano fills are introduced.

Blue notes

Notes of the scale that are sung or played flat in the style of the original blues songs of the Mississippi Delta. They are usually saved for the 3rd and 7th notes of the scale although others are sometimes used (e.g., the 5th). Blue notes are almost a semitone lower. Clearly with keyboards they must be a full semitone, but vocalists or guitar players “bend” their notes according to the song.

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Semiquaver fills

In the accompaniment, three off-beat rising chords of Eb, F, and G (placed respectively) on the second semiquaver of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th beats add to the heavy blues feel.

After the harmony has reinforced the blues sequence with a visit to the subdominant (F7) the music builds, repeating a secondary dominant chord of D7 which leads to a held augmented dominant 7th chord and a downward glissando on the piano. Four more blues bars take us to a moment of doubt from Seymour.

The mood and tempo change for a middle eight in 12/8 (compound, quadruple metre). Harmony of A minor is used against his words “I don’t know” as Seymour begins a sustained conjunct melody for ten bars.

The heavy rock blues returns for a third verse as the plant and Seymour sing alternate lines. There is much excitement in the band with blues improvisations, glissandi and breaks for spoken dialogue.

Once again the blues subdominant returns which leads to the repeating secondary dominant (D7) over a rising bass ostinato as the plant repeats “The guy sure looks like plant food to me.”

This is followed by Seymour and the plant singing together. A short coda is based on the rising chords of C, Eb, F and G, a drum fill and closing with a final reiteration of the heavy quavers that began the song.

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1. Identify two ways the music of “Prologue/Little Shop of Horrors” sets a sinister atmosphere. 2 marks

2. Identify two aspects of the musical accompaniment at the start of “Mushnik and Son” (which begins “how would you like to be my son?”). 2 marks

3. Identify two ways the music of “Feed Me” changes when Seymour is expressing doubts with the words “I don’t know.” 2 marks

4. Describe the characteristics of blues music used in “Feed Me.” You may refer to harmony and melody, instrumentation, rhythm, vocal techniques, and texture. 8 marks


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Area of Study 3:

Traditional Music

Fusion music incorporating African and/or Caribbean music

AoS3 27

Ladysmith Black Mambazo appearing at Cambridge Folk Festival on August 3rd 2014.

GEOFFREY ROBINSON/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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DGCSE MUSIC STUDY PIECES SUPPLEMENT

Study piece

Paul Simon, three tracks from GracelandThe three songs to be studied in detail are:

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

Context• Paul Simon, together with Art Garfunkel, formed the famous Simon & Garfunkel folk-rock duo, which from the mid-1960s enjoyed huge commercial success with tracks such as “Bridge over Troubled Water” (1970).• Simon, the songwriter of the duo, had a great interest in folk music, whether reworking traditional folk songs (e.g., “Scarborough Fair”) or composing new material in the style of folk music (e.g., “Homeward Bound”).• The duo split in 1970 and each member pursued a solo career. • In the mid-1980s Simon came across a cassette of South African township music and began improvising his own melodies over the top.• With his engineer Roy Halee, Simon travelled to Johannesburg where they spent two weeks recording with South African musicians.• The music for his album, Graceland, blended rock music and western folk idioms with African rhythms, melodies and instrumentations (African-American fusion).• Although initially recorded in Johannesburg, the final touches for Graceland were completed in a New York studio, with South African musicians flown over to the USA. • The album, released in 1986, was a huge success, despite causing controversy (see below). In 1987 Simon toured the music to Zimbabwe and included many of his original African musicians with guest stars Hugh Masekala and Miriam Makeba.


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DTRADITIONAL MUSIC: AoS3

African influencesSimon employed a number of South African instrumentalists, his favourites being the electric guitar player Ray Phiri and the fretless bass player Bakithi Kumalo. He also used an all-male choral group called Ladysmith Black Mambazo on a number of the songs (e.g., “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” and “Homeless”).

African percussion instruments feature widely on the album with local musicians improvising polyrhythms (layered patterns of contrasting rhythms) and using congas, African drums, and shakers over the tom-tom of the drum kit.

