CREATE

Musicians generate ideas through innovative combinations of musical elements, structure, expression, and purpose. Planning new music involves experimentation in the processes of improvisation, arranging, and composing. Constructing a work from generated ideas involves creating an organization for structures, making choices about form, and documenting the musical piece. The design process includes evaluation and refinement of the work using an applied criterion. The culmination of creation and communication is sharing the work with others in a presentation and performance.

PERFORM Performing involves sharing previously created works with an audience. Selecting music of appropriate technical skill, purpose and context is the first step in the process of musical performance. Musicians follow a plan conceived by a composer by analyzing their intent, however there is an opportunity for creative interpretation within the performance. Refining a musical work involves rehearsing the musical work to improve the performance. Presenting is often associated with sharing in formal settings with an audience, but also includes producing the performance for digital purposes. Evaluation of performance will include the response of the audience.

RESPOND Musicians evaluate the quality of musical works and performances by selecting music to analyze and interpret. Responding to music involves analyzing the social, cultural and historical context of the selected musical work. Musicians interpret the composer’s and performers’ intent through their use of the elements, structure, and expressive qualities in the musical work or performance. The quality of the musical work or performance is evaluated through established criteria judging the effectiveness of artistic work.

CONNECT Connecting requires the musician to use personal experiences and gained knowledge to inform their own creative works. They relate musical ideas with the world around them; to society, culture, and history for a deeper understanding of the work, performance practice, and appreciation of the composer.

Vision of the Torrington High School Music Graduate 

• Create (imagine, experiment, plan, write/perform, evaluate, refine and present) music that expresses concepts, ideas and feeling; 

• Perform (select, analyze, interpret, rehearse, evaluate, refine and present) diverse musical works;

• Respond (select, experience, describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate) with understanding to varied musical works and performances;

• Understand and use the materials, techniques, forms (structures, styles, genres), language, notation (written symbols), and literature/repertoire of music;

• Understand the importance of music in expressing and illuminating human experiences, beliefs, and values;

• Identify representative worlds and recognize the characteristics of music from different historical periods and cultures;

• Develop sufficient mastery to continue lifelong involvement in music not only as creators or performers but also as responders (audience members);

• Develop sufficient mastery to be able to pursue further study, if they choose, in preparation for a career 

• Seek music experiences and participate in the artistic life of the school and community;

• Understand the connections among music, other arts, other disciplines, and daily life, and 

• Develop self-discipline, personal goals, a strong work ethic, cooperative group skills, and interpersonal skills through music.

Add Curriculum Map 

Glossary for Music Standards

Alla breve. The *meter signature C (with a vertical slash through the C) indicating the equivalent of 2/2 time.

Articulation. In performance, the characteristics of attack and decay of tones and the manner and extent to which tones in sequence are connected or disconnected (such as legato, staccato, and marcato).

Classroom instruments. Instruments typically used in the general music classroom, including, for example, recorder-type instruments, chorded zithers, mallet instruments, simple percussion instruments, *fretted instruments, keyboard instruments, and electronic instruments.

Diction. The *articulation or pronunciation of words when singing, including both vowel and consonant sounds.

Dynamic levels, dynamics. Degrees of loudness.

Elements of music. Pitch, *rhythm, *harmony, *dynamics, *timbre, *texture, *form.

Expression, expressive, expressively. With appropriate *dynamics, phrasing, *style, and interpretation and appropriate variations in dynamics and tempo.

Form. The overall structural organization of a music composition (e.g., AB, ABA, call and response, rondo, theme and variations, sonata-allegro) and the interrelationships of music events within the overall structure.

Fretted instruments. Instruments with frets (strips of material across the fingerboard allowing the strings to be stopped at predetermined locations), such as guitar, ukulele, mountain dulcimer, and sitar.

Genre. A type or category of music (e.g., sonata, opera, oratorio, art song, gospel, suite, jazz, madrigal, march, work song, lullaby, barbershop, Dixieland).

Harmony. The chordal or vertical combination of pitches.

Intonation. The degree to which pitch is accurately produced in performance, such as among the players in an ensemble.

Level of difficulty. For purposes of these standards, music is classified into six levels of difficulty:

Level 1—Very easy. Easy keys, *meters, and rhythms; limited ranges.

Level 2—Easy. May include changes of tempo, key, and meter; modest ranges.

Level 3—Moderately easy. Contains moderate technical demands, expanded ranges, and varied interpretive requirements.

Level 4—Moderately difficult. Requires well-developed *technical skills, attention to phrasing and interpretation, and ability to perform various meters and rhythms in a variety of keys.

Level 5—Difficult. Requires advanced technical and interpretive skills; contains key signatures with numerous sharps or flats, unusual meters, complex rhythms, subtle *dynamic requirements.

