Admissions Requirements for Music Applicants
Girton College is keen to attract a wide range of applicants for Music. In a typical year four undergraduates are admitted to read Music at Girton, a higher figure than at most other colleges. Potential students should have a serious interest in studying music within an environment that is primarily academic; however, the profile of individual students admitted to read the subject varies greatly. We have no particular views on gap years – applicants may choose to take a gap year or not at their own discretion – and, likewise, Girton has no preference for arts subjects over science subjects (or, indeed, vice versa) at AS or A2 levels. Although the study of a foreign language (in particular, French, German or Italian) can be helpful, it is certainly not obligatory.
Most applicants will have facility on one or more instruments – for details of keyboard skills, please see below – but it is not expected that they will necessarily be specialist performers. Some undergraduates focus on composition, while others may be primarily interested in music history or analysis. It is one of the strengths of the Music Tripos that individuals can navigate a course through their Cambridge studies that reflects their personal interests. That said, it is a course that is best suited to well-organised students with a strong sense of self-motivation.
At Girton we are looking for potential as much as for past achievement. Clearly, excellent results in public examinations (as indeed supportive references) will be viewed positively. However, successful candidates come from extremely different backgrounds and present themselves at interview with very different levels of attainment (although all will be expected to meet Girton’s standard offer in the qualification system under which they are studying). Given this, we try to assess each applicant on his or her individual merits. It is important to stress that successful candidates at interview may not be equally proficient in all the skills in which they are tested. Some candidates who have gone on to achieve first-class degree results showed very limited skills in keyboard harmony at the time of admission. Similarly, many of those who ended up at the top of their class-list arrived at interview with only a rudimentary knowledge of traditional Western harmony. This need not be a cause for concern, as harmony and counterpoint can be taught from scratch to those who have not covered the ground in their sixth-form work.
The assessment process
Applicants to read Music at Girton are normally required to supply with their application some samples of recent school work. This should take the form of both words and music: typically a recent school essay (not necessarily in Music), and some compositions or harmony exercises (or both). All the work should be submitted in photocopied form (to avoid work going astray in the post); the work should contain teachers’ comments.
Normally, all applicants with a strong academic record will be invited to Cambridge for assessment. This process takes place in early December. Generally, the assessment begins with a short written test. The latter contains some straightforward ear tests (typically identifying notes within four-part chords); writing down tonal melodies; identifying mistakes in a piece of piano music; and taking down by dictation a section from a chorale. The written test usually continues with a short harmony exercise (typically a chorale phrase which candidates are required to complete in four-part harmony). In addition, candidates will be asked to write a short essay on an unseen, which usually takes the form of a piece of keyboard music. There is no pre-determined agenda to this test. Candidates can address any aspects of the music that interest them; these might include form, melody, harmony, genre, style, or any other relevant parameter.
Interviews
In addition to the test, applicants to read Music at Girton are required to attend two interviews. One (lasting about 45 minutes) will normally be with the Director of Music and one other lecturer with special interests in the subject; the other (lasting about 15 minutes) will normally be with a non-specialist interviewer.
In the main interview, applicants will be asked to discuss work that they have undertaken at school – this might include the submitted work – and to discuss interests that go beyond school work. The latter might include discussion of works performed by the applicant or discussion of repertoire that is of particular interest to the applicant. Applicants will usually also be given some short extracts from the Western canon to discuss. The purpose of such discussions is, in part, to assess the suitability of the applicants for supervision-style teaching. While a broad knowledge of repertoire can never be a disadvantage, it is not expected that candidates will necessarily know the unseens; rather, they will be expected to respond to questions and suggestions from the interviewers. In the course of the interview, candidates may also be given a short test of keyboard harmony; this will normally involve the harmonisation of a very straightforward melody. Finally, applicants may be given the opportunity to perform on their main instrument. (In practice, this option is not often taken up by many applicants, and there is certainly no expectation that candidates will perform at the time of their interviews.)
The second interview is usually given over to more general matters. Candidates may be asked about the achievements they highlighted in their personal statement; they may be quizzed about current affairs or about books they have read recently; they may also be asked about their musical interests. In general, there is no particular pattern to these so-called tutorial interviews. They are intended to give candidates the chance to reveal a more rounded picture of their abilities than is sometimes possible in the specialist subject interview.
After interviews
After interviews successful applicants will be sent details of the offer that is to be made to them. Post-A2-level applicants are normally given unconditional offers; those who have yet to complete their schooling are usually given an offer based on A2-level (or equivalent) examination results. A typical offer is A*AA, one of the subjects being Music.