In her famous "cours d'accompagnement" at the Paris Conservatory, Nadia Boulanger took great effort to have her students not simply know but rather truly hear and experience the knowledge they were acquiring. To that end, musicianship classes and choral were vital counterparts to her harmony, counterpoint and analysis classes.
Sight Singing
Instructor: Kyle Blaha
This class will improve sight-singing skills through focused practice and application of all intervals. At the advanced level,
the class will involve chromatic exercises as well as composition
projects. Class work will consist of Bach Chorale exercises in
multiple clefs, melodic sight-singing from Lars Edlund’s Modus Vetus
and Modus Novus, as well as projects sculpted for the individual’s
goal. The aim of this class is to improve overall musicianship
through fluency in realizing music at sight.
Solfege
Instructor: Edward Niedermaier
Solfege will work toward fluency in the singing and dictation of intervals, triads, basic chord progressions, tonal melodies, and scale patterns. We will work in fixed-DO solfege and will use treble, bass,
alto, tenor, and soprano clefs. "Advanced Solfege" will work toward
fluency in the singing and dictation of intervals, triads and seventh chords, chord progressions, atonal melodies, and scale patterns. We will work in fixed-DO solfege and will use treble, bass, alto, tenor, soprano, baritone, and mezzo-soprano clefs. We will begin work with transposition using these clefs.
Rhythm
Instructor: Lance Horne
This portion of Ear training will focus on enhancing a sense of inner pulse, working outward from the body. Vocal and clapping exercises in the spirit of Robert Starer, group work to free you from the page, and creative exploration to address whatever aspects of rhythm might be blocking your artistic desires, be they in the creation or execution of your work or the work of others. If rhythm is the thing that scares you most, make that a thing of the past this summer. If it's the thing you love most, come find ways to deepen your practice.
Score Reading
Instructor: Mark Shapiro
Note: There is a pre-requisite of fluency in reading clefs, particularly Soprano, Alto and Tenor clefs. This fluency will be evaluated at the first placement interviews.
Students work collaboratively under the instructor's guidance toward the goal of achieving greater fluency in deciphering printed music. Emphasizing an active, hands-on approach, the sessions entail playing and singing through orchestral and choral repertoire in a variety of styles. Throughout the classes, we discuss practical ways to approach transposition, reduction, clefs, "what-to-leave-out" and other potential stumbling blocks. The course will help you establish a foundation for successful, pleasurable score-reading.
Mark Shapiro |
