Valencian Community PAU Music Analysis II common mistakes
Valencian Community PAU Music Analysis II · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Naming a cadence only by its final chord (e.g. writing 'cadence on V' or 'cadence on I') without stating the two-chord progression and the soprano/bass motion that define it.
Candidates memorize that cadences 'end' on a degree and treat the last chord as the whole answer; the exam's figured-bass and phrase-end questions reward identifying the full motion (V–I, IV–I, V–vi, etc.) and whether it is perfect (soprano on tonic, root-position) or imperfect.
What to do instead
For every phrase end, write three elements: the two chords with inversion, the outer-voice motion (especially whether the soprano lands on 1 or 3/5), and the resulting label (perfect/imperfect authentic, plagal, half, deceptive, interrupted). Practise by covering the last chord of 20 short excerpts and predicting it from the penultimate chord and voice leading.
Treating every chromatic chord as a modulation, so a single applied/secondary dominant or a borrowed chord is labelled as a key change.
Students learn 'accidentals mean modulation' before learning that tonicization is local and confirmed only by cadential reinforcement; exam excerpts often contain brief V/V or modal mixture that never establishes a new tonic.
What to do instead
Apply a confirmation test: a modulation needs (a) the new leading tone, (b) the new tonic chord functioning as resolution, and (c) at least a cadential or repeated confirmation, usually with a pivot chord. If only one chromatic chord appears and resolves immediately back, label it as applied dominant (V/x) or mixture and state the home key explicitly.
Describing texture with a single adjective ('homophonic', 'polyphonic') and stopping there, without identifying the number of real voices, the relationship between them, or changes across the excerpt.
Textbooks present texture as a checklist of four labels, so candidates treat it as a one-word box rather than a parameter that develops; guided-listening questions usually ask how texture changes at a section boundary.
What to do instead
Use a two-part formula: layer count + relationship (e.g. 'four-voice chordal homophony with the melody doubled in the top part', 'imitative polyphony in three entries at the fifth'). Then map texture against the formal segmentation so each section gets its own texture description and any change is tied to a bar number.
Confusing form labels: calling a rounded binary or a bar-form piece 'ternary', or calling a sonata exposition 'sonata form' without identifying the transition, secondary theme, closing section and development.
Binary and ternary are taught with simple diagrams, and the A–B–A visual pattern is mistaken for the functional distinction (return of A with tonal closure vs. return with transposition); sonata form is often reduced to 'exposition–development–recapitulation' without internal functions.
What to do instead
Learn the diagnostic criteria rather than the letter pattern: rounded binary returns to A but the return is shortened and the first section's second key area is not fully restated in the tonic; ternary has a complete, self-contained B and a full A return. For sonata form, label transition, secondary theme, closing section, development (with any retransition) and coda, and note the tonal plan of each.
Answering terminology questions in Spanish only, or inventing a Valencian/Catalan term, when the exam is delivered in Valencian/Catalan and expects the standard term in that language.
Candidates revise from Spanish-language materials and translate word by word under exam pressure; musical terms such as 'cadència', 'compàs', 'tonalitat', 'desenvolupament' or 'sensible' have fixed forms that a literal translation can distort.
What to do instead
Build a bilingual glossary of the 60–80 terms that recur in score commentary (form sections, cadence types, texture, dynamics, articulation) with the Valencian/Catalan form, the Spanish equivalent and one example sentence each. Write your practice commentaries in Valencian/Catalan and only then check against the Spanish version.
Describing rhythm only as a time signature and tempo marking, ignoring phrase-level rhythm: motives, syncopation, hemiola, anacrusis, rhythmic augmentation/diminution and the relationship of rhythm to the phrase structure.
Time signatures are the visible, easily named element on the page, so candidates stop at '4/4, Allegro' and never analyse how the rhythm generates the form or character.
What to do instead
For each excerpt, do three passes: (1) notate the rhythmic motive and its variants (literal, sequenced, augmented, diminished); (2) mark metric events (syncopations, hemiolas, cross-rhythms, cadential ritardando); (3) link at least one rhythmic feature to a formal or expressive function, e.g. 'the anacrusis figure opens each phrase and is extended by one beat at the transition'.
Placing a work in the wrong historical period based on the composer's birth date rather than on the stylistic features present in the score.
Period labels overlap (a composer born in 1685 can write Baroque, Galant or early Classical idioms) and candidates rely on name recognition instead of evidence such as basso continuo, functional harmony, phrase symmetry, instrumentation and notation conventions.
What to do instead
Argue period from at least three internal features: notation (figured bass, bar lines, dynamic markings), harmony (modal vs. functional, cadence types), texture/instrumentation, and phrase construction. When a piece straddles periods, name both and justify the choice with the specific features, rather than asserting a single label.
Writing a score commentary as a narrative description of what happens bar by bar, without segmenting the form first or contextualizing the work.
Candidates read the score linearly and describe events in order, which consumes time and produces no analytical structure; the exam rewards formal segmentation, contextualization and stylistic identification before detail.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed order: (1) identify the work/genre and probable period from stylistic evidence; (2) segment into sections with bar numbers and label each function; (3) analyse harmony, rhythm, texture and instrumentation within each segment; (4) conclude on style and any notable features. Draft the segmentation outline in the first five minutes and keep the prose tied to it.
Identifying chords from the bass note alone, ignoring inversion, doubling and the figured-bass convention, so a first-inversion chord is reported as root position.
Chord symbols are often learned as root-plus-quality, and figured-bass notation (6, 6/4, 7, 6/5, 4/3, 4/2) is memorized as symbols without being linked to the actual intervals above the bass.
What to do instead
For every chord, read the intervals above the bass first, then derive root and inversion, then write the full label (e.g. 'ii6/5 in first inversion, doubled third'). Drill the seven standard figures against their inversions and practise realizing short figured basses at the keyboard or in writing before identifying chords in repertoire.
Confusing timbre and instrumentation description with dynamics, or listing instruments without explaining their function in the texture and colour.
Instrument names and dynamic markings are the easiest things to spot, so candidates list them as separate observations and never connect orchestration to texture, balance or formal articulation.
What to do instead
Write timbre observations in functional terms: which family carries the melody, which provides harmonic support, which supplies colour or accent, and how the scoring changes at section boundaries. Pair each dynamic marking with its structural role (e.g. crescendo into the retransition) rather than listing markings in isolation.