Resources to support areas of inquiry

Example audit sheets

The following resource is offered for student and teacher support. These audit sheets may be used as a
means of tracking both how musical works are used within the framework of the areas of inquiry and
contexts and how students can develop work towards assessment in the three musical roles.

Note: In each example, the context will be defined by the person who chose the work. This will vary
depending on location and background.

Teachers and students are encouraged to create, and share, playlists of the works they have studied, for
example, via Spotify, Deezer, YouTube or other listening platform.

Example A
Prompts Responses
Rationale An opportunity to study the medieval use and reuse of common or known
sequences in multiple settings, as well as medieval traditions for liturgies and
end-of-life observations.
Details of work Dies Irae
Anonymous medieval Latin sequence (probably 12th century)
Italian
Area of inquiry Area of inquiry 1: Music for sociocultural and political expression
Genre Liturgical music—Sequence (hymn) from the Roman Catholic requiem (Mass for
Context the dead)
Personal/local/global context (as applicable to student)

Background— May include:

composer/musician • study of known 12th-century composers: Léonin and Pérotin (France);
Hildegard von Bingen (Germany)
• study of Gregorian chant
• study of Mass Ordinary liturgical texts
• study of Requiem Mass liturgical texts
• study of medieval church modes.
Focus for research • Place of church music in medieval society
• Medieval views on death and the afterlife (as seen in the text of the Dies
Irae)
• Study of the Dies Irae contained within Requiem Mass settings (for
example, Antoine de Brumel’s Missa pro defunctis à 4 (1519)
• Study of later Requiem Masses that quote the Dies Irae (for example,
Mozart, Verdi)
• Study of concert pieces that quote the Dies Irae (Berlioz: Symphonie
Fantastique; Holst: “Saturn” from The Planets; Sondheim: The Ballad of
Sweeney Todd; Saint-Säens: Danse Macabre
Musical material • Dorian mode

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Example audit sheets

Prompts Responses
Musical features • Rhythm-free notation
• Plainsong/Gregorian chant
• Neumatic notation
• Frequent quoting in later works
Ideas for practical work • Composing macabre music
• Creating music for solemn occasions
• Composing using the Dorian mode
• Composing and performing sequences or hymns in plainsong
• Composing music quoting the Dies Irae
• Using the Dies Irae as a “hidden theme” in a composition
Links to further • Research into medieval practices for copying music (monks)
exploration • Research into different cultures’ traditions for burial or celebration of the
deceased
• Research into other medieval Latin sequences and hymns

Example B
Prompts Responses
Rationale An introduction to a jazz version of the 12-bar blues with very interesting use of
rhythmic patterns across the bar line and some typical bebop performance
traits.
Details of work Straight No Chaser (Thelonious Monk)
From the album Straight No Chaser (1967)
Columbia Records
Area of inquiry Area of inquiry 2: Music for listening and performance.
Genre Bebop-era jazz (Original recording 1951)
Context Personal/local/global context (as applicable to student)
Background— Thelonious Monk (10 October 1917–17 February 1982) was an American jazz
composer/musician pianist and composer. Using a unique improvisational style, he made many
notable contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including Round Midnight,
Blue Monk and Ruby, My Dear. Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer
after Duke Ellington, even though his composition output was much smaller
than that of Ellington.
Focus for research • Jazz in bebop period (1950s)
• The performance of jazz standards
• Distinctive features of Monk’s playing
• Compositional style and interesting themes
• Jazz piano-playing styles, including stride
• Jazz-specific musical terms, for example, “head”, “lead sheet”, “changes”,
and so on.
Musical material • Use of modes and whole-tone scales
Musical features • Use of the 12-bar blues sequence
• Use of extended chords and typical jazz harmony

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 Example audit sheets

Prompts Responses
• Improvisation style; chord clusters, and so on
• Rhythmic complexity of the theme
• Virtuosity of the performers
Ideas for practical work • Class performance of the piece
• Development of improvisation skills, including use of different scales—
modes, blues, whole-tone
• Multi-track recordings and sequenced arrangements
• Composition based on 12-bar blues
• Student improvisation using a pre-recorded backing track
Links to further • Other recordings of the same piece for comparison— Esbjörn Svensson
exploration Trio (E.S.T), and so on
• Other pieces by Monk
• 12-bar blues pieces in different areas of inquiry, for example, in area of
inquiry 1 as protest songs
• Other pieces, including from different genres, using 12-bar blues

