Trinity Music Program
Pre-K
Trinity's Pre-K music program focuses primarily on singing and musical response. Children learn various age-appropriate songs, and develop their sensitivity to the presence, speed, and mood of music. Activities will include exploration of how songs make us feel, and games like freeze dance.
Kindergarten
In Kindergarten, children develop a sense of the elements of music, of musical comprehension and analysis, and continue to explore age-appropriate songs. In regard to the elements of music, students explore rhythm in the form of keeping a steady beat by clapping, dancing, etc. Students learn to move responsively to music (marching, walking, hopping, swaying, etc.). Students also learn to recognize short and long sounds, fast and slow music, extreme differentiations in pitch, and the fact that phrases can be the same or different. Kindergarten students sing unaccompanied, accompanied, and in unison. In regard to musical analysis, through a variety of music they explore the musical element of timbre; essentially, they learn that different instruments have distinct sounds, and that one can recognize an instrument by its sound. Students learn how to recognize, by sight and by sound, a guitar, a piano, a trumpet, a flute, a violin, and a drum.
Grade 1
In 1st grade, students are introduced to a greater number of musical elements, become familiar with a greater body of musical terms and concepts, are introduced to the American musical tradition of Jazz music, and continue to be exposed to age-appropriate songs. In regard to the elements of music, students develop an understanding that melody can move up and down, begin to hum melodies while listening to non-vocal music, echo short rhythms and melodic patterns, and learn to recognize whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes visually. In regard to terms and concepts, the students are exposed to composers (with brief, child-friendly biological profiles), to the orchestra and its families, to opera, instrumental music, and ballet.
Grade 2
In 2nd grade, students are introduced to a greater body of musical elements, expand their listening and understanding, and continue to sing and learn songs. In regard to musical elements, students develop their ability to recognize less extreme differentiations in tempo, dynamics, and timbre, recognize verse and refrain, learn that musical notes have names and how to name the notes on the treble clef staff, recognize a scale as a series of notes, and learn to sing the C major scale using solfege (do, re mi, etc.). Expanding their knowledge of note values, students are introduced to whole, half, and quarter rests. In regard to understanding, students continue to develop their knowledge of the orchestra as we delve into the individual instruments within the string and percussion families. We also focus on recognition of keyboard instruments, focusing primarily on the piano and organ. We continue to explore the concept of the composer as we introduce the students to Vivaldi, Bach, and Beethoven. As in previous grades, we continue to expand the repertoire of age-appropriate songs through group participation.
Grade 3
In 3rd grade, we concentrate on developing the recognition of harmony through activities like playing rounds. Students continue to develop their sense of timbre and phrasing. Most of this will be done as students learn to play the recorder, an instrument which is easy to learn but has significant musical potential. Students are introduced to the bar line, double bar line, measure, and repeat signs. We expand their knowledge of note values to the eighth note, and introduce time signatures, including common time (four-four), two-four, and three-four. Students are also introduced to dynamic markings (quiet: p, pp; loud: f, ff). Students review the string and percussion families of instruments within the orchestra, and become familiar with the instruments within the brass family (trumpet, French horn, trombone, and tuba). Students listen to pieces to illustrate the use of these instruments. Students also become familiar with the instruments in the woodwind family of the orchestra (flute and piccolo [reedless], clarinet [single reed], and oboe and bassoon [double reed]), conceptually, visually, and aurally. We expand their knowledge and appreciation of composers by introducing them to the music of Tchaikovsky, Sousa, Copland, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Through recorder instruction as well as group singing, we continue expand their knowledge of age-appropriate songs.
