Music Review for ExCET
Competency 052 - Higher order thinking Competency 054 - Music
Competency 056 – Fine arts and culture Competency 057 – Interdisciplinary Learning
Competency 058 – Recent Developments
and Issues Sample Practice Items
Competency 052 Higher order thinking
The elementary teacher understands, applies, and encourages higher-order thinking, including critical analysis and problem solving, in the context of products and processes in the fine arts across the curriculum.
The elementary teacher uses higher order thinking in the fine arts (e.g., to evaluate aural similarities and differences among musical selections).
The teacher recognizes opportunities to integrate higher-order thinking into art, music, and theatre education and employs instructional techniques that enable students to apply these skills as they explore and create various types of art in the context of the visual arts, music, and creative drama.
Musical Products and processes
Folk Songs
Folk Dances
Art Music
Opera
Symphonies
Chamber music
Western Art Music Style Periods
Renaissance 1450-1600 – Stressed linear harmonies, independent voices, polyphonic (many voices), controlled dynamics, subtle changes in rhythm, imitative counterpoint (think of singing a round like Row, Row, Row Your Boat)
Baroque 1600-1750 – Stressed musical compositions on a grand scale, tried to impress, motor like rhythms, continuity of music (no speeding up or slowing down, no dynamic contrast), polyphonic music
Classical 1750-1825 – Stressed music that “pleased and entertained”, not intellectual music, natural, homophonic (hymn-like), melody heard in the highest voice accompanied by orchestra, formal structure was often sonata form (AABA), increase in dynamics, many more instruments in the orchestra
Romantic 1825-1900 –Stressed individuality, the emotions of the composer were paramount, idea of the destitute artist struggling for his/her art, increase in dynamic contrasts, no set formal structure (advent of program music), rubato (music that does not have a strict tempo), increase in the size of the orchestra,
Impressionism 1890-1920 – Stressed exotic music for non-Western European countries (Asia)
Twentieth Century – Breakdown of tonal harmonies, atonality, avant garde music
Competency 054 - Music
The elementary teacher understands concepts and skills for producing, listening to, and responding to music and is able to apply this knowledge to a wide range of musical experiences.
The elementary teacher recognizes basic concepts and skills, such as those related to the meaning of basic musical characteristics and terms (e.g., rhythm, melody, harmony, form, timbre) and the recognition and use of contrast in music (e.g., tempo, volume, pitch, meter). The teacher provides students with a variety of musical experiences to promote their knowledge, skills, and appreciation.
Sample Vocabulary
Dynamics = loud/soft, a.k.a. volume
specific dynamics piano=soft forte=loud
Meter = the grouping of steady beats into 2, 3, 4, etc. beats per measure. Songs or chants in two = This is also known as “March Time.” Think of any march (Stars and stripes forever) Bingo, Old McDonald, Hokey Pokey Songs or Chants in Three = This is also known as “Waltz Time.” Think of any waltz. Happy Birthday, Oh, Dear What Can the Matter Be, Sweet Betsy from Pike, The North Wind Doth Blow
Pitch=note, sound you sing or hear
Measure = a grouping of strong and weak steady beats, where there is (generally) one strong beat and one or more weak beats.
Bar line = a line that separates one measure from another.
Staff or stave = what music is written on, usually five lines in standard notation.
Tempo = how fast or slow a piece or song is played or sung.
Andante = walking tempo
Allegro = march tempo
Largo = very slow
Presto = running tempo
Key = a.k.a. key signature, where (on the piano keyboard) a song or piece is written. Determines how high or how low you will sing or play. The key signature is made up of sharps (#) or flats (b).
Modulation=when the pitch of the entire composition gets higher and higher. Think of a pop song that ends with repeating the chorus a little higher each time it is sung.
Metronome = device that establishes tempo
Phrase = analogous to a sentence. Any number of notes that move up or down. Usually will have an antecedent and consequent (question and answer)
Vocal range = how high and low one is expected to sing.
a.k.a. = Tessiatura
Beat = underlying pulse of the music, grouped together in larger units called measures.
Rhythm = a subdivision of a steady beat. Think of clapping the words of chant or song. That’s the rhythm. Rhythms are generally thought of in groupings of twos or threes.
Rhythm of two = Engine, Engine; Pease Porridge Hot
Rhythm of three = Jack Be Nimble, Humpty Dumpty, & Happy Birthday
Harmony = when two or more voices or instruments play together. The piano, the guitar, and the autoharp are instruments played by one person that create harmony by themselves. By yourself, you cannot sing harmony. You can only sing one note at a time.
Monophony = one voice, think of Gregorian Chant, monks singing, everyone sings the same melody
Polyphony = many voices. Think of a round (Row, Row, Row your Boat). Each voice sings the same melody but begins at a different time.
