Susan Bush
EDUC 411
2/28/06
Text Set for Music
Great American Music
The Great American Music Unit will focus on the music of America, exploring composers and ensembles unique to and
characteristic of the United States. This unit will utilize primary sources texts by American composers, interviews, articles on
American compositions, and editorials on the American ensemble tradition. Students will read the texts for comprehension on surface
level and also analytical understanding. In addition, students will synthesis the information that they read after direct experiences with
the music. Generally, students will have the opportunity to apply what they have learned through listening to or performing music.
Students will extend their knowledge with home research using Internet resources and individual music collections to learn more
about the composers, their music, and related historical events.
Proficient Music Standards:
1.1 Read an instrumental or vocal score of up to four staves and explain how the elements of music are used.
1.4 Analyze 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.
1.5 Identify and explain a variety of compositional devices and techniques used to provide unity, variety, tension, and release in aural
examples.
1.6 Analyze the use of form in a varied repertoire of music representing diverse genres, styles, and cultures.
2.4 Perform on an instrument a repertoire of instrumental literature representing various genres, styles, and cultures with expression,
technical accuracy, tone quality, and articulation, by oneself and in ensembles (level of difficulty: 4 on a scale of 1-6).
2.5 Perform on an instrument in small ensembles, with one performer for each part.
2.8 Arrange pieces for voices and instruments other than those for which the pieces were originally written.
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.
3.2 Explain the various roles that musicians perform, identify representative individuals who have functioned in each role, and explain
their activities and achievements.
3.4 Perform music from various cultures and time periods.
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.
5.1 Explain how elements, artistic processes, and organizational principles are used in similar and distinctive ways in the various arts.
Literacy/English Standards:
2.5 Extend ideas presented in primary or secondary sources through original analysis, evaluation, and elaboration.
2.6 Demonstrate use of sophisticated learning tools by following technical directions (e.g., those found with graphic calculators and
specialized software programs and in access guides to World Wide Web sites on the Internet).
2.4 Deliver oral responses to literature:
a. Advance a judgment demonstrating a comprehensive grasp of the significant ideas of works or passages (i.e., make and support
warranted assertions about the text).
b. Support important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed references to the text or to other works.
c. Demonstrate awareness of the author's use of stylistic devices and an appreciation of the effects created.
d. Identify and assess the impact of perceived ambiguities, nuances, and complexities within the text.
Text
Colburn, Michael J.
“John Williams Returns
to Bands.” The
Instrumentalist. June
2004 v. 58, n. 11 p 1217

Lesson Structure
 Students will
read the
interview.
 Students will
perform or listen
to William’s
compositions
Students will talk
about what they
heard in the
music based on
the article
 Students will
Teachable Moments
Extensions
Assessment
Students will find a Students will write about
 Students will
movie or composition their observations in the
learn about the
recording at home and
extension. Also,
march genre and
write about what they
evaluation will take
J.P. Sousa
heard. (This includes,
place orally in class
 Students will
discussion. Mock
study borrowed Harry Potter, Star Wars,
Schindler’s
List,
etc.)
Interviews
can be grades
music (Holst,
Dvorak) Students will write about for comprehension of the
what they heard.
reading material.
 Students will
discuss the film
music genre
 Possibly the
Holocaust in
Porter, Keith. Four
Musical Minimalists.
Cambridge University
Press: Cambridge 2000.
p. 153-159

Agrell, Jeffrey. “The
Creative Hornist.” The
Horn Call. October
2005. v. XXXVI n. 1 p.
42-43.
conduct MockInterviews as
Williams.
 Students will
perform
Clapping Music
or Music for
Pieces of Wood.
 Students will
read the article
about Different
Trains
 Students will
listen to
Different Trains
Students will talk
about what they
heard
 Students will
discuss
Holocaust and
WWII in
America
 Students will
read article.
 Students will
write about
ensemble ideas.
 Students will
brainstorm as a
studying
Schindler’s List

Discussion of
Twentieth
century
technological
techniques and
advances in
music
 Discussion of
Minimalism
 Discussion of
Holocaust and
WWII in music
 Discussion of
role of composer
in history

Study of the
garage band,
60’s music,
American
Experimentalism
 Creativity in
composition,
Students will find a Students will write in the
piece (modern, popular,
extension activity.
classical, etc) about war
Students will be
or conflict and write a
evaluated in class
paragraph about the discussion participation.
musical devices used
and socio-political
context.
Students will meet
outside of class in their
groups to rehearse a
given skeletal piece,
using unique
instrumentation and
improvising and
In class writing can be
evaluated for
comprehension.
Weiss, Piero; Taruskin,
Richard; Ives, Charles.
Excerpts from “From the
writings of Charles
Ives.” Music in the
Western World.
Schirmer Books: New
York, 1984. p. 423-426
Williams, Mary.
Readings on West Side
Story. Greenhaven
group about
ensembles and
how to get
started
 Students will get
into groups with
friends for
extension.
 Students will
read the excerpt
 Students will
listen to the
original Charles
Ives recording of
“They are
There!” as well
as the choral
recording
 Students will
analyze Ives’s
own recording
using the ideas in
the reading- this
will be a written
assignment.
 Students will
discuss
 Students will
read the article
 Students will
improvisation
Teamwork and
collaborative
skills
arranging the work.
Students will present
this in the next class.
World War II
and Vietnam
 The American
Experimentalist
Movement
 Traditional
American folk
and patriotic
music and its
applications and
associations
 The concept of
the musical as
the consumer and
producer of
music
Students will find a
patriotic or folk song
from America or their
other cultural heritage.
They will write about
when they first
remember hearing this
music and what it
reminds them of
currently.
Student writings in class
and extension can be
evaluated for
comprehension.
Students will find a
piece of music that
relates to social conflict,
Student writing can be
evaluated in extension.
Student comprehension



Discussion on
historical and
current social
Press: San Diego, 2001.
p. 69-76
watch portions of
the filmed
musical
 Students will
analyze musical
qualities (fugue,
12 tone, etc.)
 Students will
discuss
social/cultural
conflict,
identifying
current conflict
and historic
conflict

and cultural
including urban youth
conflict in the
gang issues. Students
USA will write a paragraph on
Learn about 12- the musical devices and
the message of the
tone technique,
music.
fugue and
invention form.
 Learn about
modern musical
form, with
modern
influences
and musical device
understanding will be
assessed using question
and answer in the
classroom.