Grade 4
In 4th grade, we expand the students' knowledge of and appreciation for the recorder through ensemble playing. Whereas the primary focus of grade three in regard to the recorder was personal proficiency, the focus in 4th grade is to gain a greater appreciation of music, and a greater sense of musicality through musical interaction and harmony. Students begin to understand legato (smoothly flowing) and staccato (crisp, distinct), and play canons. Additionally, students recognize introductions and codas, and themes and variations. Students are introduced to tied notes and dotted notes, sharps, flats, and Da capo (D.C.) al fine markings. We also expand their knowledge and sensitivity in regard to dynamics, with the introduction of mp and mf markings.We introduce the students to the ranges of the human voice. Expanding their knowledge of composers and music, we introduce the students to music by Handel, Haydn, and Mozart. We also begin to explore the Gregorian chant of the Medieval period. Students' familiarity with age-appropriate songs is developed through unison singing and through playing the recorder.
Grade 5
In 5th grade, students learn to recognize simultaneous rhythm patterns and syncopation patterns. They become familiar with more gradual tempo changes (accelerando and ritardando). They become familiar with gradual increases and decreases in volume (crescendo and decrescendo, respectively). Students are also introduced to two- and three-part singing. They become familiar with the concept of an interlude within music, and learn to sing or play simple melodies while reading scores. Students become familiar with the eighth note rest, grouped sixteenth notes, and with the six-eight time signature. We continue to develop the students' knowledge of composers and their music as we introduce them to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (as orchestrated by Ravel). We introduce the students to music from the Renaissance (including choral works by Josquin Desprez and lute songs by John Dowland), and reinforce the connection between music and other disciplines by listening to Mendelssohn's “Overture,” “Scherzo,” and “Wedding March” from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Students also explore the genre of Spirituals, and continue to expand their repertoire of age-appropriate songs.
Grade 6
In 6th grade, a basic vocabulary of the elements of music that inform the discussion, appreciation, and study of selected musical works is learned. A large range of Italian terms applying to tempo will be introduced. The students become familiar with the concept of chords, chord changes, and intervals. We expose students to the bass clef for the first time. Students are also introduced to the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods of music, exploring the major concepts, and the best of the composers and works in each. In the Baroque period, students are introduced to counterpoint, fugue, oratorio, and composers Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel. In the Classical period, students learn of the classical symphony, concerto, chamber music (including the string quartet and sonata), and composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven. In the Romantic period, students learn of Beethoven's role as a transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic periods, about Franz Schubert and his lieder (art songs), and about Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann.
Grade 7
In 7th grade, students are introduced to a greater range of composers and their works in the Romantic period: Johannes Brahms, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner. We explore music tied to a greater sense of national identity as we learn of Czech composer Antonín Leopold Dvořák, Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, and Russian composer Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky. In addition to high-art music, we focus on the American musical traditions of Blues and Jazz.
Grade 8
In 8th grade, students learn about non-Western music, and the scales, instruments, and works unique to each culture. Examples include the 12-tone and pentatonic scales, the sitar from India, the steel drums of the Caribbean, and the koto of Japan. We continue to expand the composers and works who wrote with a greater sense of national identity; we visit Jean Sibelius of Finland, Béla Bartók of Hungary, Joaquín Rodrigo of Spain, and Aaron Copland of the United States. We begin to explore modern high-art music with composers Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky. We also begin to explore vocal music in greater depth; students venture into the genre of opera with its overtures, solos, duets, trios, quartets, choruses, arias, and recitatives. We visit opera composers such as Gioachino Rossini and Giacomo Puccini. We also cover American musical theater, including popular music composers such as Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan and Cole Porter, and Broadway musical composers/lyricists such as Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.
Grades 9-12
In the Music Theory elective, both the written and aural skills of students are developed. In the written component, students start with the basic components of sound, the overtone series, and the principles of musical notation. Moving on, students learn about diatonic scale construction (major, and natural, harmonic, and melodic minor). We cover the church modes, intervals, and principles of rhythm. We briefly explore two-part counterpoint. We then venture into harmony. Following this, we explore the nomenclature of musical analysis, mainly, Roman numeral analysis. We explore an expanding range of harmony moving from the Classical to the early 20th Century, and we conclude the written component of the course with four-part choral writing.