Catalonia PAU Choir and Vocal Technique (Cor i Tècnica Vocal II)

It is a PAU subject that assesses choral repertoire knowledge, score analysis and vocal/ensemble technique. It typically serves candidates from musical baccalaureate or conservatory backgrounds who want that profile counted for university admission, especially for music, music education and related degrees.

Expect a written paper combining open-response analysis of a choral score printed in the exam booklet with short-answer questions on technique, ensemble, rehearsal practice, vocal health and terminology. The weighting between sections is set by the official curriculum, so check the current model and syllabus published by the Catalan education authorities.

Those figures change and are fixed officially each year. Do not rely on second-hand numbers: consult the Departament d'Educació and the university access documentation for the current structure, duration and instructions for this subject.

Passing thresholds and how the subject counts toward your access mark are determined by the official bodies, not by this page. The current criteria are published in the official PAU documentation; check it before planning your subject combination.

The analysis section rewards speed and precision more than sheer knowledge: many candidates lose marks by describing the score vaguely instead of naming texture, cadence, imitative entries and text-music relationships. Technique questions are manageable if you have sung and rehearsed; terminology trips up those who only revise in one language.

Retake rules and the validity period of PAU marks are set officially and can change. Confirm both with the Catalan education administration and the university access office rather than assuming a fixed number of years or attempts.

Start with score reading: clefs, transposition, entries, cadences, texture and form. Then build a repertoire timeline from Renaissance polyphony to present-day choral writing. Add vocal technique and ensemble vocabulary, and finish with trilingual terminology, since it is quick to revise and easy to lose marks on.

A broad spine: Renaissance imitation and modality, Baroque choral writing, Classical and Romantic homophony and dynamics, twentieth-century extended techniques, and living Catalan and European choral composers. For each work know composer, approximate date, genre, forces and one identifying stylistic feature.

Read the extract twice, then write in structured points: forces and voicing, texture, harmonic language, cadences, phrase structure, relation of text to music, and stylistic placement with justification. Quote bar numbers. Avoid long narrative prose that never names a musical feature.

Vague analysis without bar references, confusing terms across Catalan, Spanish and English, describing vocal technique without anatomical or acoustic precision, and running out of time on the open-response section. Practise timed written answers on unseen scores to fix all four.