Music Repertoire Project
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 criteria*
below and develop your own list.
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 the challenges (listening,
performance, or composition) the piece might offer to the students. As a
rule of thumb, try to find listening selections or excerpts that are 3 minutes
or less.
2. Musical examples must include a variety of genres. If the goal of
music learning in schools is to help children 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.
Some genres you are familiar with would be: lullabies, children’s songs, marches,
polkas, love songs, hymns, string quartets, choruses, 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 (ca. 1800),
European Romanticism (1806-1920) or the style of Elvis Presley (ca. 1965).
There are, however, three broad categories
that help us to choose music from a diversity of styles:
- "Folk" and traditional music is representative of the many cultures that
make up our world. "This Old Man" would be an example of American folk music.
- "Art" music, including music of the master composers from all cultures
and all style periods, from the earliest known to the music of today.
- "Contemporary" music, such as jazz, rock, musical comedy, reggae, new
age, rap, and country.
4. 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 many times can you listen to a particular selection without becoming
bored? "Great" music is meaningful enough that we can listen to it many times
and each time find something new that attracts
our interest.
A second question that may be asked is related
to the first. "Does the music possess a balance between repetition and
contrast?" Songs that are highly repetitive, with the same melodic, harmonic,
and rhythmic ideas repeated over and over with little variation soon lose their
meaning. Conversely, if there is no repetition, if each phrase of the song introduces
completely new ideas, there is nothing to "hang on
to," and the music seems to become gibberish. It is important, of course, to
recognize that musical examples drawn from an unfamiliar style might seem boring
or meaningless, simply because we are not accustomed to the musical organization
used. In this case, it would be wrong to reject the music as having no value
without immersing oneself in the music and other customs of that culture long
enough to be able to make informed choices
as to its musical value.
Evaluation Criteria:
From your list, you will choose works to complete the Facets Model assignment
and the Unit Plan/Teaching Episode assignment. Since we are trying to develop
interdisciplinary lessons, it is important that you select music that will
provide connectability. Therefore, try to answer some of the questions posed
by the Facets Model as you develop your list. It is in your best interest to
have a pool of quality musical works to choose from. Please turn in a hard
copy of your assignment on or before the due date in the syllabus and copy
and paste this assignment into the body of an email. Don't be concerned about
formatting in
the
email version.Write "Music Repertoire Project" in the subject line of the email.
- 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)
(20 points)
- Your list should include 10 recordings, include title of CD and length
of the selection in minutes and seconds.Use your field experience to help you
do this. If possible speak with middle school or junior high teachers about
appropriate repertoire. (Pass or Fail)
- Your list should include 10 selections that middle school students could
perform. Use your field experience to help you do this. If possible speak
with middle school or junior high teachers about appropriate repertoire.(Pass
or Fail)
- Write a sentence about why you are interested in each selection and/or
why you would like to share it with your students (20 points)
- Summarize: Write one paragraph that describes your attempts
to meet the four selection criteria for
your listening selections and one paragraph that describes your attempts
to the meet the four slection criteria for your performance selections. Include
all four criteria in each of your paragraphs: (a) appropriateness; (b) composer
and/or genre; (c) style; (d) value (10 points).
*These criteria
were adpated from Musical Growth in the Elementary School, 6th Edition, by
Bergethon, Boardman, and Montgomery.
Examples of Repertoire Projects:
Melissa Tschaikovsky
Dimitri Sostenuto(pdf)