Course Description Course Title: AP Music Theory Course number: 111111A; 111111B NM 11424000 Open to Grades: 10-12 Fee: None Credit: ½ per semester/term Length of class: 1 year Prerequisite: Permission by Instructor. Musical background, enrollment in a music ensemble class of chorus, orchestra, or band is not required but is extremely beneficial. Course Description: A major component of any college music curriculum is a course introducing the first-year student to musicianship, theory, musical materials, and procedures. Such a course may bear a variety of titles (Basic Musicianship, Elementary Theory, Harmony and Dictation, Structure of Music, etc.). This course will integrate aspects of melody, harmony, texture, rhythm, form, musical analysis, elementary composition, and, to some extent, history and style. This class will examine the principals of music notation, musical terms, and the classification of instruments, scales, and chords. Musicianship skills such as dictation and other listening skills, sight-singing, and keyboard harmony are considered an important part of the theory course. The achievement of the classroom goals will be approached by initially addressing fundamental aural, analytical, and compositional skills using both listening and written exercises. The student s ability to read and write musical notation is fundamental to this course. Music theory is open to any student grade 10-12 with instructor permission. Having prior musical experience is not necessary but is highly recommended to be successful in the class. It is strongly recommended that the student will have acquired at least basic performance skills in voice or on an instrument. Primary Text: Kostka, Payne. Tonal Harmony 6 th edition with workbook Four-Part Chorals, Vol. I (nos. 1 198) by J. S. Bach. (New York: Edwin F. Kalm us, 1985.) A New Approach to Sigh Singing by Berkowitz, Frontier, Kraft, and Goldstein Function Chorals by Stephen Melillo
Course Objectives: The ultimate goal of an AP Music Theory course is to develop a student s ability to recognize, understand, and describe the basic materials and processes of music that are heard or presented in a score. The achievement of this goal may be best promoted by integrated approaches to the student s development of: A. Define basic musical terms and theoretical concepts. B. Understand and construct major, minor, chromatic, whole tone, and modal scales. C. Demonstrate the ability to construct and analyze major, minor, augmented, and diminished intervals and triads. D. Recognize, audiate, and sing or play scales, intervals, triads, rhythms, and melodies. E. Sing simple conjunct and disjunct diatonic melodies at sight. F. Construct compositions in four-part texture. G. Analyze harmonic structure utilizing Roman numerals and figured bass. H. Identify basic formand cadences. I. To learn the musical skills necessary for a comprehensive introduction to Music Theory. J. To understand the composition process. K. To develop necessary dictation and compositional skills. These basic concepts will be approached through listening to a wide variety of music, including not only music from standard Western tonal repertoire but also twentieth-century art music, jazz, popular music, and the music of non-western cultures. Although this course will focus primarily on the system of major minor tonality, the class will incorporate at least a brief introduction to modal, pentatonic, whole-tone, and other scales. There will also be an emphasis on equipping students to deal with music of their own time and of various world cultures. Attention will be given to the acquisition of correct notational skills. Speed and fluency with basic materials will be emphasized. Building on this foundation, the course will progress to include more sophisticated and creative tasks, such as: 1. Melodic and harmonic dictation. 2. Composition of a bass line for a given melody, implying appropriate harmony. 3. Realization of figured bass and Roman numeral progressions. 4. Analysis of repertoire, including melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, and form. Sight Singing and Ear Training Students are required to sing everything that is learned in terms of scales, modes, intervals, triads, seventh chords, etc. This serves to solidify the aural aspects of what they see on paper.
GOALS Like most first-year college courses, the AP course should emphasize aural and visual identification of procedures based in common-practice tonality: I. Musical Terminology A. Terms for intervals, triads, seventh chords, scales, and modes B. Terms pertaining to rhythm and meter, melodic construction and variation, harmonic function, cadences and phrase structure, texture, small forms, and musical performance. C. Classification of instruments 1. Brass 2. Woodwind 3. Percussion 4. Orchestral II. Notational Skills A. Rhythms and meters B. Clefs and pitches C. Key signatures, scales, and modes D. Intervals and chords E. Melodic transposition III. Basic Compositional Skills A. Four-voice realization of figured-bass symbols and Roman numerals. B. Composition of a bass line (with chord symbols) for a given melody. C. Composition realization of form. 1. Scales 2. Modulation 3. Minuet and Trio IV. Score Analysis (with or without aural stimulus) A. Small-scale and large-scale harmonic procedures, including: 1. Identification of cadence types 2. Roman-numeral and figured-bass analysis, including nonharmonic tones, seventh chords, and secondary-dominant chords. 