Instructor: Daniel Kiser
Phone: ext. 7154
E-Mail: kiser@lrc.edu
Office: Mauney Music Building 112

TEXTS

Black, Dave and Gerou, Tom. Essential Dictionary of Orchestration. Alfred Music Co., Inc. 1998.

Gerou, Tom and Lusk, Linda. Essential Dictionary of Music Notation. Alfred Music Co., Inc. 1996.

RECOMMENDED / ON RESERVE

Adler, Samuel. The Study of Orchestration, 3rd edition. W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.

Enhanced CDs: Adler, Samuel. The Study of Orchestration. W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. (This is a six-disc DVD set that provides demonstrations of the orchestral instruments and many of the techniques employed by orchestral musicians.)

The text and the software will be on reserve in the library and may be checked out overnight.

OVERVIEW

The following is a projected outline of topics and projects in MUS 301. However, the instructor reserves the right to adjust assignments, topics, and projects in order to "customize" the course to the abilities of students in the class. Students are encouraged to propose alterations in assignments to reflect their particular interests. All alterations in assignments and projects will be approved in advanced by the instructor and will be confirmed through an e-mail. Although some assignments will be very specific, many MUS 301 assignments/projects will be selected by students (with the approval of the instructor).

PRELUDE

Essential Dictionary of Music Notation: This manual will be used as a reference for proper musical notation throughout the semester. This manual will provide the model for standard practice notation, which will be expected throughout the course.

Finale2007®  MUSIC NOTATION SOFTWARE

Computer music notation basics – The early class sessions will be spent learning the basics of computer music notation using Finale®. Topics covered will be manual notation, MIDI input, MIDI output, transposition, lyrics, part extraction and other topics as needed. Students who have significant experience using Finale® will serve as a resource for other students as they acquire software skills.

Students will be expected to use Finale2007®, which is available in the MIDI lab, for class assignments and projects. Course projects should be saved in the Music folder on the network Lab Server drive or submitted via email.

Note, the MIDI lab has not been upgraded to Finale2008®, and files created in the 2008 version cannot be read by the lab computers.

Students should also back up all projects to a floppy disk or to their own personal network folder and to a disc or flash drive. Warning: Files do sometimes do become corrupted, and the instructor cannot evaluate files that cannot be opened. Please make sure that there are backup files of all course projects.

COPYRIGHT CONSIDERATIONS

One class session will be dedicated to a discussion of copyright laws as they apply to music.  Students will complete a web search of available materials and will be prepared to discuss their findings.

INSTRUMENT FAMILIES

MUS 301 will be organized by instrument families. Students, either individually or in small groups depending on course enrollment, will prepare presentations on the instrument groups. Samuel Adler’s text and software (on reserve) should be utilized as part of the presentation.  To save preparation time, the software may be installed on student laptop computers. However, the discs are required in order to use the software.

Each presentation should provide an overview of the assigned family, its characteristics, techniques, and scoring considerations.

Woodwinds – Discussion of the characteristics of the instruments of the woodwind family. Attention will be drawn to timbre, range/register, clefs, function in ensembles, and transposition.

Scoring - This time will be spent discussing scoring practices for woodwind instruments. Students will score two hymns (to be selected with the approval of the instructor) for woodwind choir which would be suitable for use as a warm-up chorale for the woodwinds of the LRC Concert Band or for a church woodwind ensemble. The second hymn will include a newly-composed descant for the last verse. Scores will be in transposed pitch.

Major project – Students will orchestrate a short vocal art song (4 original pages) for woodwind quintet. (Pieces will be selected with the approval of the instructor.) The score should include articulation marks, dynamic marks, tempo marks, appropriate title, and copyright notice. This assignment will be submitted in both paper form and on disk (.MUS file) or on the network drive. The score should be notated in transposed pitch.

Brass – This time will be spent discussing the characteristics of the instruments of the brass family. Attention will be drawn to timbre, range/register, clefs, function in ensembles, and transposition.

Scoring - Students will score two hymns (to be selected with the approval of the instructor) for brass choir which would be suitable for use as a warm-up chorale for a church or student brass ensemble. The second hymn will include a newly-composed descant for the last verse. Scores will be in transposed pitch and will play back using the general midi library.

Major project - Students will orchestrate a short vocal art song (3-4 original pages) for a brass ensemble of five to seven voices. (Pieces will be selected with the approval of the instructor.) The score should include articulation marks, dynamic marks, tempo indications, appropriate title, and copyright notice. This assignment will be submitted in both paper form and on disk (.MUS file) or on the network drive. The score should be notated in transposed pitch.

Strings – This time will be spent discussing the characteristics of the instruments of the string family. Attention will be drawn to timbre, range/register, function in ensembles, and transposition (double bass).

Percussion - This time will be spent discussing the characteristics of the instruments of the percussion family. Attention will be drawn to timbre, range/register,  clefs, function in ensembles, and transposition (mallets).

Concert Band – A short assignment will be completed in which a segment of an art song, piano piece, organ piece, or other similar excerpt will be arranged for concert band.

Final projects – These will be chosen by the student with the approval of the instructor. Possible projects include transcribing substantive (5 minutes) vocal songs or arias for solo instrument with instrumental ensemble accompaniment, orchestrating the same song or aria for brass quintet, woodwind quintet, or band. This is a major project and will require several hours in the computer lab.

Final Exam – Monday, May 5, 2008, 10:30 a.m. This session will involve class presentations of each student’s final project. Students should be prepared to answer questions about scoring, transposition, balance, and specific orchestration techniques used in the project.

Students should each submit a CD with her/his collected project files.

POSTLUDE

Assignments – Additional assignments (and corresponding due dates) will be announced periodically during the semester. Late assignments will be accepted, but, grades for assignments will be reduced one letter for each day after the due date.

Instructional flexibility – The instructor reserves the right to adjust the syllabus, instructional mode, and course requirements as the semester progresses in order to provide students with the best educational experience possible. Any changes will be clearly indicated and will be distributed well in advance of any anticipated due dates.

Specifics
Major projects should be "publishable" in terms of copyright restrictions. Each piece chosen for major projects should be in the public domain (initially published prior to 1928) or have the written permission of the copyright holder to arrange.

All assignments involving notation will be completed using Finale® and will be submitted electronically through the network drive or floppy disk. Most assignments will also be submitted with a paper copy of the score.

Scores (except condensed scores) will usually be transposed. Individual parts will always be transposed and will be generated using the extract parts function. Remember that each extracted part must be individually formatted and checked before printing.

All assignment files should use the General MIDI instrument library so that appropriate instrument sounds are used during playback. You can check this by using your disk on a different computer and playing the score.

Attendance – Because of the "hands on" nature of the course, attendance is required.  Although absences for family emergency, illness or other unavoidable reason may be excused by contacting the instructor, college policy stipulates that students will not normally receive credit for the course if more than 25% of class sessions are missed. Unexcused absences will negatively impact course grades.

Individual sessions to discuss specific projects will be scheduled throughout the semester. These may occur outside of class time and will be scheduled as appropriate.

Teacher Licensure Indicators Addressed
Standard 3 - Indicator 3: Music teachers compose, harmonize and arrange music.

Standard 4 - Indicator 2: Music teachers are proficient with MIDI-based music writing and sequencing software.

Standard 9 - Indicator 1: Music teachers comply with laws governing copyrights and royalties.