MATSEC IM Music case studies

MATSEC IM Music · Put your knowledge to work in context.

MATSEC Intermediate Matriculation (IM) Music is one of the subject syllabi published by the MATSEC Examinations Board at L-Università ta' Malta. MATSEC describes its syllabi as being offered at four levels - SEC (Secondary Education Certificate), SEAC (Secondary Education Applied Certificate), IM (Intermediate Matriculation) and AM (Advanced Matriculation) - so IM sits between the secondary certificate and the advanced matriculation level. The MATSEC IM Music case studies are 5 cases and about 3,793 words.

The chord that will not sit still: A♭–C–E♭–F♯ in C major

A candidate is checking a four-part harmony exercise written in C major, 4/4, twelve bars long, soprano given and all chords in root position or first inversion. At bar 9 the chord reads from the bass up A♭3, C4, E♭4, F♯4.

604 words, about 3 min 2

F♯ in bar 5: tonicisation or modulation in an unseen excerpt

An unseen excerpt is played twice in the examination. It is 16 bars long in 4/4, and the candidate has established that it begins and ends in F major.

674 words, about 3 min 3

Eight bars for an amateur choir: which faults to fix in thirty minutes

A candidate is arranging an eight-bar strophic song for an amateur SATB choir. The brief fixes three conditions: the tune stays in the soprano and unaltered, the key stays D major, and both verses use the same music.

904 words, about 5 min 4

Twelve minutes, thirty days: building a performance programme

A candidate has thirty days before the Intermediate performance examination, which allows a maximum of twelve minutes of music. The programme is: (A) a Baroque binary allegro marked ♩=120, secure at ♩=96, with a memory lapse at bar 34 on roughly every third attempt; (B) a slow Romantic character piece lasting 5:10, secure and musically settled; (C) a twentieth-century movement in 7/8, target ♩=112, secure at ♩=100 only when practised daily.

847 words, about 4 min 5

Two recordings, one sonata: what duration cannot tell you

A candidate is comparing two recordings of the same eighteenth-century keyboard sonata movement. The score is 84 bars in 4/4, marked Allegro, with both halves repeated.

764 words, about 4 min