A-Level Music (9483) Paper 1 Listening Mock: Set Works and Exam Technique, with Answers

Question 1 model answer (Section A)

(a) Larghetto – Allegro – Larghetto – Allegro; the bird calls belong to the second movement (Allegro). (b) The cuckoo motive is a short descending minor third repeated like a cuckoo call; the nightingale episode moves to G minor, darker in colour with longer, flowing lines. (c) organo ad libitum means the organist improvises freely, bridging the second and third movements; a player may use a few chords, ornaments or scale figures to carry the key and mood into the siciliano that follows, lasting anything from half a minute to two or three. (d) It comes from Trio Sonata Op. 5 No. 6; reworked, the organ takes the solo line, the same contrapuntal material is thickened with octaves and fuller harmony on the keyboard, and strings and oboes answer it, so the texture and volume are far more three-dimensional than the chamber version.

Question 2 model answer (Section A)

(a) A French overture: the first part is slow, dotted, homophonic and ceremonial, often with double dotting and ornaments; the second part is a fast imitative, fugal section in which the subject is chased between parts; the opening slow music is usually brought back in shortened form to close. (b) It calls for three oboes where a suite normally uses two, with bassoon, strings and continuo; the extra reed thickens the middle of the harmony, gives the fast imitative writing a distinctive colour and evens out the tutti. (c) After the Ouverture come Rondeau, Les Irrésoluts, Les Capricieuses, Loure, Gasconnade and Menuets I & II. The Rondeau keeps returning to one theme, which contrasts with the fugal overture; the Loure is a slow triple-time dance set against the quick character pieces before it; Menuets I & II alternate two minuets and close the suite with a change of key and scoring. (d) French style: the dotted overture and the dance-suite layout; German style: strict imitative counterpoint and the three-oboe scoring.

Question 3 marking guidance (Section A)

Marking guidance (11): tempo (compare timings or pulse, not just ‘faster’) 3; dotted rhythms and ornaments (double dotting, ornaments on or before the beat) 3; continuo scoring (harpsichord, organ, cello, bassoon combinations) 2; balance (who is in front) 1; judgement with reasons (tie the choice to period practice or the composer’s marking rather than taste alone) 2. A model opening: ‘Recording A takes the slow opening at about 96 beats per minute and double-dots the dotted figures; B takes about 72 with even dotted notes’, then explain how that changes the sense of ceremony.

Question 4 model answer (Section B)

Option 1 framework (35): (1) medium – a symphony for large orchestra in five titled movements versus four songs for voice and piano setting short prose poems (6); (2) depictive means – Beethoven relies on sustained pedal and repeating figures (the flowing accompaniment of the brook), instrumental imitation (woodwind bird calls) and contrast of key and dynamic (the storm’s timpani and brass); Ravel relies on pianistic figures (the peacock’s glissandi and chords, the cricket’s repeated note, the swan’s rippling accompaniment) and a vocal line close to French speech (8); (3) the human position – Beethoven’s title names ‘cheerful feelings on arriving in the country’, the observer merged with nature, while Ravel’s narrator is a detached, ironic poet (7); (4) judgement – state the criterion for ‘more effective’ (recognisability of the image, emotional depth, fit between word and music) and support it with named passages (8); (5) terminology and argument – comparison throughout rather than two descriptions side by side (6).

Question 5 model answer (Section C)

Option 1 framework (30): (1) name the motive itself in both works (interval, rhythm, length) 3; (2) development devices – sequence, inversion, augmentation and diminution, modulation, re-orchestration, each located in the score 8; (3) large-scale structure – how the motive returns and unifies the work 8; (4) comparison – how the two works differ in logic (contrapuntal versus colour-driven) 6; (5) terminology and argument 5. (Option 2: locate the specific passage where texture thins then thickens, or the reverse, and explain how numbers of instruments, part density, register and dynamic create the tension. Option 3: explain concretely how editing, balance and intimacy in recording change performing style – classical recording versus live, or layered pop production.)