Example C
Prompts Responses
Rationale Investigation into the relationship between the composer and the
choreographer in Broadway musicals,
Details of work West Side Story
Leonard Bernstein
1957, first production
Area of inquiry Area of inquiry 3: Music for dramatic impact, movement and entertainment
Genre Music for dance
Context Personal/local/global context (as applicable to student)
Background— May include:
composer/musician • some background on Leonard Bernstein
• historic events that influenced the content of the musical.
Focus for research • West Side Story: contextual information on the time and events
• History and elements of musicals
• Music and movement
• Influences on the music and choreography in this musical
Musical material • Influences of diverse musical contexts on the work
Musical features • Use of tempo, metre and rhythmic patterns
• Other musical elements, such as the use of structure, dynamics,
expressions to convey a message
• Other dramatic elements, such as the use of dissonance
• Impact of musical choices on choices of movements, and vice versa
• Composition for solo and ensemble dances
Ideas for practical work • Create a short piece of music to coordinate with the movements.

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Example audit sheets

Prompts Responses
• Groove design using a digital audio workstation (DAW), iPhone apps, and
so on.
• Practice a performance of “Tonight”.
Links to further • Comparative study of other styles of dance music, such as ballet, jig,
exploration rumba, disco
• Link to area of inquiry 1: Are there political messages in West Side Story that
are conveyed through the music and dance?
• Theory of knowledge (TOK) question: How do physical movements have an
impact on our experience of music?
• Online resources: Kiri Te Kanawa—The Making of West Side Story
Documentary (2014). (Available onYouTube.com)

Example D
Prompts Responses
Rationale Students are learning to use synthesizers to design sounds and record
melodies. Students are learning about ostinatos and drones as bases for chord
sequences and melodies.
Details of work Kraftwerk
The Man-Machine
Recorded in Kling Klang Studios, Düsseldorf, Germany, 1977–1978.
Released on Kling Klang Records, 1978
Area of inquiry Area of inquiry 4: Music technology in the electronic and digital age
Genre German synth-pop
Context Personal/local/global context (as applicable to student)
Background—composer/ Kraftwerk were pioneers of the German synth-pop scene, or Deutschrock,
musician during the late 1960s and 1970s. They developed commercially successful
albums of electronic music composed entirely with synths and vocoders. Their
music displayed a futuristic world of machines and automation. The Man-
Machine concentrates on the robot within a future society.
Kraftwerk’s music is inseparable from electronic music as they are both a
product of the development of synthesis and electronica, and a major influence
on later electronic music.
Focus for research • Kraftwerk’s place in synth-pop history
• Industrial Rhein–Ruhr area and its people, which directly leads to a
futuristic music scene in the cities (Bonn, Essen, Düsseldorf)
• Synthesizers used by Kraftwerk
• The vocoder (originally developed in Germany during the Second World
War as an espionage tool)
• Creating drum patterns with synth noise sounds
• How does this album predict a future of electronic music, yet also firmly
establish itself within its own time and place (1970s industrial Germany)?
• Kraftwerk—The Model Deconstructed (Ableton Live 9 Tutorial) Point Blank
Music School. (2013). (Available onYouTube.com).

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 Example audit sheets

Prompts Responses
Musical material • Ostinato
Musical features • Motif
• Repetition
• Song structure
• Chord sequence
• Futuristic vision and lyrics
Ideas for practical work • Learn to play “The Model”.
• Create a piece of music about robots.
• Use a vocoder setting on a synthesizer to create robotic voices.
• Transcribe part of “The Robots” for acoustic instruments, and perform it.
• Create a performance art piece using the music from “The Robots”.
Link to further • Read I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.
exploration • Listen to “I, Robot” by The Alan Parsons Project.
• Listen to “Computer World” or “Trans-Europe Express” by Kraftwerk and
identify similar sounds and futuristic themes.

Audit sheet blank template

Download Audit sheet blank template (Word)

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