Homophony = together. Think of any church hymn. All voices are singing at exactly the same time. Everyone is together but singing different notes. The exact same rhythm at the exact same time.
Instrumentation
Strings
Percussion
Woodwinds
Brass
Timbre = the specific sound an instrument makes, quality of sound
Pythagoras = Greek mathematician who worked with musical sounds (in addition to the triangle thing)
Octave is a 1:2 relation
Fifth is a 2:3 relation
Overtone series = acoustical property of any vibrating body. The lowest tone is termed the fundamental. By blowing harder (in a tube) you will produce the overtone series
Absolute music=music whose overall structure is determined a priori
Sonata form (AABA), da capo aria (ABA), theme and variations
Programmatic music=music whose structure is determined by a story, poem or program.
The rise and fall of the action associated with the story dictates the rise and fall of the music.
Scales
Major = usually happy, upbeat, march-like or soothing
Minor = usually sad, angry
Diatonic = do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do
Chromatic = all the white and black notes on the piano
Dissonance=harsh, strident sounds
Consonance=pleasing harmonies
Forms
ABA
Sonata form = AABA
Theme and variations
Rondo = ABACADA
Libretto = the words of an opera
Lyrics = the words of a song
Notes values
Quarter notes=usually get one steady beat
Half notes=equals two quarter notes
Eighth notes=half of a quarter note
Competency 056 – Fine arts and culture
The elementary teacher recognizes the fine arts as a vehicle of culture and heritage and uses this knowledge to promote appreciation of the arts of cultures around the world.
The elementary teacher understands that art products tend to reflect the times and societies from which they arise and uses art, music, and theatre as tools for expanding students’ understanding of their own and other cultures. The teacher recognizes the relationships between culture and various art forms and designs activities in which the fine arts are used to promote students’ exploration and appreciation of specific cultures and of the multicultural heritage of their own society.
Competency 057 – Interdisciplinary Learning
The elementary teacher knows how to use the fine arts to promote learning in other content areas, how to use other content areas to promote leaning in the fine arts, and how to connect fine arts concepts and skills to daily life.
The elementary teacher recognizes opportunities to integrate the arts effectively into other areasof the curriculum; for example, performing folk dances associated with cultural groups studied in social studies. The teacher plans instruction that provides student with meaningful interdisciplinary learning experiences and uses everyday contexts to investigate fine arts careers, organizes fine arts instruction, and apply fine arts concepts and skills.
Aside from folk dances, there are correlations between
Math and music: Pythagoras, fractions, sequencing, patterns, form
Science and music – Physics, wave lengths, vibrations, amplitude, amplification, resonance
Language arts and music – Verb tense, pronouns, meaning derived from context, poetry, verse, stanza, rhyming scheme, rhyming words, iambic pentameter
Geography and music – Countries of the music’s origin
History and music – Music is not written in a vacuum. It reflects the times (trails and tribulations) of the societies in which it was written. Think of civil rights protest songs of the 50’s and 60’s and compare them to the songs written in South Africa in the 80’s and 90’s.
Competency 058 – Recent Developments and Issues
The elementary teacher is familiar with recent developments and issues in the fine arts.
The elementary teacher recognizes recent developments and issues in the fine arts education including, for example, increased emphasis on higher-order thinking skills and on the interconnectedness of perceptual awareness, personal expression, arts heritage, and aesthetic judgment. The teacher understands the implications of these developments and issues (e.g., Kodály and Orff methods in music) for instruction in the elementary classroom.
Orff – Method that uses speech and percussion as the basis of making music. Speech is the basic element of music. From speech, individuals add vocal inflections, then body percussion (e.g., clapping, stamping), then non-tuned percussion (e.g., drums, cow bells), then tuned percussion (e.g., xylophones), and finally, movement/dance. Lastly, the words are put to music and sung.
Kodály – Method that emphasizes literacy, singing, hand signs. Based on the belief that singing is the basic method of making music for all cultures. All people can become musically literate (i.e., read music notation) through a carefully sequenced series of graded musical experiences. Emphasizes sound before symbol. The use of hand signs and kinesthetic feedback to children’s musical learning.
Discipline Based Music Education – Method that incorporates history, criticism, production, and aesthetics to give students a more holistic music experience. This is in addition or in lieu of music class. Based on Discipline Based Arts Education (Getty Foundation).
Dalcroze – Method that emphasizes movement and rhythmic literacy as the basis of musicianship. Music education begins with moving to music, and dancing to improvised music. Students must hear and feel the music before they understand the essence of music—Rhythm.
Suzuki -- Mother tongue. A method of musical instruction that features an extended period of aural learning, similar to the way in which people learn their native language. The aural experiance is nurtured over a period of years, then the iconic and symbolic phases of learning are introduced. Essentially, children learn to play music by "ear."