Unit III topics and objectives

Unit III (March 18–April 30)

Unit III will cover the following five topics:

  • harmonic syntax (continued from Unit II)
  • melodic listening
  • harmonic listening
  • pop/rock form
  • pop/rock voice-leading

Also included in this unit of study will be work that contributes to the semester-long technology topic.

Final assessment opportunities for melodic listening, harmonic listening, and harmonic syntax will take place in a dictation exam during the first exam slot for your section during finals week (8am section – Monday, April 29, 8:30–10:30am; 10/11am section – Thursday, April 25, 12:30–2:30pm).

Likewise, final assessment opportunities for pop/rock form will take place in an aural analysis exam during the second exam slot for your section during finals week (8am section – Tuesday, April 30, 8:30–10:30am; 10/11am section – Friday, April 26, 8:30–10:30pm).

Pop/rock voice-leading will be assessed via a final project that is due at the beginning of the first exam slot for your section.

Work for each topic of study will be evaluated on a four-point scale: mastery (4), working knowledge (3), incomplete understanding (2), poor understanding (1), and no significant attempt made (0). Rubrics for each category are provided below. (For further information on how final grades are calculated, consult the course syllabus.)

Assessment rubrics

Melodic listening

The objective for melodic listening is for all students to listen to a melody approximately 10–15 seconds long, three times, and notate it with minimal or no errors in pitch or rhythm. The complexity of the melodies will fit those covered in Chapters 1–32 of Karpinski’s Manual for Ear Training and Sight Singing and the accompanying Anthology for Sight Singing.

There will be a final dictation test during finals week, which will determine students’ final grades for this criterion. That test will contain multiple melodies in major and minor, in simple and compound meter.

Each melody on that test will receive two scores on a four-point scale: one for pitch content and one for rhythmic content. Those four-point scores will follow this rubric:

  • 4: Perfect or nearly perfect
  • 3: a couple small errors
  • 2: more than a couple small errors, or one or two bigger errors
  • 1: significant problems, or an inability to finish the melody
  • 0: no significant attempt made

The final score for that test will be the median of all the pitch and rhythm scores earned on the melodies on the test, with the provision that the final grade cannot be higher than the highest score for major-key pitch, minor-key pitch, simple-meter rhythm, or compound-meter rhythm. For example, if a student’s median score is a 3, but her highest score for rhythm on the compound-meter melodies is a 2, the final score is a 2.

Throughout Unit III, we will do some in-class dictation practice, and students will do out-of-class dictation practice with the accompanying CD to the Karpinski text. Students are expected to practice dictation with this CD. Student practice will not only aid their learning, but provide an opportunity for a “safety net” for the final grade. A student’s final score will be no lower than one level below what the student masters in practice. For example, if a student has demonstrated a consistent ability to dictate at the level of 4 in advance of the test, the lowest score they can achieve on the final test (even if they do not take it) is a 3. If 3s are consistently achieved in advance, the lowest final score is a 2. Etc. If a student does no practice work, their final test grade is their final grade for this criterion.

Harmonic listening

The objective for harmonic listening is for all students to listen to a phrase-long chord progression that includes the most common diatonic chords and reliably dictate the melody, bass line, and harmonic content.

A student’s grade for a dictation exercise will be based on which of the following three elements that the student can dictate with minimal or no errors after four hearings:

  • melody
  • bass line
  • harmonic functions (functional bass symbols below the bass notes—interpreted or uninterpreted will be accepted for credit, but aim for interpreted)

Grades will be on a four-point scale: melody and bass line are each worth 1.5 points; harmonic functions are worth 1 point.

There will be a final dictation test during finals week, which will determine students’ final grades for this criterion. That test will contain multiple phrase-length progressions in major and in minor. The student’s grade on that test will be the median score for all the progressions dictated, with the provision that the final grade cannot be higher than the highest score for a minor- or a major-key exercise. (In other words, if a student is better at major than minor, their final score cannot be higher than the score of their best minor-key exercise.)

