Carolyn Wilson Digital Collections (Lipscomb Univ.)
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Search-Solve-Sing: A Group Presentation Model to Strengthen Practice and Performance Techniques in Upper-Level Aural Skills Classes
Get PDFWhether in a high school or college, from conservatories to liberal arts colleges, singing prepared melodies in upper-level aural skills classes presents unique challenges that differ from those of lower levels. While lower-level aural skills melodies tend to incorporate strings of predictable tonal gestures, upper-level aural skills melodies are often complex and require audiation and pre-analysis even for the most accomplished students. This article presents an aural skills lesson model titled Search-Solve-Sing: a three-part plan for preparing and presenting aural skills melodies that puts small groups of students in charge of analyzing, performing, and teaching in the aural skills classroom. In Search-Solve-Sing students work in groups to identify simple sections and troubleshoot challenging ones in a melody (the search and solve portions of the process) as they prepare a lesson plan to present to the class. This is followed by a group performance, and subsequent whole-class performance, of the melody (sing!). Through small group work, students engage more deeply with course materials, develop stronger sight-singing abilities, and reap the benefits of learning from one another. Search-Solve-Sing is a student presentation model that flips the aural skills classroom and allows students to teach and learn from one another
Three Exercises Involving Goldberg Canons
Get PDFThe following worksheets provide improvisation, singing, analytic, and compositional exercises involving canons from Bach’s Goldberg Variations (or Aria mit 30 Veränderungen, BWV 988), published in 1741. They are designed as supplemental activities for second-year theory classes (which typically do not include units on counterpoint or canon), although they could also be used in counterpoint courses, where they might themselves be supplemented with further dictation, improvisation, partimento, and other structured composition exercises. Currently, I use them in my third-semester theory class in an effort to expose students to (and stimulate interest in) the notion of strict counterpoint. They are part of an unofficial unit on my favorite canons. The exercises below introduce students to some of the important aspects of canons that may have escaped their notice prior to this point in the curriculum, in particular 1) that canons may be written at different pitch and time intervals; 2) that they may unfold in accordance with other, more complex “rules”—e.g., retrograde, inversion, augmentation, and diminution; and 3) that they are not simply pieces that exist in sight-singing manuals designed to make undergraduate music majors learn solfège. Some subsidiary benefits of the exercises include introducing students to the Goldberg Variations as a piece of art music with its own history and afterlife and familiarizing them with da capo variations form, the Sarabande as a stately triple-time Baroque dance, the quodlibet as an eighteenth-century “mashup,”2 and Bach’s highly rigorous, contrapuntal mannerof composition. Each of the three exercises on Bach’s canons (as well as a fourth, non-canonical one) fits on two pages. I typically print them on the front and back of one leaf and present them more or less as is. But I am also including clean PDFs of the templates, in case instructors wish to present them along with other introductory material
The Nashville Number System: A Framework for Teaching Harmony in Popular Music
Get PDFThe Nashville number system is a notational practice used by commercial musicians to represent the functional harmony of a complete song on a single sheet of paper. As a result, it can be considered an alternative format to the standard system of Roman numerals and figured bass commonly used in North American music theory classrooms. This article explains the mechanics of the Nashville number system, highlighting its differences with Roman numerals while also discussing some pedagogical applications. For the analysis of popular music especially, the Nashville number system arguably offers a more faithful, efficient, and flexible approach to representing functional harmonic syntax than is possible using traditional Roman numerals
Creating Dynamic Media Examples: a Brief Tutorial
No full textMore and more, music theorists are required to deal with digital video on a regular basis. Whether to create video examples for an online journal or to create flipped classroom content, the ability to create media that serves a research or pedagogical purpose is a useful skill. In my own experience, a basic understanding of video editing tools allows for the creation of videos that have a high production value and are more useful to the intended audience. In this video, I demonstrate a specific type of video I have used in my own research projects that displays a written score of a music example on top of an associated video. The result is an efficient display of both the media under consideration as well as the notated version of the music being heard