Zulu styles of music were used including isicathamiya (a style of a cappella all-male singing) together with mbaqanga (a style of “township jive” originating in the 1960s that fused traditional elements such as chanting with modern styles, like jazz).

ControversyMusic had played a critical role in encouraging opposition to the apartheid system, both within the state and internationally. Artists such as the jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela wrote protest songs such as “Bring Him Back Home” (1987) that demanded the release of the black leader Nelson Mandela from prison.

Several Western musicians also wrote songs condemning this racially discriminatory system, such as “Biko” by Peter Gabriel (1980). In 1980 the United Nations had imposed a cultural boycott of South Africa which most Western musicians adhered to.

When Paul Simon decided to record tracks for a new album in Johannesburg, he was roundly criticised for breaking this cultural boycott. His use of African musicians also created considerable controversy.

Apartheid

A system of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. It kept the black races separate from the white who were accorded privileges in society, holding all political power. The restrictions imposed by the government meant that black people were often forced to live in housing estates called townships.



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Graceland“Graceland” is the album’s title track. It takes its name from the mansion where Elvis Presley once lived and Paul Simon’s journey to it through Memphis, Tennessee. At first, Simon worked with three African musicians playing guitar, fretless bass and drums. He later overdubbed an African pedal steel guitar, additional percussion, and backing vocals for which he used the famous Everly Brothers.

The song begins with a long instrumental intro of 20 bars. The first twelve of these use the tonic key of E major. Movement is provided with strumming steel-bodied guitars, sliding notes on the fretless bass, and drum-machine hand-claps (on the quavers after the third and fourth beats).

Drums provide a regular rhythm throughout, with four crotchets on the bass and off-beats on snare and high-hat. Extra percussion plays constant quavers. The fretless bass constantly moves around, producing a variety of rhythmic patterns and keeping the texture light.

Simon’s lead vocals begin with the evocative words “The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar.” The harmony is simple and direct, with chords of I, IV, V, and VI. The melody, which uses the pentatonic scale, has a limited range of notes. The words are set syllabically.

These opening eight bars of verse melody (in effect the second half of the verse) lead into the words “I’m going to Graceland,” featuring the interval of a falling 3rd and acting as a melodic hook for the song. This begins a section of four four-bar phrases (in the pattern A-B-C-B) that can be described as the chorus.

Fretless bass

A bass guitar without frets enables smoother slides between notes and more expressive playing. Its sound is usually softer and more rounded than a fretted instrument.

Hook

A repeated, catchy motif in jazz and pop music.

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31TRADITIONAL MUSIC: AoS3

At the end of each four-bar phrase is a prominent fill on guitar and bass in octaves, a rising arpeggio motivic pattern based on the chords E and D.

Syncopated arpeggio fill

The chorus’s second phrase expands the range of notes and uses more broken-chord shapes.

The song’s second verse (or first complete verse) begins with a more reflective section, which follows the harmony of the intro, and uses the same strumming guitars. The lyrics, referring to Simon’s breakup with his first wife, are sung with an intimate conversational rhythm.

After twelve bars the verse’s music begins a repeat harmonically, but Simon continues to develop the melody line with his look back into the past. Backing vocals using the Everly Brothers are introduced, perhaps as a nostalgic touch. After eight bars the Graceland chorus returns for a second time, now with new lyrics and another voice added.

Following a third verse and then third chorus, with vocal forces increased again, the music moves to a coda section that features smooth held notes in the backing vocals and a further use of the rising arpeggio motif quoted above. The music eventually fades away.

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Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes

This song features the Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing group from South Africa together with Youssou N’dour, a popular singer from Senegal. Simon’s standard backing line-up of guitar, fretless bass, and drums and his own guitar/vocals is expanded by a horn section of alto and tenor saxophones and trumpet, plus additional auxiliary percussion.

The song divides clearly into two contrasting sections. It begins with an unaccompanied passage from the African singers who specialise in isicathamiya. They sing in the Zulu language in close harmony dividing into two antiphonal groups, both staying close to an E major triad. After a few bars in which the repeated patterns are set up as an accompaniment Simon enters above them with his own lead vocals in English.

