The Visual and Performing Arts Departments throughout Ridgefield Public Schools aim to create inspiring experiences that are common to all the arts: exploring, creating, performing, presenting, interpreting, connecting, and reflecting. We believe the arts promote awareness of the world and provide an opportunity to seek meaning through a creative process.

Music at Ridgefield Public Schools and in the State of Connecticut is based on the National Core Art Standards/Connecticut Arts Standards. These standards are based on the artistic processes of Creating, Performing, Responding and Connecting. The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards defines these processes as:

Creating : Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work. Improvising and composing.

Performing: Realizing and presenting artistic ideas and work.

Responding: Understanding and evaluating how the arts convey meaning. Critical listening with intent.

Connecting: Relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.

Based on the interests and need of the students in a particular class, specific projects and pieces are selected by the music teacher.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.

Process Component

• Imagine - Generate musical ideas for various purposes and contexts.

Enduring Understanding

• The creative ideas, concepts, and feelings that influence musicians’ work emerge from a variety of sources.

Essential Question

• How do musicians generate creative ideas?

Standards

• Cr1.1.8
  • Generate rhythmic, melodic and harmonic phrases and harmonic accompaniments within expanded forms (including introductions, transitions, and codas) that convey expressive intent

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.

Process Component

• Plan and Make - Select and develop musical ideas for defined purposes and contexts.

Enduring Understanding

• Musicians’ creative choices are influenced by their expertise, context, and expressive intent.

Essential Question

• How do musicians make creative decisions?

Standards

• Cr2.1.8
  • Select, organize, and document musical ideas for arrangements, songs, and compositions within expanded forms that demonstrate tension and release, unity and variety, balance, and convey expressive intent.
  • Use standard and/or iconic notation and/or audio/ video recording to document personal rhythmic phrases, melodic phrases, and harmonic sequences.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Refine and complete artistic work.

Process Component

• Evaluate and Refine - Evaluate and refine selected musical ideas to create musical work that meets appropriate criteria.

Enduring Understanding

• Musicians evaluate, and refine their work through openness to new ideas, persistence, and the application of appropriate criteria.

Essential Question

• How do musicians improve the quality of their creative work?

Standards

• Cr3.1.8
  • Evaluate their own work by selecting and applying criteria including appropriate application of compositional techniques, style, form, and use of sound sources.
  • Describe the rationale for refining works by explaining the choices, based on evaluation criteria.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Refine and complete artistic work.

Process Component

• Present - Share creative musical work that conveys intent, demonstrates craftsmanship, and exhibits originality.

Enduring Understanding

• Musicians’ presentation of creative work is the culmination of a process of creation and communication.

Essential Question

• When is creative work ready to share?

Standards

• Cr3.2.8
  • Present the final version of their documented composition, song, or arrangement, using craftsmanship and originality to demonstrate the application of compositional techniques for creating unity and variety, tension and release, and balance to convey expressive intent.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Select, analyze and interpret artistic work for presentation.

Process Component

• Select - Select varied musical works to present based on interest, knowledge, technical skill, and context.

Enduring Understanding

• Performers’ interest in and knowledge of musical works, understanding of their own technical skill, and the context for a performance influence the selection of repertoire.

Essential Question

• How do performers select repertoire?

Standards

• Pr4.1.8
  • Apply personally-developed criteria for selecting music of contrasting styles for a program with a specific purpose and/or context, and explain expressive qualities, technical challenges, and reasons for choices.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Select, analyze and interpret artistic work for presentation.

Process Component

• Analyze - Analyze the structure and context of varied musical works and their implications for performance

Enduring Understanding

• Analyzing creators’ context and how they manipulate elements of music provides insight into their intent and informs performance.

Essential Question

• How does understanding the structure and context of musical works inform performance?

Standards

• Pr4.2.8
  • Compare the structure of contrasting pieces of music selected for performance, explaining how the elements of music are used in each.
  • When analyzing selected music, sight-read in treble or bass clef simple rhythmic, melodic, and/or harmonic notation.
  • Identity how cultural and historical context inform performances and result in different musical effects.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Select, analyze and interpret artistic work for presentation.

