The Vocal Music Curriculum provides a program of studies that prepares students to enter college, conservatory and career programs in vocal music performance. Studies are geared toward the acquisition of artistic and academic skills necessary for success in the real world of the professional artist.
Vocal music students receive intensive instruction in subjects that provide a solid foundation in vocal performance. Each semester students build and strengthen performance competencies through private voice lessons, class piano and ensembles. Ensembles include Glee Club, Concert Choir, Madrigals, Vocal Jazz and Harp and Vocal. Special support for solo performance is received in Voice Performance Class and Voice Master Class where students perform for one another and exchange constructive comments that are designed to improve vocal production and presentation.
Emphasis is placed on reading and writing music. Classes in sight reading, ear training, harmony, composition and arranging enable students to read and compose new music. Original compositions and arrangements, along with recordings of solo and ensemble performances are kept in a portfolio.
The preparation and presentation of a portfolio is required of each student. The portfolio shows the work accomplished by the student during the four years of participation in the vocal music program.
Students will be able to:
| 9th Grade (First Semester) | 9th Grade (Second Semester) |
|
Pre-AP English 1 |
Pre-AP English 2 Pre-AP Algebra 2 U.S. History 2 Introduction to Natural Science (INS) 2 Physical Education or Health Sight Singing and Ear Training Ensemble 2 Applied Music |
| 10th Grade (First Semester) | 10th Grade (Second Semester) |
| Pre-AP English 3 Geometry 1 Economics or Government AP Biology 1 Spanish 1 Ensemble 3 Music Theory 1 Applied Music |
Pre-AP English 4 Geometry 2 Economics or Government AP Biology 2 Spanish 2 Ensemble 4 Music Theory 2 Applied Music |
| 11th Grade (First Semester) | 11th Grade (Second Semester) |
| AP English 5 Algebra 3 Global Issues or Geography AP Chemistry 1 Spanish 3 Ensemble 5 Music Theory 3 Applied Music |
AP English 6 Algebra 4 Global Issues or Geography AP Chemistry 2 Spanish 4 Ensemble 6 Music Theory 4 Applied Music |
| 12th Grade (First Semester) | 12th Grade (Second Semester) |
| AP English 7 Pre-Calculus 1 or AP Calculus 1 AP Physics 1 Spanish 5 Harmony Composition and Arranging 1 Ensemble 7 Elective Ensemble Elective Ensemble Applied Music |
AP English 8 Pre-Calculus 2 or AP Calculus 2 AP Physics 2 Spanish 6 Harmony Composition and Arranging 2 Ensemble 8 Elective Ensemble Elective Ensemble Applied Music |
Vocal 1
Course Description: This course, designed for mixed voices, provides an introduction to vocal technique and performance. Through the utilization of various exercises, techniques and choral selections, students will develop skill in vocal production, vowel formation, diction and intonation.
Prerequisite: None
Vocal 1 Male
Course Description: This intermediate level course, designed for mixed voices, is a continuation of Vocal 1. Students will gain increased musical skills and understandings in preparation for solo, ensemble and group performance.
Prerequisite: Vocal 1 or Instructor Approval
Vocal 1 Female
Course Description: Vocal 1 – Female This course, designed specifically for female voices, introduces methods of vocal production. Students will learn basic concepts of tone production, vowel formation, diction and intonation.
Prerequisite: None
Vocal 2
Course Description: This intermediate level course, designed for mixed voices, is a continuation of Vocal 1 Students will gain increased musical skills and understandings in preparation for solo, ensemble and group performance.
Prerequisite: Vocal 1 or Instructor Approval
(7232) Vocal 2 Male
Course Description: This course, designed specifically for male voices, is a continuation of Vocal 1 – Male. Students will gain increased musical skills and understandings in preparation for solo, ensemble and group performance.
Prerequisite: Vocal 1 Male or Instructor Approval
Vocal 2 Female
Course Description: This course, designed specifically for male voices, is a continuation of Vocal 2 Female. Students will gain increased musical skills and understandings in preparation for solo, ensemble and group performance.