Simon sings two phrases over repeated patterns of E major as the African vocals continue, eventually joining in with his lyrics at the end. The harmony becomes less static, introducing primary triads of A and B (IV and V) as they all arrive at the words of the song title. The final perfect cadence of this section is repeated five times. The last repeat is slower and Simon ends with a gentle appoggiatura.

The song’s second section now launches with a solo steel guitar and a new key of F major, in a steady, more upbeat tempo supported by the percussion. The harmony again is diatonic, using a repeated standard progression of F, Bb and C.

Simon sings over this pattern after it has been established for a number of bars. His vocal line outlines the tonic triad of F.

Primary triads

The most important chords in tonal music, these are triads built on the first, fourth, and fifth notes of the scale. In C major these are C, F, and G.

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In the following eight-bar section of the verse, Simon is still using F harmony notes but this time begins on the F an octave above middle C. In the sixth bar a flowing melisma on the word “diamonds” is a contrast to his mostly syllabic delivery. A further eight bars begin with notes from the F chord in falsetto, with a top note of C.

Next, is an instrumental passage of eight bars featuring the horn section. The three players, in homophonic close harmony, produce syncopated chords that are structured in phrases of two bars.

Verse two’s instrumental intro has the addition of falsetto vocals and an inventive fretless bass solo at its end. Verse two proceeds similarly to verse one, though this time a melisma on “diamonds” is delayed till the very end of the verse, and is longer than previously.

After another instrumental section (horn syncopations and some musical material from the intro) Simon begins his phrase from the verse, beginning with the high F. This leads into a coda section.

In the coda, Simon repeats two short phrases using falling 3rds singing nonsense syllables of “Ta-na-na-na” (this is a nod back to the slower first section, the closing lyrics of which were “sing ta-na-na”). Interest once again focuses on an intricate fretless bass solo moving in semiquavers.

There are many repeats of “ta-na-na-na” and Simon is joined by members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo with additional high vocals. The backing instruments drop out and eventually the music begins a gradual fade-out, concluding in the way that it began with just vocals and percussion featuring African hand drums.

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You Can Call Me Al

This track was released as the album single and became a huge international hit.

Despite being started in South Africa, it was recorded only in New York. In the studio a different selection of instruments was used, with the usual three instrument horn section being replaced by four trumpets and two trombones, plus a baritone doubling the bass saxophone. Synthesisers were also added, along with a penny whistle (flageolet) for a lead solo in the middle of the song. Simon still featured his favourite lead electric guitar player Ray Phiri and fretless bass player Bakithi Kumalo. The size of the auxiliary percussion section was also reduced. When on tour, however, Simon used his usual three-instrument horn section with an expanded percussion section.

The song has a strong forward motion with a foot-tapping tempo, frequently cutting music short of down-beats by using syncopation.

The brass are in straight from the beginning, playing syncopated chords. After two bars, a powerful bass riff joins them, with percussion emphasising the second beat.

Bass riff

These bars are repeated and act as an intro of eight bars.

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When Simon’s vocals enter for the verse, the accompanying harmony is a repeat of these two bars. The bass and guitars continue as before, but the horn section drops out.

The verse consists of two eight-bar sections. The first still uses the syncopated bass line but in the second a smoother, ‘on-beat’ bass line is adopted, with backing vocals filling the texture. (Ladysmith Black Mambazo are used but not credited).

Simon’s vocal melody is highly conversational and word-intensive, entirely syllabic, and follows the outline of the tonic F triad.

The chorus on the words “If you’ll be my bodyguard” picks up the horn section chords once again, together with the bass riff. The vocal line is reinforced by backing vocals singing an octave below, with a bar breather in between phrases.

A second verse and chorus ends with Simon singing higher in his register for the song title words “You Can Call Me Al.”

This leads to an improvised penny whistle solo framed within a C octave and based on the F major triad. It uses the pentatonic scale and so avoids the notes of Bb and E. It is syncopated and quick-moving, using acciaccaturas and auxiliary melody notes, and develops a repeated two-bar pattern over twelve bars. The palm muting on the electric guitar in the background enhances the rhythmic excitement, as do the glissandi on the bass.

