LEAVING CERTIFICATE MUSIC: THE FLIGHT of the Bumble Beeand Bohemian Rhapsodywere just two of the works that came up on yesterday's Leaving Cert music exam.
The paper was “straightforward with a couple of unexpected elements” such as a harmony composition in a minor key, which has only come up once in the past 12 years.
“Students were also surprised to see Bach’s Cantata, which has come up several times recently,” said teacher Margaret Curran of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland. The Leaving Cert music exam is divided into two sections: a listening paper and a composition paper.
As part of the listening paper, students write an essay on Irish music. This year’s Irish section featured Edward Bunting, Irish dancing, uilleann pipes and céilí music.
Students' aural skills were tested using excerpts from the Horn Concerto by Mozart and Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee.
B ohemian Rhapsodyby Queen was a prescribed work on yesterday's paper. Students were asked to describe the recording techniques and elements of percussion on this famous track from the band's 1975 album, A Night at the Opera.
The second paper called on students to compose melody and harmony pieces.
More than 6,000 students sat yesterday’s music exam at higher and ordinary level. The subject is gaining ground, with a 15 per cent rise in participation since 2008.
At ordinary level, some students were caught out by a challenging exercise in which they had to insert missing notes into a fast excerpt.
