General Knowledge Sheet for AMEB exam 2 rd Grade

Piece: Study in F

About the Composer: (they prob won’t ask- if you are asked just say Mark Walton is a composer/performer of the clarinet and currently teaches at the Con)

About the piece: A study is a piece written for a solo instrument which is designed as a piece for practise. A composer may decide to concentrate on a certain rhythm or a certain key as the focus of a study.-This study is in F, which means that it is in the key of F Major. The key is a guide for the composer which tells him what notes are more important than others. In F Major, F is the strongest note, with C being the second strongest. You may notice that this piece starts and ends on F, while it travels to C very often as well. The key also tells the composer what keysignature to use, in this case using a Bb in the keysignature. If asked what the key or keysignature is, best to say ‘F Major’.-Scherzano refers to the tempo or speed as well as how it should be played and means jokingly or fun.-After this it says crotchet = ca 66. The ca means ‘about’ or ‘approximately’. The ‘crotchet = ca 66’ means that there should be about 66 crotchet beats per minute.-Don’t forget to note the use of slurs, breath marks, dynamic markings, treble cleff, stave and timesignature.

Piece: Study from Etudes pour Hautbois (Etudes for Oboes)

About the Composer: Henri Brod (1799-1839) was an oboist, instrument maker, teacher and composer. He was most remembered for his inventions for the oboe and the pieces he wrote which extended the boundaries of what could be played on an oboe. This piece is transcribed from one of his pieces originally for Oboe.

About the Piece: This is called ‘Study’ and it is a ‘study’. A study is a piece written for practice, rather than performance.

- This piece has two main sections –the first from bars 1-8 and the second from bars 9 -20. We say that a piece with two main sections is in Binary Form.

- Moderato means that the speed is a moderate one- not too fast or too slow.- The crotchet = 88 means that the speed is 88 crotchet beats per minute. This

is the same as if you put a metronome on ‘88’.- ‘Ritard.’ Is short for ritardando which means to gradually get slower.- This piece is in the key of C Major.- Don’t forget to note the use of slurs, breath marks, dynamic markings,

treble cleff, stave and timesignature.

Piece: Allegro (fourth movement from String Quintet in F Op. 74 No 2)

About the composer: Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) wrote music for German and Austrian nobles. Back then the nobles would employ a composer to create works for them to listen to. In this job, Haydn created many works which are still performed today and have influenced all music afterwards.

About the Piece: This piece is called ‘Allegro’ which means ‘fast’. It is one part of a much larger work which had four separate sections. This was the last section and was the section which was allegro. All the other sections had different speeds.

- this was originally written for a string quartet which consisted of a violin, viola, cello and double bass. It has been arranged for saxophone and piano by Eugene Rousseau.

- The crotchet = 80-92 means that it should be played at 80-92 beats per minute.

- This piece is in Ternary Form. Roughly speaking, this means it has an ABA or AABA structure. The bit before the repeat is the first A section, and this comes back at bar 27. The bit in between is the B section. The final two lines are called a ‘coda’. This is a short ending section.

- This piece is in C Major. It briefly changes to G Major at bars 7-8 and bars 17-19, as can be seen by the added F#.

Piece: The Policeman’s Song

About the composer: Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842- 1900) studied music in England and in Germany. He was often given commissions, where people would ask him to compose a piece for a specific occasion. But these are not what he is most famous for. He teamed up with a man named Gilbert who wrote the words, or libretto, for stage musicals, and Sullivan wrote the music. These musicals are still performed today. They are light-hearted comedies often full of jokes as well as dancing. The storylines are often silly and the characters are over the top. Serious music critics often thought that his musicals were a waste of time, but he needed them, amongst other similar work, in order to make money. Musicians are seldom made rich by their job!

