Level H Analysis (and Aesthetics) exam advice 2017

You have two pieces to choose from. One is a serial composition, one is not.

For the serial piece you would be expected to hand in:

The annotated score

A matrix
A short written commentary on the extract given.

What should you look for? In what order?

1. Find the 12 note row. Be careful to keep your options open at the outset, don’t go
barking up the wrong tree. Look further into the piece than the opening bars to
confirm that you are on the right lines, before you finalise your ideas. Remember that
the opening interval (or intervals) will be crucial in helping you spot if there is more
than one row form in place.

2. Make a Matrix. Those of you who have been attending regularly have got the hang
of this now, and I can see that you have developed strategies for calculating the
inversion. When you add the transposition numbers (eg P1, P2, make sure that you
calculate in ASCENDING order from the first note of the prime row for both Prime
and Inversion.

3. Look at the matrix. Make some checks to ensure that you haven’t made any
mistakes. The left to right, top to bottom diagonal should be the same note – this is
always a good place to start.

4. Give a clear indication either on the score (coloured pens are always helpful but
only use them when you are sure) or in writing of how the rows are employed in the
piece. Be precise. If writing, use bar numbers and within that beat numbers.

Bear in mind that in the course we have had examples in which there is overlap
between the end of one row and the beginning of the next. If you think you have
found the start of a row, but you can’t get it to continue, consider the possibility that it
may have started earlier, and that what you are looking it is not the start of a row,
even if it appears to be at first sight.

4. Are there any interesting aspects of the row ? Look at its intervallic content – are
there any patterns ? Symmetries ? Groups of intervals ? Is it combinatorial ? Can the
row be chained to another – eg is the last interval the same as the first, or the last
two or three intervals the same as the last two or three (eg Webern Piano
Variations) ? (see above)

5. If there are any patterns, are these exploited by the composer ? For instance does
the music underline these relationships or blur them ? Are there any consistent
vertical harmonies, achieved by the combination of particular groups of rows ?

6. How does the phrase structure of the music relate to the serial structure (if at all)?
Do the types of phrases help us identify the composer ?

9. Are there any structural features to comment upon in the given extract , eg canon,
symmetries ?
10. If so, are these emphasised by dynamics and articulation ? Anything else ?
If there is a text, does it relate in any way to the way the music is constructed?

For the atonal (not serial) piece

Using an appropriate method of analysis, explore the pitch construction, attempting

to find underlying patterns or structures. You may use any one of the methods
studied before Christmas, but make it clear which one you are using and why you
have opted for this. Have you any ideas about who the composer may be?

At the exam, you will be given:

A blank matrix
A sheet of manuscript paper
A ‘Forte’ list of pitch-class sets
An answer book.