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

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Cambridge Pre-U Teacher Guide
described above. A summary of the nature and extent of this guidance should be incorporated into
the authentication form. Regular supervision is the essential basis on which teachers can be certain
that the work submitted is that of the candidate who claims authorship, and in this sense, too, it is of
vital importance.
The Syllabus is intentionally vague about the issue of the duration of candidates’ compositions. One
of the most important skills for a young composer to develop is that of judging how long a piece
should be in relation to a song text, other materials or a structural outline given in the commissions.
As a general rule, pieces should not be unduly long: an absolute maximum duration of approximately
six minutes is suggested, for practical reasons as much as anything. On the other hand, compositions
should not be excessively short: few student composers will be able to harness their ideas or their
technique to produce music that emulates the brevity, complexity and compression of a Webern,
for example (though it would seem absurd to suggest a duration long enough to mean that Webern
would not be able to pass Pre-U Music!). Much depends on the nature of the music that a particular
candidate composes. If it is relatively complex, a shorter duration will be expected; if it is quite
simple, it might need to be longer. The examiners will take a flexible view of this issue, and will apply
the Assessment Criteria equally to all compositions, irrespective of their duration.
It is anticipated that, in most cases, compositions will be conceived for acoustic instruments and will
be capable of being notated using traditional staff notation. Candidates should aim to ensure that
their scores are as complete as possible, not only in terms of the notes but also in terms of dynamics,
phrasing and expression markings. Scores may be handwritten, but will often be produced using a
computer notation program such as Sibelius or Finale. If that is the case, care needs to be taken over
the range of instrumental and vocal parts, since the MIDI sounds within the playback facility do not
take account of the range and capabilities of acoustic instruments or of the human voice. For this
reason, it is important that candidates should, whenever possible, have the opportunity to hear their
music played live. This should be a significant part of learning to compose but it is often overlooked,
especially now that it is so easy to form an impression of the sound of the music from a computer.
The advice of instrumentalists about what aspects of the piece work well, and about possible ways
of making a part more idiomatic, is invaluable, and well worth the extra time and trouble involved in
setting up a workshop to play through the composition. Ideally this should be done before the piece is
complete in every detail, so that there is time to make adjustments and revisions before it is submitted.
The Syllabus provides the option of submitting an ‘Explanatory Document’ instead of a score. This
option is permissible only in cases where the music is incapable of being conventionally notated. The
examiners are willing to accept a reasonably wide range of notations, including Asian cipher notation
and various forms of diagrammatic or graphic scores. In all such cases, however, an Explanatory
Document should be provided. This document may take the form of a complete score using a
different style of notation (e.g. cipher notation), a detailed graphic notation, a diagram, or a track
sheet according to the nature of the music, together with a clear verbal description of (i) the process
of composition and recording and (ii) the ways in which the notation, diagram or track sheet relate to
the recording and how they are to be read and interpreted.
Recordings submitted for this component must be on CDs, in a format which allows them to be
played on standard domestic CD players. Recordings must not be submitted in any format that can
be played only through a computer, nor in any format that requires particular software for playback
(e.g. iTunes, Windows Media).
www.cie.org.uk/cambridgepreu