Teacher's Guide Cambridge Pre-U MUSIC Available for teaching ...

Cambridge Pre-U Teacher Guide
What candidates usually find most problematic is how to convey in words, on paper, what their aural
findings are. This needs practice. The same habit of note-taking that applies to reading texts should be
adapted from the start: candidates should make a written record of the source of each piece they listen
to, not only to help them compile an accurate discography towards the end of the course but also
to remind them where they found the recording, whether it was lent to them by a friend or teacher,
or is in a library, or on their own shelves, or was copied from the internet. They should note some
objective facts about the performance, as appropriate to the music, which might include its length,
instruments, performers, relevant contextual information from the sleeve notes; they should note any
particular landmarks that help them to recognise where a noteworthy feature comes in the recording
(which might be a bar number in the score, but might be a precise timing on the CD). They might try
to describe the most immediately striking features which, on rereading, will help them recall their
impression of the recording. In the early stages of the project, this is enough to give a sense of order
to the exploration of a wide range of music. Later, as their reading begins to inform their listening,
they will be able to be more specific in recognising, identifying and describing specific characteristics.
Contextual understanding of the music comes from reading about it, assimilating what others have
written and discriminating between what is genuinely relevant to the topic and what is not. Gathering
information, in libraries, on the internet, from CD sleeve notes or concert programmes, is timeconsuming
(especially at the outset) and will probably produce a great deal of paper. Candidates
need to be aware that they will not be assessed on the quantity of material they have amassed, per
se. If what is relevant has been sifted and thoroughly assimilated it will inform everything that the
candidate writes: descriptions, expositions, explanations, commentaries and discussions of examples.
Much can be learned about the level of a candidate’s understanding from the choices made about
how to put the study of the music into context: judgements about what it will be useful for the reader
to know, what is truly germane to the topic. Putting the topic into its historical or cultural context in
the presentation may be especially significant in some cases. However keen a candidate is to focus
exclusively on particular musical techniques, it is often important to demonstrate an understanding
of the period, country or culture in which the music is rooted, of the factors that have shaped it and,
perhaps, what the social or religious roles of the music may be. This need not require a lengthy
introduction which overshadows the importance of the main musical discussion. A succinct summary
will suffice: the more candidates have made such knowledge their own, the easier it will become to
select only those points which will truly illuminate the reader’s appreciation of the musical discussion.
In the final document there will be a need for technical vocabulary, which candidates should aim to use
in as precise a way as possible. The more confidently such vocabulary is used, the more it illustrates
a thorough understanding of the music. There is, however, a particular difficulty for any candidates
who study music from a non-Western tradition. In many cases, essential terms to explain and define
such matters as the roles of instruments, the rhythms or the formal structure exist only in the language
of that tradition and attempts to find English equivalents can often be hopelessly imprecise. In such
cases it is not sufficient for candidates simply to list the terminology in a theoretical exposition: they
should learn how to apply the terms correctly and show that they can do this confidently in their
discussion of the music, just as they would for music from the Western tradition.
An important element in the presentation of what has been learned is the extent to which candidates
can support statements in their text by reference to apt examples from the music. It is not enough
to reproduce from scholarly commentators or the Internet an account of how, for example, a
particular musical feature is used. Candidates need to convince the examiners that they can apply
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