High School Music Repertoire Project

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See examples of assignment below


The Purpose of this assignment is to help you select music to share with your students,


Assignment: Find 20 musical selections that you would consider sharing with your students. Consider the following criteria: ****

  1. Musical examples must be appropriate for the age and interests of the learners. Carefully
    review the appropriateness of the lyrics for all vocal selections. Consider length and challenges
    the piece might offer to the students
  2. Musical examples must include a variety of genres. If the goal of music learning in high
    schools is to help students gain musical knowledge that will allow them to become musically
    independent and continue to participate in musical activities throughout their lives, then music
    should be selected from a wide variety of genres. A genre is a classification of a kind of music.
    Genre not only identifies timbral qualities but also the function of the music within the culture.
    Some genres you are familiar with would be: lullabies, children’s songs, marches, polkas, love
    songs, hymns, string quartets, choral, and band music. Consider music from small and large
    ensembles as well as vocal and instrumental music, and consider music from many different
    cultures.
  3. Musical examples must reflect all musical styles. Although "style" is often interpreted
    differently by different people, for our purposes we will use the term "style" to refer to music
    that has become associated with a certain time and place. Therefore we may refer to the style of
    Beethoven (1770-1827), the style of Elvis Presley (ca. 1965), Classical European Music 1750-
    1800 or The "Golden Age" of South Indian Classical Music (1750-1850). Consider three broad
    categories that help us to choose music from a diversity of styles:
  1. Music examples must be “music of value.” Ultimately, the test for inclusion of any musical
    example must be based in its power to help individuals find music to be a source of beauty and
    joy, to provide the freedom to participate in the special kind of immediate, personal expression
    that no other form of communication can emulate. It would be wonderful if there were some hard
    and fast rules as to what makes one piece of music more meaningful than another. Sadly, there
    are none. However, some guidelines may be used to help you make choices. The first is, “Does
    the music stand the tests of time?” We are not only talking about great musical works that have
    remained in a culture’s repertoire for centuries. We are also talking about current time. How

From your repertoire list, you will choose works to complete the Teacher Work Sample and Teaching Episode assignment. I suggest you try to answer the questions posed by the Facets Model as you develop your list, for it is in your best interest to have a pool of quality musical works to choose from. Please email and give me a hard copy of this assignment on or before the date specified in the syllabus. Write “HS Music Repertoire” in the subject line of your email.


Evaluation Criteria

  1. Your list should include the title of the selection, the name of the composer(s) (if known) or genre, and the publisher (if it is a piece to be performed) (10 points)
  2. Your list should include 10 recordings, include the title of CD and length of piece in minutes and seconds (Pass or Fail)
  3. Your list should include 10 selections that high school students could perform (Pass or Fail)Write a statement about why you are interested in each selection and/or why you would like to share it with your students (20 points)
  4. Write two paragraphs (one for the recordings and one for the performance pieces) that thoroughly describe your attempts to meet the four criteria above: (a) appropriateness; (b) composer and/or genre; (c) style; (d) value (20 points)

Example I (Annabelle Hummel)

Example II (Janice Janowitz)

Example III (Jason Pergolesi)

 

**** These criteria were adapted from Musical Growth in the Elementary School (6th edition), by Bergethon, Boardman, and Montgomery. Harcourt Brace, 1997