Free Interview Resources
Free practice questions, preparation advice, and expert insights for Music interviews at Cambridge.
Real Music interview questions in the style Cambridge asks. Try answering each one aloud before you reveal the hint.
Read this short piece of writing about music. What is the writer’s central argument, and where do you agree or disagree with it?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
From whose perspective is this article written, and how does that shape the musical claims it makes?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
When do you think this article was written, and what clues in the language or musical assumptions support your answer?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Look at this unseen score excerpt. What can you say about its structure, texture and harmonic direction?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Analyse this piano passage harmonically. What is the most convincing way to describe the progression, and where is the tension created?
Close-Reading & Passage Analysis
Supervision-style interviews with problem-solving and academic discussion, often with two interviewers.
Cambridge interviews usually happen at your first-choice college. Most applicants have two interviews, with some subjects requiring a third at the pooled college. Cambridge interviews tend to involve two interviewers and may include a written assessment or pre-interview task sent on the day.
Interview Invitation
Late Nov
Arrival to Interview
Early Dec
Technical Question
Mid Dec
Decision
Early Jan
Interview Invitation
Late Nov
Arrival to Interview
Early Dec
Technical Question
Mid Dec
Decision
Early Jan
Compare this song with the poem it sets. What has the composer changed, emphasised or contradicted?
Is awareness of context necessary to appreciate a composer’s works?
Why might the jazz tradition have branched away from popular-music traditions in the way it did?
Can a listener’s attitude change music?
Is music a language?
Is music comparable to history if historical events cannot be performed while music can?
How does a performance relate to the score: is it a realisation, an interpretation, or a new work?
How important are social and political contexts when analysing music that seems formally self-contained?
What evidence in this score suggests that the text is being interpreted dramatically rather than merely set syllabically?
In this Palestrina example, where are the points of imitation, and how do they help organise the passage?
Trace how this Bach fugue subject is transformed after its first statement. What evidence shows development rather than simple repetition?
In this Haydn minuet, what evidence suggests the character of the dance, and how does the trio alter that character?
If you could invent a new musical instrument, what would it sound like, and what musical problem would it solve?
If two performances use the same score but produce sharply different meanings, what should an analyst treat as the object of study?
If a listener had no knowledge of the composer, period or performance tradition, what could they still reasonably infer from the music itself?
Which musical periods are you most interested in, and why?
Tell us about your musical experience and interests. Which of them has most changed the way you think about music?
Choose a piece you perform or compose. What would you want an interviewer to notice about your interpretation or craft?
If your main interest is composition, how do you make decisions about structure, harmony or texture when beginning a new piece?
12+ weeks
8-12 weeks
4-6 weeks
1-2 weeks
the week of
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Introduces the Cambridge Music course and gives applicants a department-level overview.
A useful first orientation to the subject at Cambridge.
Gives a College-level sense of how Music interviews may work.
Helps candidates understand the day-to-day academic character of Music at Cambridge.
Useful for candidates who want to connect practical musicianship with academic reflection.
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Further Reading
by Nicholas Cook
A concise starting point for thinking critically about what music is and how it can be studied.
by Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert and Richard Middleton, eds.
Useful for broadening discussion beyond repertoire description into culture, meaning and method.
by Nicholas Cook
Helpful for developing a vocabulary of analytical approaches to scores and musical structure.
by J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca
A standard survey for placing repertoire and musical practices in historical context.
by Philip V. Bohlman
Encourages candidates to think beyond a narrow Western-canon frame.
by University of Cambridge
Cambridge-recommended extension material for students exploring Music beyond school.
by Cambridge Faculty of Music
Recommended by the Faculty for score-based musical thinking.
by Cambridge Faculty of Music
Shows the range of current musicological research questions at Cambridge.
by IMSLP
Useful for finding public-domain scores for analysis practice.
by Society for Music Analysis
Supports deeper analytical work and exposure to music-analysis methods.