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Sample question
Listen to this extract of music by Mozart that only uses the words 'Kyrie Eleison' and 'Christe Eleison' and comment on the textures voices and instruments you hear.
Sample answers, grades and comments
| Answers | Examiner's comments |
|---|---|
| Talvin: The music starts with just one instrument and one voice. The other voices and instruments then join in one at a time. At the end, all the instruments and voices play their own tune starting at different times. | GRADE F. Talvin has obviously heard that the voices have tunes starting at different times, but has not gone into enough detail about it. He didn't mention any instruments or voices by name and couldn't mention any of the textures by name either. |
| Sarah: The music starts with just the trombones and the bass voice. This type of texture is called 'unison'. The alto voice then joins in making the texture weave in and out. The voices sing Kyrie Eleison. A high voice then comes in singing a tune to the words 'Christe Eleison' which adds to the weaving style. There are timpani and strings in this piece. At the end, all the voices are weaving in and out of each other. | GRADE C. This is a good answer by Sarah. She has named one texture, unison. She heard that the music was 'weaving' but didn't use the proper word 'polyphonic'. She has also correctly identified one voice and an instrument. |
| Geeta: The music begins with the trombones and bass voices in unison. The voices sing the words 'Kyrie Eleison'. The alto voices then join in with faster notes singing the words 'Christe Eleison'. The texture is now polyphonic. The Soprano voices then sing the 1st tune (that the basses sang at first) to the words 'Kyrie Eleison' while the tenor voices sing the tune that the altos sang earlier to the words 'Christe Eleison'. The texture is still polyphonic. Timpani are heard to add emphasis to the bass part. Towards the end, all the voices sing both tunes to both sets of words in a polyphonic [Polyphonic: Two or more melodies or parts that play at the same time, weaving in and out of each other. ] texture. Overall, the music has two tunes. The style is a fugue, where the tunes overlap each other. | GRADE A. Geeta has used the proper words to describe the textures and the voices/instruments used in this excerpt. She spotted that each set of words 'Kyrie Eleison' and 'Christe Eleison' has its own tune. Finally, she correctly identified the piece of music as being a fugue [Fugue: A musical form based on imitation. ]. |
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Links
On bbc.co.uk
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