MediaKit Contents:
Music in Theory and Practice, Vol. I
Music for Sight Singing
MacGAMUT 6 User Disk
Syllabus:
Fall Semester
Week 1
Class procedures, and an introduction to technologies
Week 2
Notation of pitch
Intervals
Rhythm and meter
Division of the beat
Dynamics
Diatonic and chromatic semi-tones
Enharmonic notation
Major and minor scales and keys
The circle of fifths
Week 3
Perfect, major and minor intervals
Consonance/dissonance
Augmented and diminished intervals
Interval inversion
Interval fluency (drilling)
Methods of transposition
Week 4
Review week
Week 5
Harmonic vocabulary
Chords and chord members
Triads: their qualities (M, m, Aug., Dim.) and inversions
Week 6
Harmonic analysis: Roman numerals, chord positioning symbols
Harmonic analysis continued: Seventh chords, figured bass
Week 7
The particles of form: motives, phrases, cadences, periods
Project: Group analysis and debate
Week 8
Non-harmonic tones: Defining and differentiating types
Non-harmonic tones continued: Achieving fluency in identification
Week 9
Review Week
Week 10
The particles of form continued: Melodic structure and contour, sequences, phrasing
Week 11
Texture: Elements and analysis
Textural reduction
Week 12
Review week and Introduction to Composition
Project: simple I, IV, V, I homophonic song – in groups (3 weeks)
Week 13
Voice leading 1: Counterpoint guidelines, writing for two parts
Week 14
Voice leading 2: Four-voice “chorale” texture and analysis
Week 15
Voice leading 3: Four-voice composition; rules (and exceptions)
Week 16
Harmonic progression and rhythm: Creating bass line/harmony
Week 17
Review Week and Mid-term Exam
Spring Semester
Week 18
Dominant seventh chords
Inversions and resolutions
Week 19
Leading-tone seventh chords
Variants and resolutions
Week 20
Non-dominant seventh chords
Function, analysis, resolution
Week 21
Review week
Week 22
Modulation: Related keys, methods of writing modulation
Week 23
AP Practice Exam and review
Aural/sight-reading drills
Intermediate Composition Project: Use of form, common chord progressions, modulation, secondary chords
Week 24
Secondary dominant/leading-tone chords 1
Week 25
Secondary dominant/leading-tone chords 2
Week 26
Review Week
Week 27
Form 1: Divisions, two-part form, compound forms
Week 28
Form 2: Three-part form, rounded binary form, other forms
Week 29
Composition Project Week
Project follow-up: Audio presentations of compositions
Week 30
Twentieth Century composition
Basic instrumentation
Week 31
AP Practice Exam and review
Aural/sightreading drills
Week 32
AP Exam review continued
Week 33
Wrap-up discussion and saying good-bye!
Course Objectives:
This course will give students introduction, practice, and mastery of the following topics in Music Theory:
1. The fundamentals of tone, including pitch, intervals, pitch organization (scales and keys), and pitch combination (chords).
2. Advanced chord vocabulary, including dominant, nondominant and leading-tone seventh chords.
3. The fundamentals of rhythm, including notation, duration, metric organization, and rhythmic patterns.
4. Comprehension and fluency in common-practice harmony, including chord quality and positioning, voice leading (up to four parts), and counterpoint.
5. Advanced harmonic understanding, including common harmonic progressions, common bass line movement, harmonic rhythm, and modulation techniques.
6. Fluency in the basic symbolic and analytical language of music, including figured bass realization and Roman numeral analysis.
7. The basic components of musical form, including motives and phrases, and their combinations into larger musical structures.
8. An understanding of the historical developments in music theory, from the modes of the medieval era through the popular, folk, and jazz music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
9. An introduction to twentieth-century scales, chordal structures, and compositional procedures, through a basic analysis of the components and their use in modern music.
10. The many connections between music and other disciplines in the humanities (visual art, literature, etc.).
Written course materials are supplemented with a rigorous course of sight singing and ear training exercises.
|