3. Identification of key centers and key relationships; recognition of modulation to closely related keys. B. Melodic organization and developmental procedures. 1. Scales (major, minor, pentatonic, whole-tone, modal) 2. Motivic development and relationships (inversion, retrograde, sequence, imitation) C. Rhythmic/metric organization 1. Meter type (duple, triple, quadruple, and irregular) and beat type (simple, compound) 2. Rhythmic devices and procedures (augmentation, diminution, hemiola) D. Texture 1. Monophony, Homophony, Polyphony June 2014
2. Devices (imitation, canon, fugue) E. Formal devices and/or procedures 1. Phrase structure (period, double period, Phrase group) 2. Forms (Binary, Ternary, Strophic, Symphonic movements, Operatic movements) V. Aural Skills A. Sight-singing (major and minor modes, treble and bass clefs, diatonic and chromatic melodies, simple and compound meters) B. Melodic dictation (major and minor modes, treble and bass clefs, diatonic and chromatic melodies, simple and compound meters) C. Harmonic dictation (notation of soprano and bass lines and harmonic analysis in a four-voice texture) D. Identification of isolated pitch and rhythmic patterns E. Detection of errors in pitch and rhythm in one- and two-voice examples F. Identification of musical examples in the context of music literature representing a broad spectrum of genres, media, and styles. 1. Composer name 2. Classical music era/ genre 3. Modern music era/genre. 4. Instrumentation (identification of timbre and texture) Course Planner The following outline is based on a 36-week school year: Week Content 1 Time, Sound, Acoustics, and Classification of Instruments 2 Notation, Clefs, and Enharmonic notes 3 Meter, Divisions, and Sub-divisions 4 Note and Rest Values, Tempo, and Expression 5 Time Classification and Rhythm 6 7 Harmonic and Melodic Intervals 8 Basic Scale Structure 9 Major Scales and Tetra chords with Accidentals 10 11 Minor Scales and Diatonic/Chromatic Intervals 12 13 Key Signatures, Relative and Parallel Keys/Circle of 4ths 14 15 Triads and Tertian Sonority 16 Definition of Tonality and Chord Structure 17 Structure of Tonality 18 Root Position Triads, Doubling and Spacing 19 Voice Leading 20 21 First and Second Inversion Triads 22 Phrase Structure and Cadences 23 24 Harmonic Progression; Introduction to Roman Numeral Analysis and Figured Bass 25 26 Techniques of Harmonization 27 Non harmonic Tones
28 29 Seventh Chords and Inversions Other 30 31 Secondary Triads and Quadrads, Simple Modulation, 32 Practice AP Exam 33 34 Music Research Paper and Class Presentation 35 36 Original Composition Performance Approximately 30 minutes of sight-singing are incorporated on a weekly basis and sight-singing is tested at midterm and at the end of each quarter. Listening activities are also completed each week, appropriate to the unit being studied. Students practice single-line, two part and four-part dictation, utilizing the piano and CDs. Assessments are administered at the end of each concept or unit. Exams are given at the end of the quarter and semester. Each student is required to complete a multi media research project complete with outline, subsequently presenting a 15-minute presentation of their research in class. Students are also required to create original compositions that are performed for the class. The first composition is presented after the scale unit. The Theme and variations is completed at the end of the first semester. The original composition is performed at the end of second semester utilizing live soloists and ensembles when possible. Students are expected to participate actively in classroom discussions and demonstrations each week. In addition to completing assigned homework, they are required to keep a comprehensive theory note book containing all handouts as well as homework, quizzes, and exams that are returned. Students also take turns demonstrating concepts using a chalk board, overhead projector, the voice, or an instrument. In an AP Music Theory course, students should be required to read, notate, write, sing, and listen to music. The development of aural skills is a primary objective of the AP Music Theory course. Throughout the course, students should listen to musical works attentively and analytically, developing their musical memory and their ability to articulate responses to formal, stylistic, and aesthetic qualities of the works.performance development using singing, keyboard, and students primary performance media will also be a part of the learning process. Training in all these areas will develop the necessary aural skills. Students should work both inside and outside the classroom Regular homework assignments are an indispensable component of instruction. These homework assignments will be due the next class period and will be used at instructional material for the unit, chapter, or section assessments.
