HISTORY

Level 1

The student acquires and constructs a personal knowledge base consisting of:

• a global contextual overview of western music history from the renaissance to the 21st century
• a coherent conceptual framework

Level 2

The student extends and deepens a personal knowledge base by means of:

• a contextual approach of key topics from the renaissance to the 21st century( building on the global overview of level 1)
• extending and refining the conceptual framework (of level 1)

ANALYSIS

Level 1

The student demonstrates the ability to recognize, understand and describe the use composers make of:

• Form means (unity and segmentation)
• Form principles (psychological (Gestalt) principles)
• Basic form types and procedures 
• Musical material (parameters)
• Musical textures 

Complexity: clear , concise musical examples, with minimal or moderate ambiguity, chosen and provided by the teacher.

Level 2

The student demonstrates the (extended) ability to analyze musical works building on level 1 by:

• delivering a contextualized analysis of form, structure and texture of a musical work

Complexity: musical examples on a larger scale, with possibly moderate or strong ambiguity, chosen and provided by the teacher.

Level 3

The student demonstrates the (extended) ability to analyze musical works building on level 2 by:

• delivering a contextualized analysis of form, structure and texture of a musical work (or musical works)
• discussing  the choices made by the composer related to comparable examples of the composer or his colleagues 
• exploring and evaluating the "how" and "why" of the choices made by the composer

Complexity: musical examples chosen by the student in collaboration with the teacher, no restrictions with regard to complexity, style and idom of the chosen music.

HARMONY

Harmony (aspects of)

The student demonstrates his knowledge and understanding of key concepts of the harmonic dimension of western music by:

• making relevant and meaningful observations of music (on the scale of a fragment, a movement or a complete work)
• use these observations for analytical goals 
• relating his knowledge and unserstanding to practical aspects of music making (interpretation, evaluation, studying, performing)

Level 1

• Tonal, functional harmony in simple contexts
• Chromaticism needed for modulations to closely related keys
• Typical chromatic chords within a key
• Ornamental aspects in harmonic (homophonic) textures and their origin (contrapuntal music)

Level 2

• Tonal, functional harmony in more complex contexts. 
• Use of extended chromaticism: modulation to (more) remote keys
• Typical chromatic chords related to different keys
• Enharmonic changes, mediants

Level 3

• Floating tonality
• Late romantic chromatic/enharmonic tonality
• Personal approaches of modalities/tonalities (Debussy, Bartók, Messiaen, Shostakovich)
• Free atonality
• Structured atonality: dodecaphony, serialistic approaches
• Beyond atonality: aleatoric approaches, musique concrète, electronic music
• Polystylistic (collage) approaches: Schnittke, Maxwell Davies, Piazzolla
• "NEW" approaches to tonality/modality emerging in the second half of the twentieth century (Messiaen (already before 1950), Pärt, Gubaidulina)

Level 1

• Polyphony and Homophony as a continuum: extremes and in-betweens
• Two types of counterpoint: modal and harmonic
• Consonance, dissonance and "tactus" 
• Principles of Dissonant treatment (two parts/voices)
• Harmonic background

Level 2

The student demonstrates to be able to:

• Come up with a researchable topic for personal research (contextual essay)
• Formulate a focus question and subquestions (research skills)
• Explore globally the posibilities and available resources for this topic (information skills) by using analog and digital tools and report on this exploration
• Formulate an improved and definitive focus question and subquestions based on the first exploration of the topic
• Search for and find relevant and reliable resources needed to answer focus question and subquestions
• Report on searches and the results
• Choose good resources and motivate that choice
• Write a contextual essay conform given specifications avoiding plagiarism

(= level 1)

Increased Complexity: musical examples on a larger scale, with possibly moderate or strong ambiguity, research questions digging significantly deeper than level 1. The research has to be more than "just" descriptive; more "how" and "why" questions. Instead of just assimilating information the student constructs knowledge.

Level 3 

The student demonstrates to be able to:

• Come up with a researchable topic for personal research (contextual essay)
• Formulate a focus question and subquestions (research skills)
• Explore globally the posibilities and available resources for this topic (information skills) by using analog and digital tools and report on this exploration
• Formulate an improved and definitive focus question and subquestions based on the first exploration of the topic
• Search for and find relevant and reliable resources needed to answer focus question and subquestions
• Report on searches and the results
• Choose good resources and motivate that choice
• Write a contextual essay conform given specifications 

= (level 1 and 2)

Increased Complexity: Research subject and music chosen by the student have no restrictions with regard to complexity, style and idom of the chosen music. Research is digging significantly deeper than level 2 (for example by working with a multidisciplinar approach), and mainly departing from "how" and "why" questions. The student constructs knowledge and demonstrates the ability to do this by reasoning and building on existing research.