NCEA Level 3 Music Studies cheat sheet

NCEA Level 3 Music Studies - Core Knowledge

• NZQA Level 3 Music Studies (AS91416–AS91425 range) assesses making music, understanding music in context, and analysing music; external standards cover score study, listening analysis and musical knowledge, internals cover performance, composition and research.

• New Zealand music context: Douglas Lilburn (1915–2001) is regarded as the founding figure of NZ art music; his 'Aotearoa' Overture (1940) and three symphonies are standard study works, and the Lilburn Trust supports NZ composition.

• Treaty of Waitangi and Māori music: waiata, haka, poi, and taonga pūoro (traditional instruments such as pūtātara conch, kōauau flute, pūrerehua bullroarer) are recognised as living traditions protected under the Treaty; appropriation and consultation are assessed issues.

• Dunedin Sound: Flying Nun Records (founded 1981, Christchurch) released The Clean's 'Tally Ho!' (1981); The Chills, The Verlaines, Straitjacket Fits and The Bats are core acts, characterised by jangly guitars, lo-fi production and DIY ethos.

• Formal structures to identify: binary (AB), ternary (ABA), rondo (ABACA), theme and variations, sonata form (exposition–development–recapitulation with first and second subjects), 12-bar blues (I–I–I–I–IV–IV–I–I–V–IV–I–V), verse–chorus and through-composed.

• Harmonic vocabulary: diatonic triads and sevenths, functional progressions (ii–V–I, I–vi–IV–V), secondary dominants, modal interchange, modulation by pivot chord or common tone, and cadences - perfect (V–I), imperfect (I–V), plagal (IV–I), interrupted (V–vi).

• Texture and instrumentation terms: monophonic, homophonic (chordal or melody-and-accompaniment), polyphonic (imitative or free), heterophonic; timbre descriptors relate to instrument families, playing techniques (arco, pizzicato, con sordino, flutter-tonguing) and electronic synthesis.

• Rhythm and metre: simple (2/4, 3/4, 4/4) versus compound (6/8, 9/8, 12/8) time, syncopation, polyrhythm, cross-rhythm, hemiola, swing versus straight quaver subdivision, and tempo markings from grave to prestissimo.

• Score-reading and aural analysis: relate staff notation, tablature and lead-sheet symbols; identify concert pitch versus transposing instruments (clarinet in B♭ sounds a major 2nd lower; horn in F sounds a perfect 5th lower; double bass sounds an octave lower).