Massachusetts
Arts
Curriculum
Framework
Arts
Curriculum
Framework
Specifically Related to Music
Core Concept
In
dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts, people express ideas and
emotions that they cannot express in language alone. In order to
understand the range and depth of the human imagination, one must have
knowledge of the arts.
An effective curriculum in the performing and visual arts enables students to:
An effective curriculum in the performing and visual arts enables students to:
- communicate fluently and effectively in at least one artistic discipline
- apply both imagination and rational thinking to the making of art;
- understand the value of reflection and critical judgment in creative work;
- present and perform art publicly, with confidence, pride, and distinction;
- use artistic literacy as a natural enhancement to learning other subjects;
- understand how world cultures have been historically influenced and shaped by the arts; and
- understand the ways in which the arts contribute to contemporary life.
The arts — including spoken and written poetry and narrative along with dance, music, theatre, film, visual arts, and architecture — embody memorable and eloquent expressions of human ideas and feelings. Art that is worthy of attention expresses truths about human nature; it crosses frontiers of ethnicity, economic status, and historical tradition. In order to comprehend how artists express meaning, students must acquire literacy in the arts. The term “artistic literacy” means the ability to use and understand symbols and structures of dance, music, theatre, and visual arts. Artistic literacy thus complements linguistic literacy, which is the ability to use and understand language.
Writers combine thoughts in ways that are primarily discursive — words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs chosen and arranged in a particular linear order. Visual artists, musicians, composers, choreographers, designers, dancers, and filmmakers, on the other hand, often think and act in non-discursive ways. They express perceptions and ideas through simultaneous combinations of shapes, colors, sounds, and movements for which there are no precise verbal equivalents.2
Arts education broadens students’ thinking about ways of expression and communication, enabling them to create and perform, as well as respond to both historical and contemporary forms. Educators, therefore, should provide artistic experiences, cultural resources, and technologies that range from traditional harmonic scales of color and sound to the domain of cyberspace.
Students of the arts gain knowledge and self-critical awareness, often accompanied by cathartic pleasure. Like the gymnasium, performing and visual arts studios are places where emerging intuitive and intellectual skills can be physically tested. They are places in which students can reflect upon, play with, and remake in their own voices that which they hear, see, and feel in their lives. As they learn to communicate through the arts, students understand why people need more than words alone for eloquent expression.
“Music
has a tremendous value as an academic discipline. It contributes to the
understanding of other subjects. In school there’s a tremendous
difference between learning and doing. With music, you do both.”
Joan Schmidt, Board Member, National School Boards Association
Through music education students become fluent in the language of music as artistic, intellectual, and cultural expression. Performing, creating, and responding to music provide means for development and growth. Learning to read and notate music opens for students the limitless body of musical styles, forms, and repertoire, and allows them to see what they hear and hear what they see. Fluency in music brings understanding of contemporary and historical cultures, as well as self-knowledge. Music includes forms such as folk, popular, band and orchestral music, gospel music and oratorio, jazz, opera, and musical theatre.
Joan Schmidt, Board Member, National School Boards Association
Through music education students become fluent in the language of music as artistic, intellectual, and cultural expression. Performing, creating, and responding to music provide means for development and growth. Learning to read and notate music opens for students the limitless body of musical styles, forms, and repertoire, and allows them to see what they hear and hear what they see. Fluency in music brings understanding of contemporary and historical cultures, as well as self-knowledge. Music includes forms such as folk, popular, band and orchestral music, gospel music and oratorio, jazz, opera, and musical theatre.
The PreK–12 Standards for Music in this Strand:
1. Singing. Students will sing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Reading and Notation. Students will read music written in standard notation.
3. Playing Instruments. Students will play instruments, alone and with others, to perform a varied repertoire of music.
4. Improvisation and Composition. Students will improvise, compose, and arrange music.
5. Critical Response. Students will describe and analyze their own music and the music of others using appropriate music vocabulary. When appropriate, students will connect their analysis to interpretation and evaluation.
2. Reading and Notation. Students will read music written in standard notation.
3. Playing Instruments. Students will play instruments, alone and with others, to perform a varied repertoire of music.
4. Improvisation and Composition. Students will improvise, compose, and arrange music.
5. Critical Response. Students will describe and analyze their own music and the music of others using appropriate music vocabulary. When appropriate, students will connect their analysis to interpretation and evaluation.
Connections Strand
6. Purposes and
Meanings in the Arts. Students will describe the purposes for which
works of dance, music, theatre, visual arts, and architecture were and
are created, and, when appropriate, interpret their meanings.
7. Roles of Artists in Communities. Students will describe the roles of artists, patrons, cultural organizations, and arts institutions in societies of the past and present.
8. Concepts of Style, Stylistic Influence, and Stylistic Change. Students will demonstrate their understanding of styles, stylistic influence, and stylistic change by identifying when and where art works were created, and by analyzing characteristic features of art works from various historical periods, cultures, and genres.
9. Inventions, Technologies, and the Arts. Students will describe and analyze how performing and visual artists use and have used materials, inventions, and technologies in their work.
10. Interdisciplinary Connections. Students will apply their knowledge of the arts to the study of English language arts, foreign languages, health, history and social science, mathematics, and science and technology/engineering.
7. Roles of Artists in Communities. Students will describe the roles of artists, patrons, cultural organizations, and arts institutions in societies of the past and present.
8. Concepts of Style, Stylistic Influence, and Stylistic Change. Students will demonstrate their understanding of styles, stylistic influence, and stylistic change by identifying when and where art works were created, and by analyzing characteristic features of art works from various historical periods, cultures, and genres.
9. Inventions, Technologies, and the Arts. Students will describe and analyze how performing and visual artists use and have used materials, inventions, and technologies in their work.
10. Interdisciplinary Connections. Students will apply their knowledge of the arts to the study of English language arts, foreign languages, health, history and social science, mathematics, and science and technology/engineering.
