Music A-Level
Unconventional instrumentation
What Unconventional instrumentation means in Music A-Level, as defined for AQA.
Definition of Unconventional instrumentation
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Read the wording for your board, then hide it and explain Unconventional instrumentation in your own words. Rough notes are fine. This is a self-check, with no mark or grade.
Reference: AQA
The use of everyday objects as percussion and new sound sources, exemplified by John Cage's prepared piano, which places objects between the strings.
Topics that use Unconventional instrumentation
- Area of study 7: Art music since 1910 - Musical elements (AQA A-Level)
Related terms
- 20th-century chord structures
- 20th-century compositional techniques
- 20th-century rhythmic innovation
- A cappella
- Additive and subtractive processes
- Alternatives to functional tonality
- Atonality
- Atonality and tonality
Using Unconventional instrumentation in the exam
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