All Students preparing for Grade exams are recommended to use the Hofnotes on-line training pages to practise for the aural tests.
At higher grades you must be able to discuss with the examiner musical features such as texture, form, style, and period of a piece of music. My own web pages to help with these parts of the test at Grade 5+ and at GCSE are available here!
The Partita
Like the Suite, a Partita is made up of a number of movements but they are less like dances. Titles were mainly:
- caprice
- allegro
- rondeau
- fugue
Composers work with many other different styles, not all of which are so easily recognisable:
Scherzo, Capriccio, Fantasia, Arabesque
These are showy movements, quite free in form.
Prelude
Quite free, sometimes preoccupied with working out a short figure from the start
(Purcell example)
Nocturne
A Romantic speciality, often in ternary form.