Use of I.T. and electronic resources as tools for musical expression, representation and performance.

1. Use of computers as a tool to produce sounds with or without musical ends.
   
   
2. Use of software governing sounds and music generated by computers.
   
   
3. Creation of musical score using computers.
   
   
4. Performance, using computers, of previously written score.
   
   
5. Use of synthesizers' potential, particularly timbric, with expressive and creative ends in mind.
   
   
6. Basic use of software to control synthesizers.
   
   
7. Creation and performance of music individually and as a group.
   
   
8. Research - with the synthesizer - into timbric elements to progress with work on the quality of sounds and on musical instruments.
   
   
9. Use of software to progress with work on elements of musical language.
   
   

FACTS, CONCEPTS AND CONCEPTUAL SYSTEMS

Musical language

1. Quality of sound: pitch, duration, intensity and timbre
   • Pitch: high and low, frequency, naming the notes.

   • Duration: long and short, notes and rests.

   • Intensity: high and low, specific nomenclature.

   • Timbre: orchestration.

   • Most important relationships between quality of sound and elements of musical composition:
     • pitch - melody
     • duration - rhythm
     • intensity - dynamics and expression
     • timbre - orchestration

2. Constituent elements of musical composition: rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, dynamics and timbre
   • Rhythm as distribution in time.

   • Melody as a succession of pitches.

   • Musical themes as units.

   • The simultaneity of sound. The vertical sense of polyphony in relation to the horizontal sense of melody. Contribution of texture.

   • Instrumentation as a timbric combination.

3. Musical forms:
   • repetition (songs containing strophes, lied, rondos etc...).

   • variation (themes and variations...).

   • imitation (canons, fugues...).

VALUES, STANDARDS AND ATTITUDES

1. Evaluation of music as cultural element:
   1. Evaluation of music within education proper
      • Evaluation of music as non-verbal language.

      • Evaluation of comprehension of the structure of music as a way to develop the capacity of abstraction.

   2. Evaluation of the potentiality of musical language as an element of communication, knowledge and pleasure.
      • Evaluation of music purely as an acoustic game with no semantic intention.

      • Identification of the relationship between music - as regards artistic production - and pleasure for the listener, creator and performer.

      • Favourable attitude towards the use of I.T. resources.

      • Sensitising to the complexity of musical language.

2. Evaluation of active participation in the musical fact
   1. Conscientious and attentive performance articulating and fomenting personal contribution to common tasks.
      • Evaluation of musical performance as an eminently community activity.

      • Evaluation of the meaning and value of contributions from each individual in this common activity.

      • Acceptance of the fact that group results are in harmony with individual work done previously by each pupil.

      • Contributions to correctness in performance and performance criteria.

      • Application of global and individual criteria subjecting the individual ones to the whole.

      • Respect and care of resources that make good composition possible (computers, synthesizers, etc.).