Throughout Unit III, we will do some in-class dictation practice, and students will do out-of-class dictation practice with a computer application I developed, called BassGenerator. Students are expected to practice dictation with this application. Student practice will not only aid their learning, but provide an opportunity for a “safety net” for the final grade. A student’s final score will be no lower than one level below what the student masters in practice. For example, if a student has demonstrated a consistent ability to dictate all four elements reliably in advance of the test, the lowest score they can achieve on the final test (even if they do not take it) is a 3. If consistency is achieved for three of the four elements in advance, the lowest final score is a 2. Etc. If a student does no practice work, their final test grade is their final grade for this criterion.

Harmonic syntax

The objective for harmonic syntax is for all students to be able to analyze the harmonic functions and roots of chords, and the functional progressions exhibited by chords in musical phrases in major and minor, involving all diatonic chords, simple and compound cadence idioms, and common chromatic chords.

This criterion will be assessed in the harmonic analyses performed on dictation exercises, voice-leading exercises, quizzes, and model composition assignments.

Final grades for this criterion will be determined by what of the following a student demonstrates an ability to do consistently (with minimal or no errors) by the end of the semester. The number of the following four tasks mastered will be the final grade on a four-point scale:

  • Provide Roman numeral analyses of harmonic progressions represented by figured bass lines and by lead-sheet symbols.
  • Provide uninterpreted functional-bass analyses of harmonies in figured bass lines (worth two points).
  • Provide interpreted functional-bass analyses of harmonic progressions represented by figured bass lines.

Pop/rock form

The goal for this criterion is for all students to be able to determine the large-scale formal type of a pop/rock song in strophic, AABA, or verse-chorus form by ear, and be able to construct a detailed timeline analysis of the formal structure of a song in one of these formal types. The score for this category will be determined by performance on in-class quizzes and (primarily) a final exam.

Quizzes and the exam will include two primary types of activity: One is recognition of large-scale structures after two–three hearings. The other is creating a detailed, multi-layer analysis of a song in the Variations Audio Timeliner application.

The final score for this category will be determined according to which of the following five things (minus 1, to get the four-point score) a student demonstrates an ability to do in the final exam and/or the later in-class quizzes:

  • Recognize large-scale formal types
  • Reliably identify cycles (start/end times and types)
  • Reliably identify modules (start/end times and functions)
  • Reliably identify phrases (start/end times and types)
  • Articulate verbally the theme of the text and the way the formal structure of the song supports or works against that theme

Pop/rock voice-leading

The objective for this category is for all students to be able to take a lead sheet (melody and chord symbols) to a pop/rock or contemporary worship song and create a three-voice (SAT) arrangement that makes good invertible counterpoint with the bass line. This criterion will be assessed in reference to a final project, due at the beginning of your section’s first exam slot. That project will involve choosing a song, getting it approved by me, composing alto and tenor parts, typesetting the arrangement, recruiting performers from among your classmates, and recording and submitting a video performance of the three-voice arrangement (preferably, but optionally, with someone playing chords and/or bass line on the keyboard).

The song chosen must include functional dissonances, pedal dissonances, and melodic embellishing tones.

This score for this project will be determined according to which of the following are accomplished in the arrangement:

  • Lines are readily singable (includes default voice-leading principles)
  • Proper treatment of functional dissonances
  • Proper treatment of pedal dissonances
  • Counterpoint is invertible

Technology

Students are expected to demonstrate an ability to do the following in one music notation application:

  • Idiomatically typeset a pop/rock SAT arrangement with lead-sheet symbols.

Students are expected to demonstrate an ability to do the following in two different music notation applications:

  • Typeset a second-, third-, or fourth-species counterpoint exercise.
  • Typeset a keyboard-style voice-leading exercise with figures, functional-bass analysis, and proper step directions.

Since there are five tasks, the grade for this category will be the number of satisfactorily completed tasks minus 1. However, no student can earn a passing score (3 or 4) without attempting each of the three kinds of tasks (species, keyboard, and pop/rock).