Assessing Musical Performance

The arts pose some particular problems in the field of assessment. In the study reported here, we examined some of the problems performance presents to assessors especially in the context of the GCSE examination, and with reference to the model for assessment given in the APU Report on Aesthetic Development. A small-scale experiment was devised with the aim of investigating the reliability and different perceptions of judges of musical performances. As well as assessment by professional musicians, we investigated self assessment and assessment by peer-group members. There was a generally high measure of agreement between judges, both in terms of their individual comments and the rank order they each devised. This suggests that there were some objective criteria at work in their assessments. Self-assessments proved very realistic, although those of the peer-group were slightly less so.