Preparation for a Master's in Music Performance

Before registering for courses, I am required to write a two hour placement exam.

All I know about the exam is this:

Four sections:

1) Musical Terms

2) Score Identification & essay

3) Analysis 1

4) Analysis 2

I have no idea what to expect for the score identification section, or what kind of stuff they'll want for the essay... the analysis sections I can only assume will involve analysis of the form and chords. Hopefully they won't ask any part-writing; I haven't done that in seven years.

It would be nice to have a list of possible scores that could be featured for the essay - ie classical era, or perhaps from the opera repertoire, but oh no, it's totally unknown! maybe it will be a graphical score like what you'd see in Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima. (If you want to listen to a piece of symphonic music that is both truly terrifying and ground-breaking, click here).



You will only ever need to listen to this once in your lifetime. I suggest avoiding mind-altering drugs before embarking upon this listening experience.

In the meantime, as I review musical terms with the aid of the internet, I am reminded that wikipedia is not all that bad as sources go, when random websites make offerings such as this for a musical term definition:



Deceptive cadence - A chord progression that seems to lead to resolving itself on the final chord; but does not.

Let me punctuate this definition with the statement that one would generally expect a vi (six) chord to follow the cadential chords in question, and that a stronger cadence will usually follow, eventually.



Legato - Word to indicate that the movement or entire composition is to be played smoothly.


I would agree with the smooth part... the rest is entirely dependent on what's happening musically... just because a legato marking is present does not necessarily mean it encompasses an entire movement.

I like this one as well:



Neoclassical - Movement in music where the characteristics are crisp and direct.

last time I checked, neoclassical referred to a composition being written in the style from the classical era.