Readings for 2/23

Shaping Sound Musicians, Chapter 1 by Patricia O'Toole

In this chapter of her book, Patricia O'Toole introduces the concept of Comprehensive Musicianship and suggests ways in which this can be applied to score analysis. O'Toole suggests that, in using the idea of comprehensive musicianship, scores can't simply be analyzed through roman numeral chord analysis, but should rather be analyzed as a whole work. The director, she suggests, should begin their analysis from the general ("this is a piece for band") and then work to the specific ("this is a piece in Eb written for band by Gustav Holst"). It is through this type of analysis that the true meaning of a work can be derived by the music teacher. This meaning, she suggests, can then be effectively transfered to the students.

I have had several experiences with this type of score analysis. The most recent being my MUED 355 course (Instructional Design). In this course, I completed an analysis of Sousa's "The Black Horse Troop" and designed an entire curricular unit around my findings. While I this is the most in-depth and comprehensive study that I have done of a piece, I feel that I will continue to use this technique.

I very much agree with the points that O'Toole makes in this chapter and I fully subscribe to the concept of comprehensive musicianship. In general, I feel that there are more skills to be learned from a music class than simply how to play notes accurately (although this is an important aspect of any performance group). Music certainly does have many more teaching opportunities, though, and I feel that it is irresponsible for the director to simply focus on the notes and rhythms.

That being said, I feel that this form of analysis is exceptionally useful to teach a piece in the comprehensive musicianship model. I know from my own personal experience with researching the Sousa march that I was significantly more prepared to teach that piece to a class. I knew not only how to technically play the piece, but also the history, its purpose, and other stylistic traits of the piece. These, I feel, are very important for the students to understand and will lead to their valuing of the music more (a very important outcome). In all, I find myself in complete agreement with the points that the author makes on ways to analyze music.