Responding to an AQA Set Brief

The brief stays whole

One of your two compositions answers one of four set briefs. The briefs arrive around the middle of September, and once you have chosen one, something unusual applies to it. The brief must be used unedited and unabridged. It is not a starting point you adapt. Every requirement it states stays live for as long as you are answering it, including the one you wish it did not say.

Unedited, and unabridged

Two words, and they rule out two different things. Worth keeping apart in your head.

Allowed, or not?

The clause nobody built around

A student has written a piece that answers three of the four things their brief asks for. The fourth would mean rewriting a section they are pleased with. What should they do?

• Leave the fourth requirement out, since the piece answers most of the brief
• Rewrite the section so the piece meets all four
• Reword that requirement in their own summary of the brief
• Explain in the programme note why they left it out

Two ways out, and only one is open

A requirement you cannot meet feels like a problem with the brief. There are two possible responses and they are not equally available.

Working from a brief

Put these four steps into the order that finds a problem while it is still cheap to fix.

• List every separate requirement the brief states
• Ask of each one whether you could actually deliver it
• If any is out of reach, choose a different brief now
• Compose, then check the finished piece against your list

What follows from unabridged?

Which two of these follow from the brief having to be used whole?

• Every requirement it states applies to your piece
• A requirement you cannot meet is a reason to change brief, not to change the brief
• You must answer all four of the briefs
• The brief dictates what the music sounds like
• Your free composition must also answer the brief

Change brief, not the brief

When a requirement is out of reach, there is a sentence worth having ready: change brief, do not change the brief. You chose one of four, and nothing stops you choosing a different one while the piece is still an idea. What you may not do is keep the brief and quietly make it easier. The first is a decision; the second is the rule being broken, and the difference between them is a single week of not putting it off.

How short can the free one be?

Your two compositions together have to reach at least three minutes. Your brief composition runs to 1 minute 50. What is the shortest your free composition can be, in seconds?

One student, checking

A student reads their chosen brief and writes out every separate requirement it states. They count four. Three they can deliver comfortably. The fourth would need something they have never written before, so they look at the other briefs and find one whose requirements they can all meet. They swap, in the second week, before any music exists. When the piece is finished they go back to the list and tick off all four. The whole exercise cost an hour and removed the one outcome they could not have fixed later.

Which two break the rule?

Four of these are fine. Tap the two that break the unedited and unabridged rule.

• Summarising the brief in your own looser words and working to that
• Listing the requirements and checking the finished piece against them
• Swapping to a different one of the four briefs in week two
• Ignoring one requirement because the piece was already finished
• Meeting a requirement in a way nobody expected
• Writing the free composition to no brief at all

The rules in a paragraph

You answer _____ of four set briefs, which arrive around the middle of _____. The brief must be used _____ and unabridged, so every _____ it states applies to your piece. Your two compositions together must reach at least _____ minutes.

Say the check out loud

A piece is ready when you can say this and mean it. Choose the option in each gap.

Allowed, not allowed, or neither?

Five things a student does with their brief. Decide about each.

A piece to fix

Somebody in your class keeps asking you about their brief composition. Work through it with them.

• Week two. They say one requirement in their brief is beyond them and ask whether they can just leave it.
• They swap brief. A month later they ask how to be sure they have covered it.
• The piece is finished and one requirement is still unmet. They ask whether the programme note can explain it.

Write the check

A friend tells you their brief composition answers three of the four things their brief asks for, and that the fourth would mean rewriting a section they like. Write what you would tell them.

• Say plainly whether that is acceptable, and why
• Name which of the two words in the rule their plan breaks
• Say what they could legitimately have done earlier instead
• Do not suggest explaining the gap anywhere, because that does not fill it