Examples of student activities: Sight Singing and Rhythmic notation A. Four-Part Chorals, Vol. I (nos. 1 198) by J. S. Bach. (New York: Edwin F. Kalm us, 1985.) B. Different intervals are played on a piano and students are asked to identify which interval is played and then write the interval. Students are then asked to sing the interval that was played. Scales and Chords A. Students are asked to go to the board and identify specific scales by name and key signature. B. Student are asked to write out different scales C. Students are asked to identify different triads and 7 th chords D. Students are asked to perform the different scales on their instrument of voice Rhythmic notation A. A rhythm will be played on the piano and students will be asked to write out the specific rhythm B. Students will be asked to sing specific rhythms Compositions Students will compose multiple original compositions A. Scale Etude 1. The students will select a major scale (other than C Major) and compose a scale etude. 2. The etude will incorporate the major scale and the relative minor scale. 3. This etude will enable to student to demonstrate their understanding of the major and relative minor key relationship. B. Theme and Variation 1. Students are asked to select a simple theme (folk song nursery rhyme, patriotic song, or hymn) and compose the theme on staff paper. 2. The students are then asked to compose variations on the theme ( melody only) using a variety of compositional techniques like: a. change of meter (simple to compound) b. augmentation ( change of note length) c. change of key ( major to relative or parallel or natural minor) d. inversion (mirrored theme) e. ornamentation ( adding trills, turns, non-harmonic tones) C. Original Composition 1. Students are asked to come up with an original melody
2. This melody can be composed in any major or minor key except for C major 3. The students will be asked to compose a bass line to go along with the melody using roman numeral analysis. 4. The bass line can be a moving bass line or can be chords 5. The composition will have three sections A. Original theme and bass line B. Variation section A. Theme and bass line modulate to a different key 1. Major to minor or minor to major (relative scales) 2. Relative key ( I to V ) B. The variation section will have contrast from the original them by using variety of compositional techniques like: 1. Change of meter 2. Change of key 3. Change of bass line (chords to moving bass line) C. Re-statement of original theme with additional compositional techniques like: A. Change of Meter B. Change of Bass Line C. Augmentation D. Inversion State standard and benchmarks met within this curriculum: Standard 1: Learn and develop the essential skills and meet technical demandsunique to dance, music, theatre/drama and visual arts. 5. Demonstrate sight-reading skills, using musical literature appropriate to ability level. 9-12 Benchmark 1B: Identify timbre (tone quality) of extended families of instruments, advanced ranges of instruments and specific voice classifications. 9-12 Benchmark 1C: Acquire beat and rhythmic competency skills. Performance Standards 1. Identify simple, compound and asymmetric meters (aurally, visually in notation and through conducting patterns). 9-12 Benchmark 1D: Identify basic musical notation and symbols. 1. Read, identify and perform using musical notation and symbols from appropriate grade-level literature (instrumental/choral.) 2. Use the conventions of musical notation (e.g., key signature, time signature, clefs, repeat signs) and non-traditional symbols (e.g., aleatoric symbols, tablature, chord symbols, shaped notes). 9-12 Benchmark 5B: Use appropriate terminology to discuss responses and reactions to particular musical works. 1. Describe and analyze the criteria used in the critical evaluation of one's own and other's performances, compositions/arrangements and improvisations.
Standard 2a: Understand how music expresses ideas 1. Recognize and discuss how programmatic and absolute music can express an abstract concept or describe specific events, art work, places, etc. 2. Discuss how movie scores and other background music complement and intensify the action, emotion or mood in a dramatic performance. 3. Discuss how preferences in music are developed among different subgroups (e.g., classes, strata and generations) in our society, showing respect and appreciation for the preferences of others. Standard 4:Demonstrate an understanding of the dynamics of the creative process. 9-12 Benchmark 4A:Describe why music is created and how it is used. 1. Discuss different motivating factors which have inspired the creation of music, including: historical figures, nature, events, literature, drama, etc. 2. Explore the training, skills and education necessary for various careers in music. 3. Communicate an understanding of the role of music as an avocation (e.g., consumer of music, concertgoer, listening to orperforming music for personal pleasure.) 9-12 Benchmark 4B:Explain how music is created. 1. Discuss influences on the creation of music from historical and cultural perspectives (e.g., aboriginal tribes - rituals, religions, social issues, availability of natural materials and technology/tools, etc.). 2. Demonstrate an understanding of principles of repetition, contrast and unity as compositional elements (e.g., score analysis, study of form, personal composition). 3. Identify non-traditional sources (e.g., computer-generated, manipulated, "found sound") Standard 5: Observe, discuss, analyze and make critical judgments about artistic works. 9-12 Benchmark 5A: Identify simple music forms when presented aurally. 1. Identify the musical form of the piece being studied/performed in an ensemble class (e.g., overture, march, symphony, concerto, sonata allegro, rondo). 2. Identify stylistic forms of music (e.g., rap, gamelan, mariachi, oriental, nonwestern, reggae, steel drum, folk, Mongolian throat singing) 9-12 Benchmark 5B:Use appropriate terminology to discuss responses and reactions to particular musical works. 1. Describe and analyze the criteria used in the critical evaluation of one's own and other's performances, compositions/arrangements and improvisations. Standard 6: Show increased awareness of diverse peoples and cultures through visual and performing arts. 9-12 Benchmark 6A:Identify and perform a varied repertoire from historical periods and diverse cultures, with emphasis on the music and the cultures of New Mexico.
1. Study and perform music from various cultures with an emphasis on historical and cultural connections, and on the musical characteristics unique to a national or cultural style of music. 2. Describe the development of American musical styles and the contribution of various ethnic groups represented in American society (e.g., country, folk, blues, jazz, bluegrass, gospel). 4. Compare and contrast music from different eras that employ various compositional techniques (e.g., fugue, classical style, impressionism, atonal music, jazz rhythms). Standard 7: Demonstrate knowledge about how technology and invention have historically influenced artists and offered new possibilities for expression. 9-12 Benchmark 7A: Describe how various instruments have evolved. 1. Describe how technology has influenced the composition and performance of music (e.g., use of computers, computer-generated sounds, electronic keyboards/guitars/violins, etc.). 9-12 Benchmark 7B: Use appropriate music technology. 1. Use recording and playback technology to improve one's personal musical skills. 2. Use appropriate computer-aided instruction programs (e.g., theory programs, rhythmic training, and compositional programs). Assessment Tools: A. Workbook assignments B. Written Assessments C. Instructor Observations D. Multi Media Research Project E. Composition Assignments F. Listening Assignments