Immediately after this, the song’s intro is repeated, beginning with the unaccompanied brass chords, and a third verse and chorus follow.

There is then a series of nonsense lyrics (“na-na”), setting one-bar repeated phrases in mostly falling three-note patterns. The accompaniment carries on without the vocals for seven bars while congas and African drums play accented off-beat notes. This leads to a two-bar unaccompanied solo break on the fretless bass, impressive in its virtuosity.

Register

A vocal or instrumental range can be divided into registers. These are usually defined by a change in sound quality between lower and higher ranges.

Pentatonic scale

A scale of five pitches per octave, from Greek pente (“five”). It is used a lot in improvising blues.

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The brass section chords return and a coda section begins using the words of the chorus set low in the vocal range which alternate with falsetto smooth phrases based on rising and falling 3rds. The music fades to close.

Other tracks• “The Boy in the Bubble”; the opening track of the album beginning with a solo piano accordion.• “Gumboots”; a re-recording of a song by the Boyoyo Boys from Soweto, which was the original inspiration for the album.• “Under African Skies”; featuring guest singer Linda Ronstadt.• “Homeless”; based on a traditional Zulu wedding tune and arranged by the lead singer of Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Joseph Shabalala) with additional English lyrics by Simon.


1. Identify two features of the guitar/bass fill used at the ends of phrases throughout “Graceland.” 2 marks

2. Identify two features of the music Ladysmith Black Mambazo sing during the intro of “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.” 2 marks

3. Identify two features of the penny whistle solo in “You Can Call Me Al.” 2 marks

4. Give some musical reasons why “You Can Call Me Al” may have been the most successful song of Paul Simon’s solo career. 8 marks


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Area of Study 4:

Western Classical Tradition since 1910

The orchestral music of Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók

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Hungarian composer, Zoltán Kodály in the 1960s. COLAIMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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GCSE MUSIC STUDY PIECES SUPPLEMENT

Zoltán Kodály, The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon and Intermezzo from Háry János ContextZoltán Kodály (1882–1967) was a Hungarian composer well known for his work in education and his interest in traditional folk songs. By visiting remote villages and recording singers he collected around 3000 Hungarian national songs, from which he developed his own compositional style. He also developed an innovative approach to music education, known as the Kodály method.

Háry János, the first of two operas by Kodály, was premiered on 16 October 1926. It is a Hungarian folk opera (a “Song play in five adventures”) using a sequence of folk melodies. The “five adventures” describe the implausibly heroic exploits of Háry János, a veteran soldier from the Austrian army, as told by him in the village inn. These exploits include pulling a house over the Austrian border, winning the heart of an empress, and defeating Napoleon and his armies in battle. The character was based on a true figure from the time of the Napoleonic wars, who in reality was no more than a foot soldier.

From the music of the opera, Kodály created an orchestral suite with six movements. This was first performed in March 1927 and achieved instant popularity, with 150 performances in 80 cities over the next three years. The suite, which lasts approximately 23 minutes, begins with an orchestral outburst depicting a sneeze. According to Hungarian tradition, a sneeze made before the telling of a story indicates


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WESTERN CLASSICAL TRADITION SINCE 1910: AoS4

that it will be truthful. The following movements then describe the varied tales, closing with music depicting the Austrian Emperor and his court.

The study piece is the fourth and fifth movements, “The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon” and “Intermezzo.” You might wish to listen to the suite’s other movements to help understand the context:

• “Prelude, the Fairy Tale Begins.”• “Viennese Musical Clock.”• “Song.”• “The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon.”• “Intermezzo.”• “Entrance of the Emperor and his court.”

The suite is scored for large orchestra of strings, brass, triple woodwind, and percussion, though not all instruments appear in all movements:

The work features two instruments, which are not normally associated with a standard orchestra. In “The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon” the alto saxophone is used as a solo instrument. In “Intermezzo” the main theme is accompanied by semiquavers played by a cimbalom.

