Music Theory Syllabus (AP/non-AP) Red Hook High School Brian Zeller, Instructor Course Overview AP Music Theory is a rigorous one-credit theory and ear-training course designed to be equivalent to a first-year college music theory course. It is intended for students who have a strong background in music reading and performance, and who are ready for a demanding curriculum. Students take the AP Music Theory Exam in May. Students pursuing school credit in Music Theory (non-ap) follow a similar curriculum to students pursuing AP credit, but with some minor modifications and without a culminating AP exam (students will instead take a locally-designed final exam). All students will complete in-class ear-training and written work, assigned reading, written homework, and listening assignments representing European classical music and other musical traditions. A wide variety of tonal music repertory will be studied in conjunction with our Open Music Theory primary text, in which we cover most chapters of tonal harmony and theory, and select portions of chapters thereafter. In addition, we use appropriate examples from anthologies and other sources reflecting the baroque through romantic music, jazz, popular music, and other relevant genres. Students are encouraged to make use of available pianos and keyboards in the music room to practice teacher-developed packets reinforcing common chord progressions. In addition, students are strongly encouraged to use technology resources (web- or phone-based drill apps, ) to increase speed and fluency with fundamental music theory processes like key, scale, and chord identification. Required Materials Staff paper Pencil 3-ring binder with pockets Looseleaf paper Course Content and Objectives Major topics of study include the following, in both written in aural form (where applicable): Daily theory drill Fundamentals of written music, including clefs, scales, keys, intervals, meter, and rhythm Chordal study, including triads, seventh chords, and inversions Applied harmony, including figured bass, melody harmonization, four-part harmonization, harmonic function, and harmonic analysis Compositional analysis, including formal considerations, motivic analysis, and score study skills All units include listening, written, creative and sight singing components related to the unit topic.
Primary Text Shaffer, Kris, Bryn Hughes, and Brian Moseley. Open Music Theory. Madison, WI: Hybrid Pedagogy Publishing, 2014. Ottman, Robert. Music for Sight Singing, 4th edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996. Secondary Texts and Resources Guo, Edward W., et al. International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)/Petrucci Music Library. Petrucci. Library Project, 2005. Web. Brooks, Richard and Gerald Warfield. Layer Dictation. New York: Longman, Inc., 1978 Aldwell, Edward, and Carl Schachter. Harmony and Voice Leading, 4th edition. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning, 2010. Kamien, Roger, editor. 1984. The Norton Scores, An Anthology for Listening, 4 th edition, expanded, volume 1. New York: W.W. Norton Burkhart, Charles. 1994. Anthology for Musical Analysis. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Machlis, Joseph and Kristine Forney. 1999. The Enjoyment of Music, 8 th edition, chronological version. New York: W.W. Norton Scroggin, Nancy. 2010. Barron s AP Music Theory. 2010. Hauppauge, NY: Barron s Educational Series, Inc. Hall, Anne Carothers. Studying Rhythm, 2nd edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Pearson, 1998. Sueta, Ed. 1985. Rhythm Vocabulary Charts for Effective Rhythmic Development. Rockaway, NJ: Macie Publishing Company. Course Timeline Week 1 Fundamentals of music notation: note parts, meter, rhythm, staff, clefs, pitches Aural identification of meter Sight singing: Very simple melodic dictation (reinforce known clefs) Week 2-3 Half-steps and whole steps Scales (major, minor, modes) Scale degrees (tonic, supertonic, etc.)
Key signatures Sight singing Simple melodic dictation (different keys and scales) Week 4-5 Intervals (diatonic and chromatic) Consonance and dissonance Melodic and harmonic interval drills (singing, identifying) Week 6 Score-reading skills Transposition Instrument ranges Performance terms Texture (monophony, homophony, polyphony) Identifying textures, instruments Melodic dictation Interval drill Week 7-9 Types of motion Cantus firmus composition Species counterpoint Melodic dictation Interval drill Week 10-11 Triads with chord symbols Roman numerals (identifying and constructing) Triad quality drill Triads in sequence Chord function drill Week 12 Seventh chords with chord symbols Roman numerals (identifying and constructing)
Seventh chord quality drill Seventh chords in sequence Mixed seventh chord and triad function drill Week 13-15 Inverted triads and seventh chords Figured bass Realization and harmonic analysis of figured bass in keyboard style Chord inversion drill Mixed seventh chord and triad function drill with inversions Two-part dictation Week 16 Review for midterm Week 17-18 Four-part chorale writing from figured bass (differences from keyboard style, part ranges) Embellishing tones (non-chord tones) Chord function drill Two-part dictation (progress to harmonic dictation as appropriate) Week 19 Cadences (identifying visually and aurally, writing) Cadence identification drill Harmonic dictation Week 20-21 Harmonic functions (tonic, predominant, and dominant) Idealized phrase Prolongation Harmonizing a melody (composition of bassline and chord symbols) Harmonic dictation Advanced melodic dictation Week 22-23 Applied chords
Modal mixture Modulation (writing and analysis) Identification of applied chords, modal mixture, modulation in musical contexts Week 24 Harmonizing a given melody Advanced sight-singing (individual) Advanced melodic dictation Week 25-28 Classical thematic structure (sentence, period, compound, [hybrid]) Melodic and rhythmic development (including inversion, retrograde, sequence, imitation, cannon; augmentation, diminution, hemiola, external/internal expansions; also [if time] fragmentation, liquidation, sequential repetition, acceleration of melodic or harmonic rhythm) Form (small ternary, small binary, rondo, minuet, theme and variation, strophic) Sonata form [if time] Thematic structure identification Development technique identification Form identification Week 29 Aural skills review and focus on aural skills as they appear on the AP exam, including error detection, harmonic intervals, recognizing the pitch pattern played from a choice of four examples, and harmonic dictation. Questions about given pieces of music Week 30 Review for AP exam Week 31-32 Take practice exams After Exam Individual composition projects