Music (IM syllabus content): harmony, counterpoint, analysis and aural awareness
The MATSEC Intermediate Music domain tests musicianship across connected strands: a practical performance component, written harmony and counterpoint, and history-and-analysis work on set works, supported by an aural test. Questions reward precise labelling and stylistically correct voice-leading rather than vague description, so learn the vocabulary of chords, cadences and forms as working tools.
Core rules
- Label chords with Roman numerals plus inversion figures (e.g. ii6, V6/5) in the key of the passage, and state the key at every modulation.
- Keys count as closely related when they differ by one accidental: dominant, subdominant, relative minor or major.
- In four-part writing, double the root of root-position triads, never double the leading note, and resolve chord sevenths downward by step.
- Cadences: perfect (V–I, both root position, soprano on the tonic), imperfect (ends on V), plagal (IV–I), interrupted (V–vi).
- Sonata form: exposition with first and second subjects, development, recapitulation, coda; the second subject returns in the tonic.
- In species counterpoint, begin and end on a perfect consonance, approach the final by step, and use consonances only in note-against-note writing.
Worked example
A bass in C major moves F–G–C, with a 6 figured over the F. The sixth above F is D, so the chord is D–F–A: ii in first inversion (ii6), with the root D doubled in an upper part. The bass F is scale degree 4, so doubling causes no leading-note problem. Next comes V (G–B–D), then I (C–E–G). The progression ii6–V–I is a standard cadential approach: the sixth D falls to B and the bass steps F–G–C, keeping the texture smooth.
Set works and analysis
Set works are examined through targeted questions: identify composer, genre and likely period, then locate the passage's formal function (exposition, transition, development) and harmonic plan. Support every claim with a musical detail - instrumentation, texture, motif, cadence - rather than an unsupported impression. Practise annotating short scores with key, cadences and phrase lengths.
Traps
Parallel fifths and octaves between outer parts; doubling a leading note; unresolved sevenths; calling V–vi a perfect cadence; confusing relative with parallel keys; describing a recapitulation without noting the second subject's tonic key.