Woodwind Brass Percussion Strings

• 3 flutes/piccolo • 4 horns in F • Timpani • Violin 1

• 2 oboes • 3 trumpets in C piccolo • Violin 2

• 2 clarinets in Bb (doubling clarinet

in Eb/

alto saxophone)

• 3 cornets in Bb (last movement

only)

piccolo • Violas

• 2 bassoons • 3 trombones piccolo • Cellos

• Tuba piccolo • Double basses



Alto saxophone

The saxophone was invented in the mid-19th century but was only rarely used as an orchestral instrument. In the 1920s, however, it was featured in a number of important orchestral works, such as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and Ravel’s Bolero (1928), as well as Kodály’s Háry János.

The alto saxophone is a transposing instrument, in Eb. This means that it sounds a major 6th lower than is written on the score.

Cimbalom

Associated with Central Eastern European countries such as Hungary, Poland, and Romania, the cimbalom has been known as Hungary’s national instrument. Originating from the 16th century, it consists of a large box with about 125 metal strings that are played directly by two beaters.

Dorian mode

One of the seven modes used in music since the Middle Ages. This scale pattern can be played on the piano’s white notes from a D to the D an octave above, and sounds like a minor scale with a raised 6th.

Tritone

An interval of three whole tones (an augmented 4th). Often avoided in early music due to its restless dissonance, it became known as diabolus in musica (“the devil in music”).

The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon

This comes from the “third adventure” of the opera, in which Háry’s fantastic storytelling sees him become a colonel of the Austrian army. He leads them against Napoleon’s forces, in the Battle of Milan, and achieves a brilliant victory, taking the French leader prisoner.

The movement is scored for wind, brass, and percussion only, recreating the sound of a military band. In the first of three distinct sections, the music begins with a steady beat on bass drum and cymbal, and a strident, almost grotesque, marching theme played by the trombones. This theme, representing Háry’s army, is built on the Dorian mode and ends with prominent use of the tritone.

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41WESTERN CLASSICAL TRADITION SINCE 1910: AoS4

Ostinato

A continuously repeated musical idea, often in a bass line.

March theme

The theme is repeated louder (as the army approaches) with the addition of trumpets and a rhythmic ostinato on tambourine. This time, however, the last two bars are cut. A loud and dissonant chord interrupts the march theme – a sign of battle – from which a sighing idea emerges on a solo saxophone.

After a pause we hear a fanfare, followed by its echo. This also makes use of the tritone.

Fanfare and echo

The march theme is played twice again, now with varied accompaniment and additional woodwind, and is similarly cut off the second time by the loud and dissonant chord, followed by solo saxophone and fanfare.

The second section then begins at a slower tempo (bar 71). After eight bars of percussion and trombone glissandi, a new theme on the trombones gradually emerges. This new theme contains a hint of the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise.” Napoleon is entering with his army.

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La Marseillaise reference

This parody of “La Marseillaise” gathers momentum as it repeats, a semitone lower in B major, with piccolo trills, and another rhythmic ostinato on the tambourine. The drama increases with punctuating trumpets in a B major chord, and a stringendo. Suddenly, in bar 99, it is cut off in its prime, as Napoleon falls on his knees.

After a long pause, the final section begins at an even slower tempo. It is a funeral march that cleverly combines elements of both previous sections. The trombone glissandi now provide a funereal accompaniment to the solo saxophone, which plays a completely transformed version of the opening march.

March theme; original and transformed

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Stringendo

A direction in a score to push the tempo forward, similar to accelerando. It is from the Italian word meaning “clutching.”

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Scotch snap

A rhythmic feature where a dotted note is preceded by a note of shorter value.

Intermezzo

Originally, in the 18th century, a piece of music used in an opera or play between acts or scenes. Later, the title was used in purely instrumental works.

Intermezzo

In Kodály’s opera the intermezzo was created to fill the long scene-change time between the first and second “adventures.” This high-spirited dance then became the most popular movement in the suite, and has often been played as a piece in its own right. Its main theme was in fact taken from a piano study written in 1801 by another Hungarian composer called István Gáti.

