AP Music Theory Course Syllabus Lemon Bay High School

Mr. Joshua Grossnicklaus, instructor

Course Overview AP Music Theory is offered to students who wish to increase their knowledge about the fundamentals of musical composition through the study of theory principles. A background in musical performance is strongly recommended for this course, but not a requirement. This course will focus on the common practice period (1600-1900), however it will also address topics in both Renaissance and 20th century music. Course Objectives By the end of this course, students will be able do all of the following:

a) Notate pitches and rhythms in treble, bass, and moveable C clefs b) Demonstrate and identify pitch intervals up to an octave, both as notated on a

staff and aurally c) Write, sing, notate, and identify (in notation and aurally) major and minor scales

(all forms) d) Demonstrate proper voice-leading principles in 2-part species counterpoint and

4-part chorale-style writing e) Analyze the harmonic structure of musical compositions using Roman numeral

analysis, including the ability to identify non-chord tones f) Dictate melodies, rhythms, and harmonic progressions aurally g) Sing melodies in simple and compound meter which feature a variety of rhythms

and intervallic leaps in the tonic, dominant, and dominant 7th chords h) Analyze and diagram musical form in binary, ternary, rounded binary, and others i) Identify 20th century musical compositional techniques in notation and practice

Textbooks and Study Materials Kostka, Stefan, and Dorothy Payne. Tonal Harmony: With an Introduction to Twentieth-Century Music (text AND workbook), 7th Edition, McGraw-Hill Education Rogers, Nancy, and Robert Ottman. Music for Sight-Singing, 9th Edition, Pearson Bach, Johann Sebastian. Selections from Anna Magdalena’s Notebook (ed. By Willard A. Palmer), 2nd edition, Alfred Publishing Other materials to be utilized in this course will include scores and recordings used for harmonic analysis and study of form. Additionally, students will analyze various keyboard works from the Baroque to late Romantic period sourced from various anthologies. In addressing 20th century music, we will use subject material from the Kostka/Payne text in addition to listening examples. Teacher created exercises will also be used to supplement aural training activities as well as written theory skills.

Course Outline The alignment of the course material will be taught over the course of two 18-week semesters, and is outlined as follow: Semester 1 Course Outline Weeks 1-2 (8 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapters 1-2, Rogers/Ottman Chapters 1-2

Written Skills - Introduction to course; begin introductory materials – notation on a staff, clef identification, key signatures, time signatures, interval identification, note length, elements of rhythm

Aural training – identifying intervals of a m2 and M2, introduction to solfege singing, major and minor scales

Week 3-4 (9 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapters 3-4, Rogers/Ottman Chapters 1-2

Written Skills - Introduction to triads and seventh chords, inversions and figured bass symbols, popular music chord notation, diatonic chords in major and minor keys, introduction to Roman numeral usage in musical analysis

Aural training – identifying root position triads, intervals of a m3 and M3, solfege singing of simple melodies, singing triads and seventh chords

Weeks 5-6 (9 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapters 4-5, Rogers/Ottman Chapters 1-2

Written Skills – Roman numeral analysis, functionality of chord inversions, principles of voice leading

Aural training – intervals up to a M3, identifying root position 7th chords, solfege singing of simple melodies in stepwise motion, notating simple melodies with missing notes in simple meter

Weeks 7-8 (10 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapter 6, Rogers/Ottman Chapters 3-4

Written Skills – Root position part writing, transposing for different instruments, arranging 3-part and 4-part pieces for instruments, creating a score from a reduction

Aural training – identifying triads and 7th chord inversions, identifying intervals of P4 and P5, solfege singing of simple melodies include intervals of up to a M3, notating simple melodies

Week 9-10 (9 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapter 7, Rogers/Ottman Chapters 3-4

Written Skills – Roman numeral analysis of three and four-part texture, chord functionality and movement analysis, harmonizing a melody using root position chords, arranging harmonized melodies for a variety of instruments

Aural Training – Identifying intervals up to a P5, solfege singing of melodies in simple and compound meter with triad leaps, rhythmic notation up to quarter notes in simple meter, error detection in melodies

Midterm Exam covering all materials will be given

Week 11-12 (10 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapters 8-9, Rogers/Ottman Chapters 5

Written Skills – Roman numeral analysis of three and four-part texture with first and second inversion triads, functionality of first and second inversion triads, cadential 6/4 resolution, passing 6/4 chords

Aural Training – Identifying intervals of a m6 and M6, solfege singing of melodies in simple and compound meter with leaps in the tonic triad, rhythmic notation up to eighth notes in simple meter, error detection in melodies

Week 13-15 (14 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapter 10, Rogers/Ottman Chapter 6

Written Skills – Adding form notational marks, diagram cadence and periods, analyze harmonic progressions with phrases and subphrases, usage of motives and motivic treatment, creating and developing short melodies based motivic fragments

Aural Training – Identify intervals up to a M6, solfege singing of melodies in simple and compound meter with leaps in the dominant triad, notation/form analysis of listening examples, rhythmic dictation up to eighth notes in compound meter

