Course Description:

San Marino High School Girls Choir is an auditioned ensemble for students who wish to get a better foundation at the art of vocal music. This vocal ensemble performs at 3 major concerts per year. On top of the regular concert season, they also participate in choral festivals on a local and state level.

Course Content:

Students learn to work and sing in small groups through different exercises and choral compositions. Basic music terminology, theory and history are also taught in the class to ensure students' basic musical knowledge.

ESLRs Addressed by Curriculum:

• Critical Thinking
• Technological Literacy
• Post-Secondary Preparation

Critical Standards:

Artistic Perception

1.1Read an instrumental or vocal score up to four staves and explain how the elements of music are used.
1.3Sight-read music accurately and expressively (level of difficulty:3; scale: 1-6)
1.4Analyze and describe the use of musical elements and expressive devices (e.g., articulation, dynamic markings) in aural examples in a varied repertoire of music representing diverse genres, styles, and cultures.
1.5Identify and explain a variety of compositional devices and techniques used to provide unity, variety, tension, and release in aural examples.

Creative Expression

2.1 Sing a repertoire of vocal literature representing various genres, styles, and cultures with expression, technical accuracy, tone quality, vowel shape, and articulation - written and memorized, by oneself and in ensembles (level of difficulty: 4; scales: 1-6).
2.2 Sing music written in three of tour parts with and without accompaniment.
2.3 Sing in small ensembles, with one performer for each part.
2.9 Improvise harmonizing parts, using an appropriate style.

Historical and Cultural Context

3.1 Identify the sources of musical genres of the United States, trace the evolution of those genres, and cite well-known musicians associated with them.
3.4 Perform music from various cultures and time periods.

Aesthetic Valuing

4.1 Develop specific criteria for making informed critical evaluations of the quality and effectiveness of performances, compositions, arrangements, and improvisations and apply those criteria in personal participation in music.
4.2 Evaluate a performance, composition, arrangement, or improvisation by comparing each with an exemplary model.

Connections, Relationships, Applications

5.1 Explain how elements, artistic processes, and organizational principles are used in similar and distinctive ways in the various arts.