A Level Music: Portman 'The Duchess' Notes & Wider Listening

These notes will help you learn and revise Component 3 (Appraising) content for the A Level Music exam, specifically concerning the following work:

The Duchess’ (Opening and End titles), ‘Mistake of Your Life’, ‘Six Years Later’ and Never See Your Children Again’, from The Duchess (2008) (Rachel Portman)

This resource includes:

• Historical and stylistic context of the set work and key vocabulary.
• Detailed key information regarding all musical elements relevant to the set work: sonority, instrumentation, texture, structure, melody, harmony, tonality, rhythm, metre, tempo and dynamics.
• A* examples to give you an in-depth knowledge ready for essay and listening questions in the exam.
• Relevant wider listening comparisons (both similarities and differences) which will be essential for higher level responses to an exam question.

Possible ways of revising this material include:

• Highlighting key words in the notes
• Write an essay question and see if you have remembered all the points and examples listed
• Listening to the wider listening suggestions and seeing if you can recognise the key features listed and compare them to the piece
• These notes are also really good for making revision cards from

They have served me well in my A Level music course and I hope they can be of benefit to you too!

There’s also plenty more where this came from, so please check out my other resources.