Students are expected to select two classes. The remaining two class periods serve as study periods.
General Musical Development
RUDIMENTS
(Class Capacity per level 28)
Instructors: L1 Myron Sauder, L2 Dwilyn Beiler, L3 Wendell Nisly, L4 Lyle Stutzman, L5 Wendell Glick
Rudiments is offered as a five-level series that begins with the very basics of music notation. Students who enroll in Rudiments for the first time are required to take a placement test, and will receive testing information with their acceptance letter. Returning Rudiments students may elect to repeat or advance to the next level. First year Rudiments students should estimate their level.
Rudiments 1 assumes no prior musical knowledge. It begins with the elements of basic notation and expands through the study of ledger lines, simple time signatures, note and rest values, and accidentals.
Prerequisites: none.
Rudiments 2 is a study of scales and key signatures and an introduction to intervals.
Prerequisites: basic understanding of Rudiments 1, including letter names in treble and bass clefs.
Rudiments 3 is a study of intervals (perfect, major, minor, diminished, and augmented). It also deals with triplets, syncopation, transposition, incomplete measures, and compound time signatures.
Prerequisites: working knowledge of letter names, scales, and key signatures; the concept of whole and half steps; and the information described in Rudiments 2.
Rudiments 4 focuses on triads, triad inversions, chords, chord progressions, dominant seventh chords, and minor scales.
Prerequisites: fluency with letter names (treble and bass clefs) and a basic understanding of intervals as
described in Rudiments 3.
Rudiments 5 explores basic music composition through a study of tonal and modal foundations, attributes of great melodies, principles of functional harmonization, and the use of simple formal structures to nurture a seed idea into a complete work.
Prerequisites: near mastery of the letter names and solfege syllables, a good understanding of intervals, and a basic understanding of triad and seventh chord inversions.
SIGHT SINGING
(Class Capacity per level 16)
Instructors, L1 Myron Sauder, L2 Wendell Glick, L3 Wendell Nisly. Level 4 not offered in 2010
Sight Singing teaches music reading skills through the demonstration and practice of methods and patterns necessary to read pitches and rhythms at sight. Students learn various tips to help in sight reading, and have opportunities to practice skills through class exercises. Sight Singing is offered as a four-level series that begins with sight reading at its fundamental stage (one-part singing in steps) and progresses to four-part reading with leaps. Students who enroll in Sight Singing for the first time must arrive on campus by 2:00 on Saturday afternoon to take a short placement test. Former students will be placed one level higher unless they request to repeat a level.
INtroduction to Sight Singing
(Class Capacity 20)
Instructor: Dwilyn Beiler
This class is designed for students in Grades 7-10.
CLASS VOICE
(Class Capacity per level - 20, except for Class 3 - 15)
Instructors: Class 1 - Lloyd Kauffman, Class 2&4 - John H. Miller, Class 3 - Brandon Mullet
Class Voice will explore the concepts and practice of healthy tension-free singing. Specific areas of study will include developing controlled breathing, phonation that is neither pressed nor breathy, focused resonance, and crisp articulation. Students will sing for, analyze, and critique each other.
Choral Conducting
CHORAL GESTURE
(Class Capacity 12)
Instructor: Lloyd Kauffman
The conducting gesture is the primary means of communication with and through the choir. A brief review includes conducting patterns for complex and irregular meter, free rhythms and subdivided beats. The primary focus includes developing additional technical and interpretive aspects of conducting, and exploring the role of a conductor in evoking both sound and meaning from the choir.
Prerequisite: a basic working knowledge of conducting including common beat patterns, simple and compound meter, and basic gesture-related communication (tempo, dynamics, etc.).
Choral Rehearsal Techniques
(Class Capacity 15)
Instructor: Wendell Nisly
What audiences see and hear when they attend a choir program is a small spring arising from subterranean waters. Those subterranean waters are the choral rehearsal; it is in the rehearsal that the musicial and spiritual aspects of the program are formed. Rehearsal Techniques will explore how to reach spiritual and musical goals. Students will work with both text study and conducting an effective music rehearsal, and will be given opportunity to hone their skills in class.
Prerequisite: a working knowledge of basic conducting patterns. Students should be current or former choir directors.