Prerequisite: Vocal 1 Female or Instructor Approval Ensembles 1-8
Glee Club 1
Course Description: This is a chorus composed of all-male or all-female students, depending upon the enrollment and the artistic needs of the students. Glee Club members will study and perform varied choral materials including classical, Broadway, folk and contemporary music.
Prerequisite: Vocal 2 or Instructor
Approval Glee Club
Course Description: This continuation of Glee Club 1 provides preparatory experience for students to enter Concert Choir. Students will study and perform increasingly challenging choral materials with repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary.
Prerequisite: Glee Club 1 or Instructor Approval
Concert Choir 1
Course Description: This choral group of mixed voices performs music of the highest quality with repertoire extending from classical to contemporary. Performances are a cappella or with piano, band or orchestra.
Prerequisite: Glee Club 2 or Instructor Approval
Concert Choir 2
Course Description: This choral group continues the work of Concert Choir 1. Students perform challenging music of the highest quality. Performances are a cappella or with piano, band or orchestra.
Prerequisite: Concert Choir 1 or Instructor Approval
Madrigals 1
Course Description: This is a highly specialized vocal ensemble featuring secular works, usually unaccompanied, from the 14th to the early 17th century. The compositions are studied, analyzed and performed.
Prerequisite: Glee Club, Choir or Instructor Approval
Madrigals 2
Course Description: This class is a continuation of Madrigals 1 and covers a more advanced repertoire. Often madrigal groups perform in costumes of the period and the country represented in the songs.
Prerequisite: Madrigals 1 or Instructor Approval
Vocal Jazz
Course Description: This ensemble focuses on concepts and techniques that include jazz interpretation, vocal improvisation and scat singing. Students will acquire improvisational skills and scat singing techniques through specific exercises and guided practice that will develop the student’s own spontaneity and personal creativity.
Prerequisite: Instructor Approval
Music Theory 1
This entry-level course is a comprehensive study of the basic skills for reading and notating music, terminology, identification of key signatures, the circle of fifths, major and minor scales, rhythm and time signatures. Students will learn to recognize and notate intervals, triads and simple chords, and notate rhythms. Instructional topics include an introduction to phrase and period structure, form, analytical writing, dictation, and keyboard harmony skills are introduced and developed.
Prerequisites: None
Music Theory 2
This intermediate-level course is a continuation of Music Theory 1, including remaining diatonic triads, supertonic- and subdominant-seventh chords, tonicization of V in major and minor and of III in minor; special six-three and the cadential six-four chord usages, small binary and ternary forms. Students will learn concepts of form and analysis and the elementary principles of composition and arranging, analytical, writing, dictation, and keyboard harmony skills are further developed including melodic and rhythmic figuration, modal mixture, the diminished-seventh chord, remaining diatonic seventh chords, applied dominant and leading-tone chords, and diatonic modulation.
Prerequisites: Music Theory 1 or Instructor Approval
Music Theory 3
This advanced-level course is a continuation of Music Theory 2. Students will study contrapuntal techniques, dissonance in tonal music, and standard music composition forms with an introduction to the fugue and sonata. This course will cover an in-depth approach to analytical writing, dictation, and keyboard harmony skills will be introduced with emphasis on chromatic harmony and voice-leading techniques. Instruction will include basic part writing and harmonization including the Neapolitan and augmented-sixth chords, chromatic mediants and submediants, common-tone chords, and augmented triads.
Prerequisites: Music Theory 2 or Instructor Approval
Performance Workshop
This course teaches basic concert etiquette for the performer and audience member and is taught through the use of in class performances that will help students combat performance anxiety. Performing arts majors perform for each other and exchange constructive comments that are designed to help them with diction, technique, interpretation, presentation and showmanship. Topics discussed also include practice technique, attire, performance preparation and careers in the arts.
