Sadie Harrison: With What Do Winter's Summers Sing?: High Voice: Vocal Work

On Track-13 specially commissioned pieces which aim to breathe new life into a largely neglected component of the GCSE/Key Stage 4 Music syllabus Ensemble Performance.On Track comes complete with a CD-Rom containing all theparts for all the pieces and transpositions for any instrument and these parts come with a licence for printing as many copies as needed directly from the CD-Rom. A separate 'audio' CD also contains recordings of every piece.The book contains scores for each piece and extended notes by the composers to aid in the preparation of the music; there are 5 pieces for fixed ensembles and 8 pieces for flexible ensembles.The editor of the compilation Sadie Harrison comments: 'Playing in an ensemble with one's peers is perhaps the most rewarding and satisfying thing to do as a young performer and it is crucial to nurture this element ofGCSE courses to reflect this. On Track is a fantastic collection of many different styles approaches and sounds. There is something in here for everybody at whatever level and on whatever instrument. This is what GCSE Musicteachers are crying out for and finally here is something that really hits the mark.' Harrison's comments are echoed by recent examiners' reports from EdExcel one of the largest examiners of GCSE music. Theydescribe how the music they heard in examinations demonstrated 'an extreme range of standards and revealed evidence of the very wide range of instruments in use'. The AQA (Assessment and Qualification Alliance) Examiners' reportin 2004 warns schools against allowing their students to present solo music with a piano accompaniment played by a teacher or with a CD accompaniment for the ensemble performance component. It continues saying that 'it is of utmost importance that the chosen ensemble allows the candidate to show rapport with the other player(s). This is a significant requirement with which many [examination] centres did NOT