The music is based on a traditional Hungarian song used for army recruitment called the “verbunkos.” The song was typically constructed in a pair of sections using a characteristic dotted rhythm and virtuosic running-note passages (played here on the cimbalom). The movement’s structure is very concise: ternary form (ABA) with regular four-bar phrases. The tonality stays firmly within related keys.

The movement begins dramatically with a three-note anacrusis that is disconnected from the theme it precedes by a dramatic pause. The eight-bar theme, accompanied by a descending bass line, makes consistent use of dotted rhythms (including the Scotch snap). The theme is played by strings and clarinets; bassoons, horns, and the cimbalom are also included in the ensemble.

A B A

Bars 1–40 Bars 41–72 Bars 73–114

D minor D major D minor

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Andante maestoso, ma con fuoco

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When the theme is repeated it begins quietly (allowing the cimbalom’s accompanying semiquavers to come to the fore) but builds to fortissimo. The second half of section “A,” created from three four-bar phrases, starts with a slower bar of heavy crotchets. The tempo then picks up using motif “x” of the music example above and with a new idea of falling quavers. On the repeat of this second half, Kodály unleashes his full palette of instruments, including trumpets for the first time, for a rousing climax.

In section “B,” contrast is provided by a move to D major (the tonic major), a quieter dynamic, and a reduced texture (initially with only lower strings and horns). As with the first section, the music is constructed from four-bar phrases that are generally repeated with varied instrumentation. The movement has a predominantly homophonic texture, but the “B” section’s second half makes notable use of imitation (a canon at the interval of a 7th) between the upper and lower sections of the orchestra.

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Canon at the interval of a 7th

Canon at the interval of a 7th

A Canon is a musical device whereby one musical part is imitated, note for note, by one or more other parts. During the imitation, the original part continues to unfold. “At the Interval of a 7th” refers to the fact that the canonic imitation is transposed by the interval of a 7th.

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An exact repetition of section “A” concludes the movement.

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1. Identify two ways in which Kodály suggests a marching band in “The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon.” 2 marks

2. Identify two features in the “Intermezzo” that are characteristic of the traditional Hungarian verbunkos dance. 2 marks

3. Identify two ways in which contrast is created in the central, “B” section of the “Intermezzo.” 2 marks

4. Explain how Kodály is able to describe the story musically in “The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon.” 8 marks

Music Study Guide Supplementary information on this work and full contextual detail on Area of Study 4 can be found on pages 144–177 of AQA GCSE Music Study Guide published by Rhinegold Education.

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Glossary of musical elements: AQA GCSE Music Study Guide A Glossary of the musical elements you are expected to know and understand for your AQA GCSE examination can be found from page 260 of AQA GCSE Music Study Guide published by Rhinegold Education.


Contextual Understanding Practice: Model Answers

AoS1–4 47


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Area of Study 1: Western Classical Tradition 1650–1910

Contextual Understanding Practice: Model AnswersWolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A Major K 622, movement 3

1. Identify two features that look back to a Baroque gigue in this last movement of Mozart’s concerto. 2 marks • Allegro tempo. • 6/8 compound duple metre/time signature.

2. This music is normally played by a clarinet in A. Identify two ways in which this affects the way the music appears on the score. 2 marks • The clarinet music is written a minor 3rd higher. • The clarinet music uses a different key signature.

3. Identify two ways in which Mozart’s treatment of the orchestra is typically “Classical.” 2 marks • The horn is restricted to emphasising the notes of the tonic and dominant chords. • The double bass generally doubles the cello line. • The orchestra’s role is very often accompanimental.

4. Explain how Mozart uses melody and/or tonality to achieve a sense of structure in this movement. 8 marks • Use of balanced phrases of two or four bars. • Regular use of imperfect and perfect cadences. • Sonata rondo structure ABACBA with main theme (ritornello or refrain) always returning in the tonic. • Tonality moves to related keys in episodes. • Sections in a minor key are usually “resolved” to the major. • First episode uses a theme in the dominant minor, which returns later in the movement in the tonic minor (acting as a second subject). • The most distant key of relative minor is reserved for central (development) section. • Tonic is emphasised in the coda.


