Papers marked by difficult elements but strike the right note with students

LEAVING CERT MUSIC: ALL LEVELSTHE LEAVING Cert music exams was well received by students, according to teachers of the subject. While not without their difficult elements, there were few surprises in the papers.

"Overall, the papers were similar to other years," said the TUI's Anne Maxwell, a teacher in Carrick-on-Shannon's Community School. "In the composing paper a minor key would have been expected and sure enough, it came up." Most students opt to do the first question in the composing paper according to Maxwell. The combination of a minor key and a compound time signature was "challenging but not unexpected," said ASTI subject representative Mary McFadden, a teacher in Loreto Balbriggan.

Question five in the backing chord section was, "student friendly", according to teachers although it certainly could not be described as easy. "It was tough for some to locate the cadences in the piece," Ms Maxwell said.

The written music exam is split into three sections: composing, core listening and the listening elective which are split by breaks between papers. In the past, the composing section has been in the morning while the listening sections have been in the afternoon, but yesterday all three sections were scheduled for the afternoon with a break of 15 minutes between each.

Students opting for the listening elective had a long day in store, beginning their exam at half past one, and finishing at a quarter to six - over four hours later. Even the students who didn't opt for the elective found the new schedule a challenge. "Composing and listening are different disciplines," Ms McFadden said. "I know some students found the switch after just a 15 minute break difficult."

In the core listening paper there was delight at seeing a piece by Berlioz rather than the dreaded Mozart in the first question.

"There was a nice combination of Irish tunes on the paper," Ms Maxwell said. "And students would have been pleased to see a question on sean nós singing there."

Overall, the questions on the listening paper were "straightforward but challenging," Ms McFadden added. "They gave students a real opportunity to display their knowledge." Ms McFadden described the ordinary level papers as "reasonably straightforward and fair . . . pitched at an appropriate level," she said.

The final question on the higher level core listening paper was "tricky" she noted, although the use of a piece of music by George Gershwin at least enabled students to finish the exam to a cheerful note.