Level 6—Very difficult. Suitable for musically mature students of exceptional competence.

(Adapted with permission from NYSSMA Manual, Edition XXIII, published by the New York State School Music Association, 1991.)

Meter. The grouping in which a succession of rhythmic pulses or beats is organized; indicated by a *meter signature at the beginning of a musical work or section.

Meter signature. An indicator of the *meter of a musical work, usually presented in the form of a fraction, the denominator of which indicates the unit of measurement and the numerator of which indicates the number of units that make up a measure.

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Standard specifications that enable electronic instruments such as the synthesizer, sampler, sequencer, and drum machine from any manufacturer to communicate with one another and with computers.

Ostinato. A short musical pattern (rhythm, melodic phrase, or bass line) that is repeated consistently throughout a composition.

Rhythm. The duration in time of a series of musical notes.

Staves. Plural of staff (the five parallel lines on which music is written).

Style. The distinctive or characteristic manner in which the *elements of music are treated. In practice, the term may be applied to, for example, composers (the style of Copland), periods (Baroque style), media (keyboard style), nations (French style), *forms or types of composition (fugal style, contrapuntal style), or *genres (operatic style, bluegrass style).

Technical accuracy, technical skills. The ability to perform with appropriate *timbre, *intonation, and *diction/*articulation, and correct pitches and *rhythms.

Texture. The manner in which musical lines or notes are interwoven in a section or work.

Timbre. The character or quality of a sound distinguishes one sound source (such as instrument or voice) from another.

Tonality. The harmonic relationship of tones with respect to a definite center or point of rest; fundamental to much of Western music from ca. 1600. 

Students will

5th Grade Instrumental 

• Demonstrate a clear and correct tone

• Understand and perform basic notational symbols up to and including 8th notes and rests

• Understand Bb, C, G, D, and F major scales one octave

• Demonstrate proper instrument position

• Demonstrate proper instrument posture

• Perform with other students with attention to proper rhythm and pitch

• Demonstrate proper tuning

• Perform Grade 1 literature in a group setting

8th Grade Instrumental 

• Demonstrate proficiency in all of the Grade 5 Benchmarks

• Understand and perform notational symbols up to and including 16th notes rhythms

• Understand and perform 1.5-2 octaves correctly on their instrument (depending on the instrument) 

• Perform scales correctly up to and including four sharps and flats in the style expected of CMEA

• Perform in 4/4, ¾, and 2/4 time signatures

• Perform grade 3 (per NYSSMA) literature in an ensemble setting with a clear understanding of all notes, rhythms, and symbols

12th Grade Instrumental 

• Demonstrate proficiency in all of the grade 5 and 8 benchmarks

• Understand and perform advanced rhythms including syncopation and mixed meter concepts

• Perform using the full range of the instrument with proper intonation, breath, and bow support

• Perform all the major and chromatic scales correctly in the style expected of CMEA

• Perform in odd, even, and mixed meter

• Perform grade 5 (per NYSSMA) literature in an ensemble setting with a clear understanding of all notes, rhythms, and symbols

Students will

5th Grade Choral

• Perform S/A (2-part) literature with an understanding of individual parts

• Sight read basic notes and rhythms up to and including 8th notes and rests

• Understand how to match pitch

• Understand basic diction and vowels

• Understand proper breathing 

• Understand basic solfege

• Perform basic choral literature in a group setting

• Demonstrate proper posture

8th Grade Choral

• Demonstrate proficiency in all of the Grade 5 Benchmarks

• Perform S/A/T (3-part) literature with clear understanding of their individual vocal part

• Fully understand how to read and comprehend a choral octavo

• Sight read up to and including 16th note rhythms

• Sight read correct pitched in 3-part literature

• Sight read in solfege

• Perform intermediate choral literature (per NYSSMA) 

12 Grade Choral

• Demonstrate proficiency in all of the Grade 5 and 8 Benchmarks

• Perform in S/A/T/B format 

• Perform advanced choral literature with proper technique (per NYSSMA) including posture, breathing, diction, vowels, and phrasing

• Understand advanced rhythms in odd, even and mixed meter

• Utilize solfege effectively in all literature

• Perform complex harmonies

• Perform a variety of styles and genres at an advanced level (per NYSSMA) 

K-12 Content Standards Complete

K-12 Content Standard 1 Vocal

K-12 Content Standard 2 Instrumental 

K-12 Content Standard 3 Improvisation

K-12 Content Standard 4 Composition

K-12 Content Standard 5 Notation

K-12 Content Standard 6 Analysis

K-12 Content Standard 7 Evaluation

K-12 Content Standard 8 Connections

K-12 Content Standard 9 History and Cultures

Scope and Sequence K-5

Scope and Sequence 4-5 Band and Orchestra 

Scope and Sequence 6-8 Band and Orchestra 

Performance Standards 9-12