Engaging Chopin’s Nocturnes: Model Composition and Nineteenth-Century Diminutions
Get PDFThis tribute to Prof. Peter Schubert reflects my experience teaching a model composition unit on Chopin’s nocturnes, as part of a master’s-level course for “classical” performance majors that was dedicated entirely to hands-on model composition. I discuss Chopin’s rhythmic contours and their significance to this stylistic modeling, which is abstractly inspired by Schubert’s (2008) discussion of rhythms in Renaissance counterpoint. I reflect on post-classical echoes, both in terms of Caplin’s formal types as well as in terms related to Gjerdingen’s harmonic-melodic schemata, as they inform teaching model composition in Chopin’s style. I also discuss possible ways of adapting Kalkbrenner’s (1849) treatise on keyboard improvisation to this context. The article highlights the tension between “thinking in music” and “thinking about music” (Schubert 2011) and some challenges and scaffoldings for teaching model composition
Mock Trials in the Music Theory Classroom
Get PDFMock trials can help music theory students analyze compositions whose thematic, formal, or tonal ambiguities invite multiple interpretations. In this article, I outline the four phases of a music theory mock trial (investigation, evidence, verdict, and discussion), present sample cases, and discuss student responses and pedagogical benefits of using mock trials in the music theory classroom. Music theory mock trials work well for a wide variety of analytical topics and repertoires, as demonstrated by three sample cases. In these cases, students investigate motivic material in Bach’s Invention in B-flat Major (BWV 785), confront cadential ambiguity in Schumann’s “Aus meinen Thränen spriessen” (Dichterliebe, no. 2), and join the scholarly debate surrounding Wagner’s enigmatic Tristan chord. By analyzing compositions via music theory mock trials, students learn to identify and articulate musical evidence to support their analyses, consider diverse music-analytical perspectives, and deepen their critical-thinking skills while engaging their peers in a spirited, but respectful, dialogue
Discerning the Theme in a Galant Variation by Mozart: A Detective Story for the First Day of Theory Class
Get PDFIn the first meeting of my first-semester theory class, I often examine the opening eight measures of the Adagio variation of Mozart’s so-called “Twinkle Variations,” K. 265. Presenting the excerpt as a detective story, in which the class seeks to discern the theme that structures the ornate variation (even in its absence), has proven a compelling way to discuss a handful of important topics that are treated more completely later in the theory curriculum. The foreshadowed topics include theme and variations form; triadic arpeggiation; melodic shape and gesture; cadence; ornament; melodic fluency; gap/fill; musical topic; and genre. The lesson has two further benefits: first, it is a productive way of breaking the ice on the first day of class: the ludic approach (and the beauty of the variation) make it easy to get a discussion going about a piece of eighteenth-century instrumental music. And second, it tacitly functions as a diagnostic, in that it allows me to measure the abilities and backgrounds of entering students quickly in a low-pressure situation. In this lesson plan, I sketch the order and manner in which I present the material to my first-day theory class
A Compendium of Voice-Leading Patterns from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries to Play, Sing, and Transpose at the Keyboard
Get PDFAn original Compendium of baroque and classical voice-leading patterns offers a wealth of historically informed teaching materials for today\u27s pedagogues. Drawing from recent scholarly trends in the German-language music-theoretical community, the historical approach offered here is at odds with many aspects of current Anglo-American music theory pedagogy. Chief among these is the absence of any reference to Roman numerals, chordal roots, or chordal inversion in the Compendium. Instead, a thoroughbass-centered approach is favored, in which the scale degree of the bassline is the primary analytical annotation. This encourages contrapuntal, rather than harmonic, considerations to come to the fore. The voice-leading patterns are divided into three categories: cadences, rules of the octave, and sequences. Each patterns is given in C-major and A-minor in a variety of upper-voice spacings. The student internalizes these patterns by playing, singing, and transposing them at the keyboard. Thus, the Compendium takes a decidedly practical, and less discursive approach than many current textbooks on baroque music