Music touches all people. It involves them in performing, listening and composing. It is a discipline which integrates its own unique skills with intellectual, physical, emotional and aesthetic development. Through an engagement with music, students can develop their creativity, understanding, coordination, confidence, spiritual awareness, a sense of achievement, and a sense of enjoyment. The word “music” covers a huge range of different styles and genres, and each one of us has our own preferences and interests. The Eduqas A level specification recognises this through the varied areas of study and the choice of routes through the course: • Areas of study include the Development of the Symphony; a choice of Rock and Pop Music, Jazz, or Musical Theatre; and either Into the Twentieth Century or Into the Twenty-First Century. • The Area of Study “Into the Twenty-First Century” includes works by living male and female composers giving an insight into the current music industry. • There is a Symphony to study as a set work and two short twentieth or twenty-first-century pieces, but beyond this the choice of classroom repertoire is selected based on that which is relevant to the area of study and which will be interesting and accessible to the learners. • Performing is assessed by a visiting examiner, giving a much more realistic scenario than a recording, allowing students to demonstrate their communication of the music to the listener, and giving a real sense of occasion. • Composition is assessed through two pieces: one written in a Western Classical Style in response to a chosen brief, and one free piece which can be in any style, allowing candidates to demonstrate and develop their personal specialisms. • Students at A level can choose whether they wish to be assessed on a longer performance or submit a third composition, allowing them to develop their preferred specialism.