Nervous tension at the first examination of the new Leaving Cert music syllabus was dissipated by yesterday morning's core listening papers.
Mr Ben Murray, a music teacher in Alexandra College, Dublin, said higher-level students were delighted with a "very nice, fair core listening paper which contained no surprises".
Mr Arthur Sealy, a teacher at Walton's New School of Music, said the exam "was a welcome attempt to address the inaccessibility of the subject at Leaving Cert in former years. It was a very straightforward exam. However, there was no challenge in the core listening paper for the more able music student."
At ordinary level, the core listening was fine, Mr Murray said. The afternoon's higher-level core composition paper was very accessible, he added. There was general relief that the melodies and the harmony questions were all in major keys.
The chairman of the Post Primary Music Teachers Association, Mr Chris Kinder, said teachers were generally fairly satisfied with the afternoon's composition paper.
The ordinary-level paper was very fair, he said, while higher-level students who had put in two years' classroom-based listening would have found the core listening "fair, relevant and appropriate. There were one or two ambiguities in the language used in the questions - for instance, in the Tchaikovsky question."
ASTI subject representative Ms Veronica O'Sullivan said students and teachers were happy with the papers. The layout was good and the language was clear and appropriate. Those who took the elective were very pleased with a paper which gave them plenty of scope, she said.
There was a good choice of question, particularly in the Irish-music section of the higher-level paper. Question 6 on the core listening paper was very detailed and testing, Ms O'Sullivan said.