A Level Music (AQA)

40% Appraising Music (Written Examination), 35% Performance Coursework, 25% Composition Coursework.

• Performance Skills (solo, ensemble and technology based)

• Compositional Techniques and Styles

• Harmony and Counterpoint

• Musical analysis and score reading / Listening to and appraising music (variety of genres):

Western classical tradition 1650–1910 (compulsory):  Baroque (the solo concerto), Classical (the operas of Mozart), Romantic (the piano music of Chopin, Brahms and Grieg).

Pop music:  Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Muse, Beyoncé, Daft Punk, Labrinth.

Music for media:  Bernard Herrmann, Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, Thomas Newman, Nobuo Uematsu.

Music for theatre:  Kurt Weill, Richard Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Jason Robert Brown.

Jazz:  Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Gwilym Simcock.

Contemporary traditional music:  Astor Piazzolla, Toumani Diabaté, Anoushka Shankar, Mariza, Bellowhead.

Art music since 1910:  Dmitri Shostakovich, Olivier Messiaen, Steve Reich, James MacMillan.