Leaving Cert music: A challenging paper with some familiar Irish musicians

Irish Times

6 days ago

Students and teachers were glad to see familiar Irish musicians appear in the listening section of the higher-level music exam but the questions were challenging.
Ciara Coleman, a music teacher at the Institute of Education, said the paper rewarded students who had a grip on the key musical themes and features of their set works, while also challenging them to perhaps listen more deeply to certain elements they may not have considered before.
'The questions on set works were nicely spread across the full work in most cases, rather than honing in on one particular section alone,' she said.
Lucille O'Mahony, a music student at the Institute of Education and a member of popular Dublin band Bullpen, said that students were happy that question one on the listening paper – which carries the most weight – was on Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.
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'One of Tchaikovsky or Bach was predicted, and Tchaikovsky is seen as easier, so we were happy with that,' Ms O'Mahony said.
Nicole Cooney, ASTI subject representative for music and a teacher at Maryfield College in Drumcondra, said that the higher-level exam was 'lovely'.
'There was a major melody question and a harmony question. Most students will have taken them,' said Ms Cooney.
But question three introduced a peculiar twist on an conventional question that might have caught an incautious student, said Ms Coleman.
'In contrast to previous years where students had to identify a specific chord progression, students had to tick a box to indicate where the chord change had occurred in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
'While this was a good test of listening skills, some students may have attempted to fill the boxes with chords rather than simply ticking the box as required since this would be a more typical task in this context,' she said.
The Irish music question tested student knowledge of sean-nós, slip jigs and fusion, with the question on form analysis encouraging students to listen on a deeper level to the music being played.
Both Ms Coleman and Ms Cooney said that there was a good choice of topics on the essay question and most students should have been able to find one topic to focus on from their study.
'Interestingly, the unprepared aural skills question had an exclusively Irish focus, with Hozier, The Cranberries, Dermot Kennedy and Cian Ducrot all featured,' Ms Coleman said.
Ms O'Mahony said that the unseen questions focused on pop music, some of which was 'pretty bad.'
Composition
After a short break the students return to the exam centre for the composition paper, which Ms O'Mahony said was 'very nice, with a harmony and melody both in major, and the melody did not require inversions, which made it less complicated.'
This featured six questions to choose from, but Ms Coleman said most students would have opted for question one, which featured in a melody in G major and 4/4 time with a relatively straightforward two quaver anacrusis, and question five, which required students to provide backing vocals and a bass line to a given two.
'The challenge in question one was to recognise the unique features embedded in the given opening and to develop these in subsequent phrases. In this case, in addition to the anacrusis, students needed to recognise the use of features such as syncopation, the range of an 11th, and the use of repeated notes, among others,' said Ms Coleman.
Overall, Ms Coleman said that students will feel that there was enough novel on this paper that they will have been pushed to adapt.
Ordinary
On the ordinary level paper, Ms Cooney said that the listening section was quite similar, but with more appropriately-pitched questions. She said that students would be happy with it.