Prerequisites: None
Voice Master Class
This course is an overview of the singing voice and the mechanics of singing, breathing techniques and the formation of vowels for healthy singing. Students will learn phonetics in order to sing foreign language and musical theater songs with an emphasis on recital preparation, repertoire building, diction, interpretation, and the development of audition and performance skills.
Prerequisites: None
Sight Reading and Ear Training
This course provides a foundation to help students develop their ability to sing at first sight, with correct rhythm and pitch. Students will study sight reading and ear training through reading and listening exercises related to scales, intervals and chords. Special attention will be given to develop the student’s ability to write music from rhythmic, melodic and harmonic dictation.
Prerequisites: None
Harmony Composition and Arranging 1
This course teaches music composition in its beginning stages; practice in phrase, section, and short form construction, analysis, and writing; instruction in range, characteristics, and idiom of instruments and voices. Students will study diatonic and chromatic harmony: and melodic and rhythmic configurations, in the areas of intervals, scales, chords, rhythm, melody, and harmony. Classroom instruction will focus on the conceptual process of combining individual components to create a musically satisfying arrangement. Students will develop original compositions in small forms and apply the writing processes to solo and background writing for two-, three-, four-, and five-part combinations of voices and instruments. This course will also introduce students to digital and MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) sequencing technology to create and produce scores and tracks of either original or existing thematic material using a music writing workstation.
Prerequisites: Music Theory 1 and 2 Piano 1 and 2, or Instructor Approval
Harmony Composition & Arranging 2
Students will study the properties of all musical instruments, and the writing/arranging processes of standard and spread voicings, approach techniques, melodic embellishment, and guide tone backgrounds. Course study includes extensive score analysis and discussions and stylistic techniques and orchestrations of major composers and their historical contribution to music. Utilizing MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) workstations students will submit scores of their compositions to their instructor in order to obtain consent to register; consent is granted on the basis of the quality of the music the student has composed and the level of skill demonstrated in the work submitted. This course is a continuation of Harmony Composition and Arranging 1 that focuses on the techniques and concepts of writing for large ensembles; strings, brass, woodwinds, vocals, percussion and rhythm section, and development in the areas of how to adapt and modify complex rhythmic organization, melody, harmony, voicings, counterpoint, advanced music notation and formal aspects of musical structure; instructional emphasis will be on tonal and atonal pitch structures and extensions of tonality.
Prerequisites: Composition and Arranging 1 or Instructor Approval
Digital Music Production and Engineering
Course Description: This entry-level course covers the roles and responsibilities of music producers and engineers from idea inception to finished product teaching the fundamentals of analog and digital audio. Students will learn recording techniques including microphone placement, console and signal flow and practical applications of a digital audio system, as well as methods for functioning in an integrated Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)/Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)/Analog studio environment. Recording consoles: design, function, and signal flow. Principles of signal processing: reverberation, echo, equalization, compression, effects, microphones and loudspeakers, magnetic recording, multi-track, and sync configurations that includes an overview of studio technologies and basic recording procedures.
Prerequisites: Speech 1 and Writing for Media, or Instructor Approval
Music History
This is a survey of stylistic developments in music from A.D. 500 to the present. Focus is on the classics of Western art music with attention given to stylistic concepts and musical techniques from non-Western cultures. Required of all music majors in the senior year.
Prerequisite- Student must be a senior.
Musical Ensembles
Each semester music majors are required to participate in a performing ensemble pertinent to their musical development. Students from other majors may also participate by audition. The ensembles include:
Applied Music
This course is a weekly private music lesson for voice or on the following instruments: piano, strings (violin, viola, cello, double bass), woodwinds (flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon), brass (trumpet, horn, trombone, tuba), percussion, jazz performance (bass, drums, guitar, piano, saxophone, trombone, trumpet). Students will do technical work (vocal exercises for singers, scales/arpeggios and etudes for instrumentalists) as well as appropriate solo repertoire.
Prerequisite: None
Additional Requirements