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A level Music Questions you should ask yourself when having to describe, compare or analyse an extract of music in a listening test. Melody Is it conjunct or disjunct? Is it phrased regularly or irregularly? Is it treated in sequence, repeated a lot, developed in a cellular way? Does it feature any particular intervals (eg tritone) Is it varied in pitch, instrumentation etc? How is the melody structured? Is there a countermelody? Any imitation? Harmony/Tonality Is it diatonic or chromatic? Does it use mainly primary chords? Is it ‘functional’? Are different harmonic progressions used when passages are repeated? Are there modulations? How do they affect the music? Are they to related keys or not? Major, minor, modal, chromatic or atonal? Does it vary? Are dissonant passages bitonal or atonal, or just brief chromatic passages intended to colour the music? Is the harmonic rhythm quick or slow? Does it change? Use of suspensions or harmonic sequences? Circle of 5ths? Pedal notes? Are they in the bass or inverted? Tonic or dominant pedals? Rhythm What is the metre? Is it simple or compound? Is there use of dotted rhythms, double dots, scotch snaps (reverse dots!), triplets, or other notable types of rhythm? Regular or irregular rhythms? Does rhythm play an important part in the melody/accompaniment? Does the composer make use of ostinato? Is there syncopation or other sorts of rhythmic interest? Any use of polyrhythm or cross rhythms? Texture What use is made of homophonic, polyphonic, monophonic or heterophonic textures? Is it melody dominated? Is there antiphony? How is the texture varied or contrasted? Is texture increased or decreased to provide structural points of interest? Instrumentation Are instruments treated individually or as groups? Is one orchestral section particularly prominent? Are melodic ideas shared around instruments or associated with one instrument? Tessitura? Any special combinations of instruments – colouristic effects? Any unusual instruments? Don’t forget percussion and voices! Any specific playing instructions – pizzicato, tremolo, fluttertounging, mutes etc? Structure If the extract is long enough to ascertain, what is its structure? Is there much use of repetition or ABA forms? What devices are used to increase or decrease tension? Is the piece programmatic Other Any interesting use of dynamics? Any other devices not mentioned above?