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Music

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Music at St Albans School is a prestigious and highly valued aspect of School life and recent years have seen the development and expansion of facilities and staffing, providing incredible new opportunities for pupils.

Lower School
Classroom music is taught to all pupils in the Lower School (Years 7 and 8) for one period a week and is an option for Third Form (Year 9) pupils who have two periods of music each week. The work closely follows the National Curriculum guidelines but is very much tailored to the wide-ranging musical abilities of the pupils and acts as preparation for IGCSE. Class sizes for music lessons in the Lower School are no more than 13 pupils, and these classes are set according to musical experience, enabling the pupils to maximise their musical ability in classroom time.

Middle School
CIE IGCSE Music follows three components:

  • Performance. One solo and one ensemble performance, at least Grade 4 standard required
  • Composition. Two compositions of around 3 minutes each, one must be in a Western Classical Style
  • Written Paper. Western Classical, World Music and Set Work topics are covered in a 70 minute listening paper

Sixth Form
The A Level course is structured similarly to IGCSE, however there are new Harmony topics (including Bach Chorales) and the Appraisal paper now involves 13 Set Works, ranging in style from Bach to Courtney Pine to Kate Bush.

Several pupils have subsequently gone on to study music as an academic subject at university or performance music at conservatoires. Recent successes have included Choral and Organ Scholarships at Oxbridge, in both cases for pupils reading Music.

We benefit from 22 visiting instrumental tutors teaching a wide range of instruments and voice. Many of the visiting tutors are involved in the department’s busy programme of co-curricular activities which actively supports the academic progress of the pupils. There are 23 ensembles of various kinds operating each week within the Music Department. Read more about our co-curricular opportunities for music here. 

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