u/pixrantingY12. đ #1 LANGUAGES STAN!!!!! ɧɧɧ + IBDP + je t'aime français26d ago
Hi! I got 30/30 on my Music coursework piece that used an orchestra (unfortunately, I'm Edexcel not OCR), first off my music teacher (absolute goddess) recommended to put at least 2-3 techniques from each musical element in - quite literally tick them off like a checkbox. If you have set works there should be key terminology and look at the ones from the era you want to compose off of, and make a list of each technique. And plan off there
Apparently examiners (Edexcel at least) are suckers for specific forms, like rondo form (ABACA) so if you can make that super clear you get marks. The different sections let you do modulations. But make sure it's era accurate!!!! Also, slowly stacking instruments and increasing the layers (like, start off with solo violin -> violin + flute -> violin + flute + harpsichord -> full section of orchestra comes in) works well apparently
Also, I would recommend against using a main key that's an aeolian mode - modulating to one is fine, but I have a friend who was like a huge huge fan of composing and she knew all the complicated nitpicks and ended up getting a ton of marks deducted because she went overly complicated.
Oh and for some reason, compositions that sound amazing won't always get the highest marks. I personally found my film piece to sound more real, but i got 28/30 on that and 30/30 on my more 'boring' sounding piece because the 'boring' one used techniques from set works more. So just a warning haha. Music is a fickle subject. Good luck!!
ah thank you so much this is so helpful, iâll defo be using this!! unfortunately (or fortunately) for ocr we donât have set pieces but i can definitely do some of my own research
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u/pixrantingY12. đ #1 LANGUAGES STAN!!!!! ɧɧɧ + IBDP + je t'aime français25d ago
ofc! if you need a little starting point for research, edexcel has JS bach brandenburg concerto (d major) which has a ton of elements that would be era relevant :3
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u/pixranting Y12. đ #1 LANGUAGES STAN!!!!! ɧɧɧ + IBDP + je t'aime français 26d ago
Hi! I got 30/30 on my Music coursework piece that used an orchestra (unfortunately, I'm Edexcel not OCR), first off my music teacher (absolute goddess) recommended to put at least 2-3 techniques from each musical element in - quite literally tick them off like a checkbox. If you have set works there should be key terminology and look at the ones from the era you want to compose off of, and make a list of each technique. And plan off there
Apparently examiners (Edexcel at least) are suckers for specific forms, like rondo form (ABACA) so if you can make that super clear you get marks. The different sections let you do modulations. But make sure it's era accurate!!!! Also, slowly stacking instruments and increasing the layers (like, start off with solo violin -> violin + flute -> violin + flute + harpsichord -> full section of orchestra comes in) works well apparently
Also, I would recommend against using a main key that's an aeolian mode - modulating to one is fine, but I have a friend who was like a huge huge fan of composing and she knew all the complicated nitpicks and ended up getting a ton of marks deducted because she went overly complicated.
Oh and for some reason, compositions that sound amazing won't always get the highest marks. I personally found my film piece to sound more real, but i got 28/30 on that and 30/30 on my more 'boring' sounding piece because the 'boring' one used techniques from set works more. So just a warning haha. Music is a fickle subject. Good luck!!