Week 16 – 18 (15 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapter 11, Rogers/Ottman Chapter 6

Written Skills – Analyzing and indicating non-chord tones in music, identifying different types of NCT, Roman numeral analysis including non-chord tones

Aural Training – Review of all interval identification, introduce identification of triad quality, identifying NCT by listening

Semester 1 Exam – Covers all material up to this point Semester 2 Course Outline Week 1-3 (9 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapter 12, Rogers/Ottman Chapter 7, Anna Magdalena Notebook

Written Skills: Correctly identifying NCT by type, anticipations and suspensions, pedal point discussion, analysis with Roman numerals including all forms of NCT

Aural Training: Rhythmic dictation including sixteenth notes in simple meters, melodic dictation of melodies in major keys with stepwise motion in simple rhythms, singing melodies in C clefs

Week 4-5 (10 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapter 13/14, Rogers/Ottman Chapter 8, Anna Magdalena Notebook

Written Skills: Identification and function of V7 chords, function of dominants, resolution, inversions of the V7 chord, introduction to non-dominant diatonic 7th chords, ii7 and vii7 chords in function, relation to V7 chords in major keys

Aural Training: Further usage of diatonic leaps in singing within simple and compound meters, rhythmic dictation up to sixteenth notes in compound meters, melodic dictation of melodies with leaps in the tonic triad

Week 6-7 (10 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapter 15-17, Rogers/Ottman Chapter 10

Written Skills: Identifying other non-dominant diatonic 7th chords, analysis of 7th chords in the circle of fifth sequence, Roman numeral analysis in major and minor keys, identifying secondary functions of chords, spelling secondary dominants, analysis of secondary chords in context, identifying secondary leading tone chords, spelling of secondary leading tone chords, analysis and function of leading tone chords

Aural Training: Rhythmic dictation in compound time of dotted rhythms, melodic dictation of melodies with leaps in the tonic triad in compound time, identifying intervals up to a P8

Weeks 8-10 (9 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapter 18/19, Rogers/Ottman Chapter 11

Written Skills: Modulations using common chords to closely related keys, key relationships, altered chords as common chords, sequential modulation

Aural Training: Sight singing of leaps within the tonic and dominant triads, rhythmic dictation in simple and compound time of all rhythmic values to date, melodic dictation of melodies with leaps in the tonic and V7 chords, identifying intervals up to P8

Weeks 11-12 (10 class periods) – Kostka/Payne Chapter 20

Written Skills: Analysis forms (binary, ternary, rounded binary), 12-bar blues, sonata form, sonata-rondo form, theme and variation, strophic song, codas, diagramming form in pieces of music, creating and manipulating melodies that follow small forms

Aural Training: Review of singing intervals of all types up to a P8, leaps within diatonic triads and dominant chords

Weeks 13-14 (9 class periods) – 20th Century music examples

Written Skills: Analysis of form of 20th century music, introduction to 20th century compositional techniques, non-traditional scales (whole tone, octatonic, pentatonic, modal usage), introduction to 20th century examples, compositional project incorporating 20th century techniques

Aural Training: Review of all aural skills learned up to this point, including aural identification of non-traditional (whole tone, octatonic, etc.) scales

Week 15 – Review and Test Prep, Mock AP Exam Week 16 – Review and full AP Exam

Teaching Strategies Some of the teaching strategies I will be using incorporate technology for reinforcement of fundamental concepts. I plan to utilize online-based applications, such as those found online at websites like www.musictheory.net to reinforce and emphasize certain elements of the course, specifically interval and note identification. As this course will consist of advanced music students at Lemon Bay High School, we will also utilize full scores studies of wind band and choral music for reinforcement of musical concepts and idea. Student Evaluation Students will be evaluated using assignments from the Workbook for Tonal Harmony, teacher-created test assignments, and bi-weekly short quizzes. Each chapter will feature a summative assessment that covers all material introduced in the chapter. There will be a midterm exam given at the halfway point of each semester that will be inclusive of all material learned up to that point. Students will receive grades for the course based on the following areas:

Unit Tests – 30% o 100 points possible per unit test; test will cover all material learned within

each unit as outlined in the syllabus

Class Participation – 25% o 20 points possible per day; 5 points for each item – pencil, staff paper,

theory workbook, and active participation

In-class Quizzes – 25% o Point values vary based on type of quiz; students should expect 1-2 quizzes

each week focused on the week’s course material as outlined above

Sight-Singing, Rhythmic Dictation, and Ear Training Quizzes – 20% o Sight-singing will be graded based on the AP rubric for sight-singing

examples on the exam; rhythmic dictation will be scored with 1 point for each correct beat within each measure; ear training quizzes will be scored out of the total number of examples in each quiz (minimum of 10 questions in each quiz)

Other Resources and Materials We will utilize relevant music examples (those pieces from which students are learning in their ensemble classes), musical works in the public domain, and modern popular music examples.