Unpacked Content
Essential Questions
EU: Response to music is informed by analyzing context (social, cultural, and historical) and how creators and performers manipulate the elements of music.
EQ: How does understanding the structure and context of music inform a response?
EQ: How does understanding the structure and context of music inform a response?
Skills Examples
Reading/ Writing
- Listen to a teacher selected piece of music and write a short response about the perceived meaning behind the music. What is it describing? Illustrating? What elements of the composition point you to your prediction about its meaning? Following the writing activity, educators should reveal the intended meaning behind the selection and have students discuss with classmates.
- Identify and describe musical elements within a piece of music that contribute to the overall mood of the selection.
- Describe ways in which a given selection of music could be altered (mode, dynamics, style, key, etc.) so that the selection could evoke a completely different mood, or illustrate a completely different meaning for the listener.
- Listen to several different performances of the same selection of music, and discuss how the interpretations impact the overall presentation.
Vocabulary
Rhythm
- Simple meter
- Compound meter
- Contour
- Conjunct/ disjunct
- Major/ minor
- Monophonic
- Polyphonic
- Call and response
- Round
- Canon
- Binary form (AB)
- Ternary form (ABA)
- Dynamics
- Tempo markings
- Phrase
- Key signatures
- Treble or bass clef (dependent on student voicing/ instrument)
- Rhythmic dictation
Anchor Standards
Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
