Students are expected to select only two classes. The remaining two class periods serve as study periods. Class changes after April 1 will incur a $25 fee.
General Musical Development
RUDIMENTS
(Class Capacity per level 28)
Instructors: L1 TBA, L2 Dwilyn Beiler, L3 Nolan Martin, 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.
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 Dwilyn Beiler, L2 Myron Sauder, L3 Nolan Martin
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
not offered in 2012
Instructor: Dwilyn Beiler
This class is designed for students in Grades 7-10.
CLASS VOICE
Instructor: Nolan Martin
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.
Pocket Guide To CHoral Membership
not offered in 2012
Instructor: 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.
This class will focus on equipping singers with the tools they need to survive and thrive in a more rigorous choral setting. It 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.
Choral Conducting
CHORAL GESTURE
not offered in 2012
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
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: Gwendolyn 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: Gwendolyn 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
not offered in 2012
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 2012
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
not offered in 2012
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
Instructor: TBA
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 Congregational WORSHIP
(Class Capacity 15)
Instructor: TBA
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
not offered in 2012
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 may not run if minimum enrollment is not reached.
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
not offered in 2012
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
Instructor: Wendell Glick
This class explores significant a cappella choral works from the twentieth century, including All-Night Vigil (Rachmaninoff), Mass for Double Choir (Martin), The Peaceable Kingdom (Thompson), Agnus Dei (Barber), Lux Aeterna (Ligeti), Stabat Mater (Penderecki), Jaanilaulud (Tormis), The Lamb/The Tyger (Tavener), Immortal Bach (Nystedt), and Sieben Magnificat Antiphonen (Pärt). Students enrolled in this class are urged to listen to recordings of these works before coming to camp -- contact the instructor for help in finding recordings if necessary. Click here to contact the instructor.