AQA AoS4: Western Classical Tradition since 1910
What's covered
Key facts
Experimental 20th-century music explores atonality, dissonance and unusual timbres.
Minimalism uses repeated short patterns (cells) that change gradually over time.
Minimalist techniques include phasing, layering and additive rhythm.
Steve Reich and Philip Glass are leading minimalist composers.
AQA AoS4 covers the Western Classical Tradition since 1910: modern art music, minimalism and experimental styles.
Music technology (electronic and sampled sound) is central to much music since 1910.
Sample questions
A taste of the 9 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
Experimental 20th-century art music often explores?
- ✓Atonality, dissonance and unusual timbres
- •Only Classical-period minuets
- •Only major-key folk dance tunes
- •Only standard 12-bar blues forms
AQA's AoS4 covers art music from which period?
- •Only medieval times
- •Only the 1800s
- •Only the Baroque era
- ✓Since 1910
Much music since 1910 makes central use of?
- ✓Music technology and electronic sound
- •Only a cappella voices
- •Only acoustic harpsichords
- •Only natural brass instruments
Minimalist music is built mainly from?
- •A single long melody never repeated
- •One sustained chord throughout
- •Random unrelated noises only
- ✓Short repeated patterns that change gradually
Which technique is characteristic of minimalism?
- •A 12-bar blues only
- •A Baroque ground bass only
- •Classical sonata form only
- ✓Phasing and additive rhythm
Which composers are leading figures of minimalism?
- •Henry Purcell and Antonio Vivaldi
- •Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel
- ✓Steve Reich and Philip Glass
- •Wolfgang Mozart and Joseph Haydn
Try it for four weeks. Free.
One school. Unlimited classes. No card limit. No teacher limit. If your students aren't practising daily by the end of the trial, you owe us nothing.