Live Virtual Course Offerings
Fall 2020

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Music Composition Level 1

Required Text/Tools:

1. Blank Staff Paper
2. Computer/tablet to be able to log into Zoom
3. Ability to record yourself playing your composition
4. Ability to scan/take a picture and send written work to instructor

Week 1: What is music composition?

1. Talking about what it means to compose music.
2. The difference between spontaneous composition (improvisation) and writing a song/piece of music to be played over and over again
3. Large ensemble vs. small/solo ensemble(s) composition (with instructor’s examples)
4. Homework: Listen to one of your favorite compositions, tell us what it is, and why you like it so much. It can be from any genre of music

Week 2: Composition vs. Arranging

1. What’s the difference?
2. Is there any originality in arranging?
3. How do I compose/arrange original music?
4. Homework: Mary Had a Little Lamb

Week 3: The 12 Bar Blues

1. What is a 12 Bar Blues?
2. Why use the Blues?
3. Which notes can I use?
4. Homework: Blues Composition (email it instructor at least 48 hours before the next class)

Week 4: Review of our Original Compositions

1. Review of our composition
2. How to move forward in composition
3. Final Thoughts

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Music Composition Level 2

Objective: To further study Music Composition by introducing music theory instruction/concepts and applying them to composing music. This will include writing/arranging compositions with melodic lines and harmonic structures.

Required Text/Tools:

• Blank Staff Paper
• Computer/Tablet to be able to log into Zoom
• Ability to Record oneself playing their work
• Ability to scan/take a picture and send written work to instructor

Week 1:

1. What is harmony and how do I use it? Part 1 (Intervals and Triads)
2. Define and differentiate between an interval and a triad, and to show how they are used in music composition.
3. Listen to and go over different types of intervals and triads and use some of them during in class work.
4. Write duets and trios in class using intervals and triads

Homework: Write a short duet and trio

Week 2:

1. What is harmony and how do I use it? Part 2 (7th Chords)
2. Learn the 7th chord and how it is used
3. Analyze compositions and write short pieces that use 7th chords

Homework: Write a short piece for either piano or multiple instruments that uses 7th chords for harmony against an original melody.

Week 3:

1. Rhythm and Time Signatures
2. Combining different types of rhythm and time signatures
3. Listen to examples that use a variety of rhythms and time signatures.
4. Work on brief examples that use a variety of rhythms and time signatures in the same piece.

Homework: Write an original composition for piano or multiple instruments incorporating Intervals, Triads, and 7th chords, varied rhythms and at least 2 different time signatures.

Week 4:

1. Review of our Original Compositions
2. Review of our composition
3. How to move forward in composition
4. Final Thoughts

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Reading The Signs: An Exploration in Score Study and Repertoire
Section A

Students are expected to come to each lecture prepared with:

• Journaled thoughts about the weekly supplemental list
• Readiness to listen and learn from each other
• Openness and good humor

Any materials necessary for the study prescribed within the course will be distributed digitally.

Preparatory Watching:
Herbert von Karajan in Rehearsal with the Wiener Symphoniker
Robert Schumann – Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120

Week One: The Symphony through Differing Lenses

Lecture Pieces:
Franz Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 96 in D Major. “Miracle.” Hob. I:96 – Movement IV
Sergei Prokofiev – Symphony No. 1, “Classical,” Op. 25 – Movement I

Supplemental Listening:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 35 in D Major, “Ha ner,” K. 385
Arnold Schoenberg – Chamber Symphony, Op. 9

Week Two: Music Inspired By Places and Cultures

Lecture Pieces:
Amy Beach – Symphony in E minor, “Gaelic,” Op. 32- Movement I
Felix Mendelssohn – Overture, “The Hebrides” or Fingal’s Cave
and Symphony 4 in A major, “Italian,” Op. 90 – Movement IV

Supplemental Listening:
Manuel de Falla – Noches en los jardines de España, G.49
Tan Dun – Symphony of Colors: Terracotta

