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

• CR1.1 - 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?

Objectives

• Compose and improvise melodic and rhythmic ideas or motives that reflect characteristic(s) of music or text(s) studied in rehearsal.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• CR2.1 - 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?

Objectives

• Select and develop draft melodic and rhythmic ideas or motives that demonstrate understanding of characteristic(s) of music or text(s) studied in rehearsal.
• Preserve draft compositions and improvisations through standard notation and audio recording.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• CR3.1 - 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?

Objectives

• Evaluate and refine draft compositions and improvisations based on knowledge, skill, and collaboratively-developed criteria.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Cr3.2 - 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?

Objectives

• Share personally-developed melodic and rhythmic ideas or motives – individually or as an ensemble – that demonstrate understanding of characteristics of music or texts studied in rehearsal.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Pr4.1 - 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?

Objectives

• Select a varied repertoire to study based on music reading skills (where appropriate), an understanding of formal design in the music, context, and the technical skill of the individual and ensemble.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Pr4.2 - 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?

Objectives

• Demonstrate, using music reading skills where appropriate, how the setting and formal characteristics of musical works contribute to understanding the context of the music in prepared or improvised performances.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Pr4.3 - 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?

Objectives

• Demonstrate understanding and application of expressive qualities in a varied repertoire of music through prepared and improvised performances.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Pr5.1 - Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.

Process Component

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

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?

Objectives

• Evaluate and refine draft compositions and improvisations based on knowledge, skill, and collaboratively-developed criteria.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Pr6.1 - 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?

Objectives

• Demonstrate attention to technical accuracy and expressive qualities in prepared and improvised performances of a varied repertoire of music representing diverse cultures and styles.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the context of the music through prepared and improvised performances.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Re7.1 - 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?

Objectives

• Explain reasons for selecting music citing characteristics found in the music and connections to interest, purpose, and context.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Re7.2 - 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?

Objectives

• Describe how understanding context and the way the elements of music are manipulated inform the response to music.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Re8.1 - 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?

Objectives

• Identify and support interpretations of the expressive intent and meaning of musical works, citing as evidence the treatment of the elements of music, contexts, and (when appropriate) the setting of the text.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Re9.1 - 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)?

Objectives

• Explain the influence of experiences, analysis, and context on interest in and evaluation of music.

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Cn10.0 - 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?

Objectives

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

ANCHOR STANDARD

• Cn11.0 - 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?

Objectives

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