Music Education
ELEMENTARY MUSIC EDUCATION I
(Class Capacity 24)
Instructor: Wendy Good
Join us to find out why students think music class is so much fun! This class presents a melodic and rhythmic sequence of learning based on the Kodaly method. Age-appropriate activities, folk songs and games that make music engaging and enjoyable will be modeled in a participatory, simulated grade 1-3 classroom.
ELEMENTARY MUSIC EDUCATION II
(Class Capacity 24)
Instructor: Wendy Good
This class is a continuation of the Kodaly strategies presented in the early music education class, geared toward schools who have had minimal or no exposure to this approach before. The objective of this class is to equip teachers to 1) make music fun and create a singing culture, 2) teach basic vocal technique, building part-singing skills, and 3) teach theory and sight-singing (rhythm, solfa) through folk songs and hymns. Course students will be involved in a participatory, simulated grade 4-6 classroom setting. Taking this in conjunction with the grade 1-3 course is recommended.
General Music in Secondary Ed
(Class Capacity 28)
Instructor: Dwilyn Beiler
The objective of this class is to train secondary teachers to make music fun and create a singing culture. Students will learn to teach music theory and music reading using the Kodaly method in a participatory, simulated grade 7-10 classroom setting. Activities will include ear training exercises, writing music (dictation); and reading music by singing and by playing melodies on simple instruments such as bells, boomwhackers and pitch pipes. Students are encouraged, but not required, to take Elementary Methods first or along with this course.
Prerequisites: Students should have a working knowledge of music rudiments including note names, key signatures, solfege (do,re, mi's), and rhythms comparable to those taught in Rudiments II.
CLASSROOM CHORAL TECHNIQUES
not offered in 2010
Instructor: Brandon Mullet
This course surveys the multi-faceted content and skills necessary for
successfully directing the school-age choir. Topics address developmental and pedagogical concerns, vocal considerations, choral sound, repertoire selection and instruction and gesture. The class is interactive, and participants have opportunity to teach and conduct.
Prerequisites: Rudiments 1 & 2, Sight Singing.
Congregational Music
Building a singing Culture
(Class Capacity 28)
Instructor: John D. Martin
How can a community be motivated to value worship in song? What characteristics should be considered in the choice of a suitable hymnal for serious worship? How can a non-singing community become a singing community? What will sustain a singing culture from generation to generation? These questions will be explored and discussed in this course.
PHILOSOPHY OF CONGREGATIONAL MUSIC
(Class Capacity 28)
Instructor: John D. Martin
Why is singing such an indispensable part of Christian worship? Does the Bible direct us to a particular type of music? This course analyzes the music of great hymns and explores ways that we can worship in both spirit and truth (reality). Both men and women are welcome.
LEADING WORSHIP
(Class Capacity 15)
Instructor: Brandon Mullet
This class examines the essential components of leading congregational singing: personal preparation, planning, clear communication of musical ideas, deportment, using the hymnal and other worship aids, and copyright issues. Participants conduct hymns and choruses in class for instructor and peer review. As this class specifically trains congregational leaders, it is open only to men.
Hymnology
(Class Capacity 28)
Instructor: John D. Martin
Our hymnals offer a rich treasury of devotional literature, penetrating biblical insight, and anecdotal history. This course focuses on literary analysis, elements of interpretation, and the history of hymns. It aims to help Christians possess the spiritual wealth in the songs they sing. Both men and women are welcome.
New Hymns: The Modern "Hymn Explosion"
(Class Capacity 28)
Instructor: Myron Sauder
This class will be a survey of twentieth-century hymnody. It will focus especially on the explosion of congregational song that occurred in England fifty years ago and spread both to America and around the world. Participants will use hymnals and hymnology reference works to explore this vast and varied territory. Both men and women are welcome.
Prerequisites: enthusiasm for congregational songs and eagerness to sing new ones.
Composition
Choral Arranging
(Class Capacity 12)
Instructor: Lyle Stutzman
The course will begin with a review of basic part-writing rules and will cover techniques for arranging preexisting music for voices. It will include a study of variation technique, and it will examine the possibilities for arranging music in a way that enhances the original composition and text.
Prerequisites:
1. A working knowledge of music theory including the following: identifying and writing key signatures, intervals, major and minor triads, dominant seventh chords, and basic chord symbols or figured bass.