About the piece: This piece was originally from one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s stage musicals. The musical is called ‘Pirates of Penzance’. In it, a young pirate falls in love with a high ranking soldier’s daughter. Like most of their musicals, it is witty and fun. This song is sung by the sergeant of the police when the audience first sees the police, and the words describe what the policemen do. He is a bass, which means he sings very low- your version is much higher than it would have been sung. In between each of the phrases of your piece, the rest of the policemen sang short responses to what was sung by the sergeant, and most of this will be filled in by the piano. -This piece is in C Major, which makes C the most important note, with G the second most important note. Note how many phrases end or begin on G or C. -There is an exception though! See at bars 13 & 14 and 17 & 18 where the F# has been written in? The piece has changed key here to G Major! G Major has its most important note as G and second most important note as D. When asked about this, say that the piece has changed key to G Major from the end of bar 12 to bar 20. At bar 21 it returns again to C Major.-Allegro moderato means that the speed is moderately fast.-‘poco ritard.’ means ‘slow down a little’ (ritard. Is short for ritardando). ‘a tempo’ means that you should go back to your original tempo.-That single beat at the beginning is called an anacrusis.-piu f at bar 12 means get louder (piu literally means ‘more’, so here it just means that the forte should be very strong and confident).

-At the third beat of bar 20 there is a pause sign. The best name to use for this is a fermata.

Piece: Scoobie Du Wup

About the composer: Kerin Bailey (born 1949) is an Australian composer. He mainly plays the piano, flute and trumpet. He studied classical piano at university and his pieces are written fro young instrumentalists. He also has interest in jazz and so pieces like Scoobie Du Wup have a strong classical basis but still have strong elements of jazz. He is best known for his ability to write and play pieces which sound as though they are mix of classical and jazz.

About the piece: This is a piece written in a swing style. Swing come from jazz music and refers to the way you play the quavers. If asked, give a demonstration of non-swing quavers, then play swing quavers. The name Scoobie Du Wup is based on the way a jazz singer might sing this music. Jazz singers would often sing using nonsense words like ‘doo doo’. This is called scat singing.The speed of this piece is about 112 beats per minute.Another element of jazz which can be found in this piece is the use of complicated harmonies. -From bars 1 to 8 it is in D Major, which is the most important key of this piece. If asked what key the entire piece is in, say D Major- it has C# and F#. The reason why it has F naturals is to do with the sometimes strange harmonies of jazz. These are called blue notes and give the piece a bluesy feeling.-From bars 9 to 16 it is in G Major. This also has blue notes- the Bb’s.-From bar 17 to the end it returns to D Major.-At the very end the G# is a very odd note. Jazz often ends on uncertain notes which don’t sound like the piece has ended, and this piece does the same. The G# is a tritone away from D. A tritone is a certain distance from one note to another which sounds particularly odd. It makes the piece sound unfinished at the end.-This piece has a range of articulations, including accents, staccatos, legatos, slurs and ties. (a tie is between two notes which are the same pitch, a slur is between two notes of different pitch)- Note the fermata (pause sign) at the end.

Piece: Ska- Face

About the Composer: Steve Pogson is a teacher and composer of music.

About the Piece: The style of this piece is hinted at by it’s speed – “easy reggae beat” – and the way “ska” is spelt in the title. Reggae is a style of music which comes from Jamaica, an island in the Caribbean. It has strong accents on every off beat. Ska is a style of music which developed from reggae and the big difference between the two is that Ska uses horns (saxes and trumpets and trombones). Nowadays Ska is fast and loud, and is thought of as a style of rock called Punk. This piece is written like Ska from the 1960’s, though, when it was still very similar to Reggae.

- an easy reggae beat is quite slow and very laid back. This means you should never rush or speed up.

- Almost all of this piece is in E Minor. We can tell by the F# in the keysignature. Interestingly, it does not seem to use melodic minor or harmonic minor scales, but rather uses different types of scales called modes.

- The key changes briefly, however. At bars 25-26 it is in D Major. Bars 23-24 also change key, but I WILL HAVE TO CHECK YOUR PIANO MUSIC TO FIND OUT.

- This piece is in Ternary or AABA form:

Piano intro – Bars 1-2A – Bars 3- 10A – Bars 11- 18B – Bars 19-26A – Bars 27 – 35

The repeated A sections are not exactly the same but they are similar enough to be thought of as the same section repeating.- The capital C for a timesignature is a shorthand way of writing 4/4 time. IT is

called common time.- Sffz underneath the last note means molto sforzando in Italian. This means

very forced. In other words, a loud harsh accent.- The high ‘E’ in brackets above the last note is optional. The brackets mean

that if you wish you can play that E instead of the lower one.