Week Three: Music of Struggle, Grief and Triumph

Lecture Pieces:
Samuel Barber – Adagio for Strings, Op. 11
Florence Price – Symphony No. 4 in D minor- Movement IV
and Concert Overture No. 2

Supplemental Listening:
William Grant Still – And They Lynched Him On a Tree (documentary)
Adolphus Hailstork – Epitaph: For A Man Who Dreamed
George Walker – Lyric for Strings

Week Four: The Orchestra as Storyteller

Lecture Pieces:
Richard Wagner – Overture to Der Fliegende Holländer, WWV 63
Bela Bartok – The Miraculous Mandarin, Op. 19 – Opening and First Scene

Supplemental Listening:
Richard Strauss – Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32

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Reading The Signs: An Exploration in Score Study and Repertoire
Section B

Students are expected to come to each lecture prepared with:

• Journaled thoughts about the weekly supplemental list
• Some notes on the week’s assigned score
• Readiness to listen and learn from each other
• Openness and good humor

Any materials necessary for the study prescribed within the course will be distributed digitally.

Course Schedule

Preparatory Watching:

• Video: Gerard Schwarz gives a conducting lesson (with the All-Star Orchestra)
• Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Movement I

Week One: “To the Game or to The Dance” – The Symphonic “Standard” Third Movement

Lecture Pieces:

• Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 2 in C minor, WAB 102, Movement III

Supplemental Listening:

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
• Florence Price – Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Movement III, “Juba Dance”

Week Two: Orchestras in Dialogue, Part One: The Concerto

Lecture Pieces:

• Antonín Dvořák – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G minor, Op. 33, Movement I

Supplemental Listening:

• Camille Saint-Saëns – Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33
• William Grant Still – Ennanga
• Cecile Chaminade – Concertino for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 107
• Howard Hanson – Pastorale for Oboe, Harp and Strings, Op. 38

Week Three: Orchestras in Dialogue, Part Two: Choral-Orchestral Masterworks

Lecture Pieces:

• Ludwig van Beethoven – Fantasie für Klavier, Chor und Orchestra, Op. 80

Supplemental Listening:

• R. Nathaniel Dett – The Ordering of Moses
• Leoš Janáček – Glagolitic Mass, III. Slava

Week Four: Orchestral Adaptations

Lecture Pieces:

• Gaetano Donizetti – Overture to Roberto Devereux
• Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Solemn Overture “The Year 1812”, Op. 49 (excerpts)

Supplemental Listening:

• Leonard Bernstein – Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story”
• Niccolò Paganini – Caprices for solo violin, No. 24 in A minor
• Sergei Rachmaninoff – Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini, Op. 43

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Music Theory Level 1

This introductory course for any music student will start with the basics and create a strong foundation in Music Theory. We will go over the basics: clefs, intervals, rhythmic values, time signatures and begin to touch on chords.

Week 1

• Terminology, pitch notation, rhythmic notation, clefs, notes, rests

Week 2

• The piano keyboard, chromaticism, major scales, minor scales, whole steps and half steps 
• Intro to major and perfect intervals

Week 3

• Major, perfect, diminished, and augmented intervals

Week 4 

• Building the triad
• Looking ahead: everyday theory with our instruments: how it makes us better musicians

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Music Theory Level 2

Theory 2 will begin with a review of intervals and move directly into building triads and 7th chords, and learning complex meters and rhythms. Each class will include written and aural skill training. Students will be able to actively participate during the class – using online tools and their own instruments. Printable worksheets will be provided for practice between classes as well as fun assignments that will fit into a student’s regular practice time on their instrument.

Week 1

• Review of rhythms, intervals and basic triads. Listening and playing activities.

Week 2 

• Major, minor, diminished and Augmented Triads
• Time Signatures and complex rhythms

Week 3

• The Seventh Chord
• Roman numeral analysis 

Week 4

• “Music theory comes to life”
• Listening examples and review.  How to use theory in our daily practice and ensembles.