2. At least some experience writing for voices. Students who have previously arranged music are encouraged to bring their arrangements as well as a laptop with music notation software installed on it.
Music History & Appreciation
MUSIC HISTORY AND APPRECIATION: Contemporary Era
(Class Capacity 28)
Instructor: Wendell Glick
The development of sacred music since the Middle Ages has been closely linked to the philosophies and compositional choices of the classical music composers, and the twenty-first century is no exception. For this reason, the contemporary classical music era and those who affect it deserve our attention. This class explores current developments in choral music and hymnody by considering recent composers and their significant contributions, as well as the dominant philosophical, political, economic, and ecclesiastical trends that have nurtured these contributions. It identifies compositional styles that emerged during and after the rise of post-modernism in the mid-twentieth century, including indeterminacy, minimalism, and new simplicity, by experiencing selected works of Cage, Riley, Reich, Glass, Pärt, Tavener, Górecki, Ligeti, MacMillan, Lauridsen, and Whitacre. Students will consider how the lessons of this time period inform today's music, as well as how and why a Christian might think about and listen to this music.
ChoirS
Resident Choirs. All SCMC full-time students participate in a mixed choir. Resident Choirs meet during Choir I & II. Choir conductors for 2010 are Brandon Mullet, Wendell Glick, and Lyle Stutzman.
Chamber Choir. Meets during Choir I & II and Class IV, conducted by Lloyd Kauffman.
The Chamber Choir rehearsal held during Class IV will be treated as a class, with required homework as in other classes. This will include things such as memorizing music, working through trouble spots, work on vocal concepts, etc. Per acceptance to Chamber Choir, applicants will receive a letter of acceptance/refusal. Following acceptance to the Chamber Choir, members will be asked to choose one class from the previously selected classes to take for credit, and place the second one on standby status. If there is substantial evidence of adequate advance preparation for the Chamber Choir prior to camp week, we will welcome CC students to audit the second course as an additional class. A procedure for measuring the level of advance preparation (primarily learning the music) will be set up by the Chamber Choir director.
Intro to Choirs. Conducted by Wendell Nisly
Stand up straight! Breathe more deeply–no, more quietly than that! Read bars 13-43 in solfege; now count-sing from measure 20. Hold the books up higher! Eyes on the director–but don’t miss that D♭! Give that third phrase a bit more arch. . . try putting a sforzando on the front of it. . . now sing it quasi-staccato at a supported mezzo-piano. Have you wondered if you have what it takes to learn three or four songs in a just under a week, and then bless 500 congregants with them–and retain your sanity in the meantime? We do think you have what it takes. We recognize, however, that if you haven’t had extensive choral experience you may need some training before you launch.
In our four years of Music Camp, we have heard from choir members who have felt they were in over their heads, and have wished for more tools for the job. In response to this need, and in an attempt to alleviate the mild trauma associated with it, SCMC is introducing a non-performing training choir. This choir will not sing at ChoralFest, but will focus instead on equipping singers with the tools they need to move into a more rigorous choral setting such as the regular Camp choirs. It will concentrate on developing the skills required to survive and thrive in a choir, including:
• vocal production
• the use of the singer’s second-most-important tool (the pencil)
• terminology and musical symbols
• rehearsal skills
• text study
Rehearsal will include ample time for Q & A. All this will be in the context of singing a simpler repertoire so that less time will be devoted to learning notes, and more time to singing those notes with finesse, ease, confidence, and thoughtfulness.
Please note that this choir will be offered subject to sufficient enrollment and adequate balance between parts. Although this “Pioneer Choir” will not sing at the ChoralFest, its members may sing for the camp. As before, all campers will still have the opportunity to sing in the Mass Choir.
Children’s Choir. Meets during Choir I & II, conducted by Wendy Good.
Mass Men's Choir. Repertoire will include easy-to-learn songs that lend themselves to interpretation. Attention will be given to learning to produce clean, full, resonant tone, and sing with clarity and continuity of sound with control, energy and expression. All men are encouraged to help. Mass Men's Choir meets from 6:00 - 7:00 in the evening. Conducted by John Henry Miller.
Mass Choir. All SCMC full-time students participate in Mass Choir. Guest Conductor, Larry Nickel.