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CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING PRACTICE: MODEL ANSWERS

Area of Study 2: Popular Music

Contextual Understanding Practice: Model AnswersLittle Shop of Horrors, three numbers from the 1982 Off-Broadway version

1. Identify two ways the music of “Prologue/Little Shop of Horrors” sets a sinister atmosphere. 2 marks • Slow speed. • Homophonic texture. • Heavy tom tom notes. • Flat key. • Sudden change of harmony at the end.

2. Identify two aspects of the musical accompaniment at the start of “Mushnik and Son” (which begins “how would you like to be my son?”). 2 marks • Quick tempo. • Use of castanets. • Drums accenting fourth quaver of the bar.

3. Identify two ways the music of “Feed Me” changes when Seymour is expressing doubts with the words “I don’t know.” 2 marks • 12/8 time signature. • A minor beginning. • Long smooth notes sung by Seymour. • Broken chords patterns in the bass.

4. Describe the characteristics of blues music used in “Feed Me.” You may refer to harmony and melody, instrumentation, rhythm, vocal techniques, and texture. 8 marks • 12 bar blues harmonies. • Blue notes. • 7th chords. • Syncopation. • Back-beat. • 4 in a bar.

• Improvisation. • Instrumental fills. • Electric guitars. • Drum kit. • Electric Bass.

• Syncopation. • Latin rhythms. • Chromatic harmony.


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Area of Study 3: Traditional Music

Contextual Understanding Practice: Model AnswersPaul Simon, three tracks from Graceland

1. Identify two features of the guitar/bass fill used at the ends of phrases throughout “Graceland.” 2 marks • Rising notes. • Arpeggio chords. • Guitar and bass playing in octaves. • Chords of E major and D major (involving flattened leading note).

2. Identify two features of the music Ladysmith Black Mambazo sing during the intro of “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.” 2 marks • Diatonic. • Same harmony throughout. • Close harmony voices. All male. • Unaccompanied, a cappella. • Two groups sing antiphonally. • Zulu lyrics.

3. Identify two features of the penny whistle solo in “You Can Call Me Al.” 2 marks • Pentatonic. • Features the note C • Based on F major triad. • Acciaccaturas. • Repetitive phrases. • Improvised.


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CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING PRACTICE: MODEL ANSWERS

4. Give some musical reasons why “You Can Call Me Al” may have been the most successful song of Paul Simon’s solo career. 8 marks • Foot-tapping tempo. • Very rhythmic feel, helped by cutting music short of down beats. • Catchy syncopated brass music acts as hook. • Accented rhythms. • Strong auxiliary percussion including congas. • Drums accenting last beat of the bar. • Funky, powerful bass line riff. • Skilful bass playing, including solo break. • Reinforcing of chorus hook with backing vocals. • Penny whistle solo very novel. • Electric guitar palm muting. • Use of pentatonic scale. • Tuneful outro.


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Area of Study 4: Western Classical Tradition since 1910

Contextual Understanding Practice: Model AnswersZoltán Kodály, Battle and Defeat of Napoleon and Intermezzo from Háry János 1. Identify two ways in which Kodály suggests a marching band in “The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon.” 2 marks • Instrumentation: brass, percussion, and woodwind. • Marching time signature 2/4.

2. Identify two features in the “Intermezzo” that are characteristic of the traditional Hungarian verbunkos dance. 2 marks • Dotted rhythm. • Running-note passages.

3. Identify two ways in which contrast is created in the central, “B” section of the “Intermezzo.” 2 marks • Change to a major key. • Thinner texture.

4. Explain how Kodály is able to describe the story musically in “The Battle and Defeat of Napoleon.” 8 marks • Instrumentation suggests a marching band. • Use of a marching band theme. • Louder dynamics as army approaches. • Regular use of percussion. • A loud and dissonant chord used to suggest a battle. • Fanfares. • Marching theme, with echoes of La Marseillaise, used to depict French army. • Dramatic use of silence as victory is won. • Slow funeral march used to depict Napolean’s defeat.


53CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING PRACTICE: MODEL ANSWERS

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