Choosing a listening excerpt that cannot be answered by recall
A teacher must set a 12-mark listening question for a 2-period class. Two 45-second recordings are available: (A) a Baroque sarabande for lute and bass viol, with ornamented repeats and a clear hemiola at the cadence; (B) a 1980s minimalist piece for two marimbas and tape, with a steady 3+2+3 pulse and a gradual additive process. The class has studied Baroque dance suites and minimalism, but the department requires transfer to an unheard excerpt. The teacher may play either excerpt twice. The group includes several instrumentalists and several non-performers. The question must be answerable in 15 minutes and must not reward memorised composer names. A colleague proposes: ‘Name the composer, genre and date, then list three instruments.’ The teacher is worried that this tests recall, not listening.
1. Choose A or B and justify the choice against the assessment aim, the cohort, and the 15-minute limit.
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Choose B. The assessment aim is transfer to an unheard excerpt, not composer identification. B’s 3+2+3 pulse and additive entries are directly audible: a non-performer can count the grouping and describe instruments entering one by one. A’s hemiola and ornaments are also audible, but the question can slide into ‘name the dance’ or ‘name the composer’, and the lute and bass-viol timbres are less familiar to non-performers.
B also fits the 15-minute limit because students can describe process without notation. The risk is that ‘minimalist’ becomes a recall label, so the question should avoid that word and ask for evidence: repetition, addition, gradual change. If the class has studied minimalism only through composer names, B is still the better transfer task because the process is in the sound, not in the label.
2. Write three sub-questions with mark allocation that test listening, not recall.
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- Describe the pulse grouping you hear and any change in that grouping. (3 marks: 3+2+3 identified; steady or changing; audible evidence.)
- Identify the order in which the two marimbas and the tape enter, and describe the texture at the end. (4 marks: entry order; tape; density; layering or imitation.)
- Explain how the material changes across the excerpt. (5 marks: addition; repetition; register; dynamic; tape.)
Accept ‘layered’ for texture and ‘adds a note or pattern’ for process. Do not award marks for the word ‘minimalist’ alone; require audible evidence. Do not ask for composer or date. The mark scheme should list acceptable descriptions rather than one wording, so that students who hear the process but use different vocabulary are not penalised.
3. How would you adapt the question for the instrumentalists so it does not advantage them?
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Instrumentalists may recognise marimba timbre faster, so do not award a mark for naming the instrument alone. Ask what role it plays: melody, pulse, doubling, or texture. Give all students a choice of prose or a simple table, not staff notation. Avoid technical terms such as ‘additive process’ unless they have been taught and are displayed in the question.
For non-performers, play the excerpt twice with a 30-second pause and use everyday terms: layers, repeated pattern, pulse, entry. The adaptation should keep the advantage with listening, not with instrumental training. If the teacher wants to stretch instrumentalists, add a question about how the 3+2+3 grouping would be counted aloud, not a question about notation.