Course Syllabus
Vocal Music is a course designed to develop students’ interest in music by studying the voice and musical performance. Park Ridge choral ensembles focus on the development of comprehensive choral musicianship through the performance experience. Students will be exposed to a breadth of music literature with an emphasis on high quality performance and thorough understanding. Students will broaden their musical understanding through the study of group vocal technique, musical genres, world cultures, and written music notation. Vocal Music provides students with the opportunity to perform a variety of musical repertoires for peers, parents, and community members.
Course Goal:
The goal of Vocal Music is to further cultivate each student’s talents, gifts, and virtues to develop comprehensive musicians in knowledge and skills. The lessons of leadership, self-discipline, responsibility, and confidence from this cooperative musical environment will hopefully remain with the students throughout their future endeavors. Musical growth requires significant effort from everyone involved.
Course Objectives:
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Musicianship – aural skills and sight-singing
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Music Literacy – pitch and rhythmic notation, score-reading and terminology
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Vocal Production – technique, anatomy and singers’ use of the body
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Choral Literature – history, context and styles of works and texts
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Language and Diction – use of the International Phonetic Alphabet and formation of speech sounds
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Critical Listening – evaluating performance
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Compositional Analysis – examining a score
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Ensemble Skills – balance, blend, creativity and teamwork