Process Component

• Interpret - Develop personal interpretations that consider creators’ intent.

Enduring Understanding

• Performers make interpretive decisions based on their understanding of context and expressive intent.

Essential Question

• How do performers interpret musical works?

Standards

• Pr4.3.8
  • Perform contrasting pieces of music, demonstrating as well as explaining how the music’s intent is conveyed by their interpretations of the elements of music and expressive qualities (such as dynamics, tempo, timbre, articulation/style, and phrasing).

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.

Process Component

• Rehearse, Evaluate and Refine - Evaluate and refine personal and ensemble performances, individually or in collaboration with others.

Enduring Understanding

• To express their musical ideas, musicians analyze, evaluate, and refine their performance over time through openness to new ideas, persistence, and the application of appropriate criteria.

Essential Question

• How do musicians improve the quality of their performance?

Standards

• Pr5.1.8
  • Identify and apply personally-developed criteria (such as demonstrating correct interpretation of notation, technical skill of performer, originality, emotional impact, variety, and interest) to rehearse, refine, and determine when the music is ready to perform.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work

Process Component

• Present - Perform expressively, with appropriate interpretation and technical accuracy, and in a manner appropriate to the audience and context.

Enduring Understanding

• Musicians judge performance based on criteria that vary across time, place, and cultures. The context and how a work is presented influence the audience response.

Essential Question

• When is a performance judged ready to present? How do context and the manner in which musical work is presented influence audience response?

Standards

• Pr6.1.8
  • Perform the music with technical accuracy, stylistic expression, and culturally authentic practices in music to convey the creator’s intent.
  • Demonstrate performance decorum (such as stage presence, attire, and behavior) and audience etiquette appropriate for venue, purpose, context, and style.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Perceive and analyze artistic work.

Process Component

• Select - Choose music appropriate for a specific purpose or context.

Enduring Understanding

• Individuals' selection of musical works is influenced by their interests, experiences, understandings, and purposes.

Essential Question

• How do individuals choose music to experience?

Standards

• Re7.1.8
  • Select programs of music (such as a CD mix or live performances) and demonstrate the connections to an interest or experience for a specific purpose.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Perceive and analyze artistic work.

Process Component

• Analyze - Analyze how the structure and context of varied musical works inform the response.

Enduring Understanding

• Response to music is informed by analyzing context(social, cultural, and historical) and how creators and performers manipulate the elements of music.

Essential Question

• How does understanding the structure and context of music inform a response?

Standards

• Re7.2.8
  • Compare how the elements of music and expressive qualities relate to the structure within programs of music.
  • Identify and compare the context of programs of music from a variety of genres, cultures, and historical periods.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.

Process Component

• Interpret - Support interpretations of musical works that reflect creators’/performers’ expressive intent.

Enduring Understanding

• Through their use of elements and structures of music, creators and performers provide clues to their expressive intent.

Essential Question

• How do we discern the musical creators’ and performers’ expressive intent?

Standards

• Re8.1.8
  • Support personal interpretation of contrasting programs of music and explain how creators’ or performers’ apply the elements of music and expressive qualities, within genres, cultures, and historical periods to convey expressive intent.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.

Process Component

• Evaluate - Support evaluations of musical works and performances based on analysis, interpretation, and established criteria.

Enduring Understanding

• The personal evaluation of musical work(s) and performance(s) is informed by analysis, interpretation, and established criteria.

Essential Question

• How do we judge the quality of musical work(s) and performance(s)?

Standards

• Re9.1.8
  • Apply appropriate personally-developed criteria to evaluate musical works or performances.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.

Process Component

• Connect - Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make music.

Enduring Understanding

• Musicians connect their personal interests, experiences, ideas, and knowledge to creating, performing, and responding.

Essential Question

• How do musicians make meaningful connections to creating, performing, and responding?

Standards

• Cn10.0.8
  • Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.

Process Component

• Connect - Relate musical ideas and works with varied context to deepen understanding.

Enduring Understanding

• Understanding connections to varied contexts and daily life enhances musicians’ creating, performing, and responding.

Essential Question

• How do the other arts, other disciplines, contexts, and daily life inform creating, performing, and responding to music?

Standards

• Cn11.0.8
  • Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.