OK, so I took 10 years of piano lessons, and I can sing on-key. Which doesn't mean that I am musically gifted in any way, shape, or form, but it *does* mean that I am not a complete n00b when it comes to music. Oh, and I've coached some terrific (and winning) decathlon teams. For seven years. Again, this doesn't really prove anything, but I'd like to think that I am moderately comfortable in this area.

And then I started reading this year's music packet. Does the author not get that with USAD, there is absolutely NOTHING that cannot be tested? It's one thing to give us all minute details about one of the listening selections - i.e., that Danse macabre uses a G Phrygian scale. (Eh? But, ok, I guess that's fair game, and I can get one of the musical wizards at school to demonstrate what that sounds like as compared to a regular G scale.)

But HELLLLLOOOOOO USAD: if you are just casually mentioning Bedrich Smetana (which you are, since he's not one of the composers on the cd), could you have left out the names of the six Czech symphonic poems (in Czechoslovakian!!)? Please?? Or could you have thought twice about writing sentences like this one, which is in the section on Mendelssohn - again, not one of our pieces or composers:

"Mendelssohn sets the scene with two contrasting themes that undergo development before being restated in the tonic key." Now, if this sentence causes ME to blink, what's it going to do to my poor team members who don't know which end of the flute to blow into?

So let me get this straight. You picked 14 really long pieces, all of which are classical (sorry - Romantic) in nature, and hard for the untutored ear to distinguish. This, in a year that just cries out for some kind of World Music sort of topic. Think of what could have been - an African piece or two, one from Native Americans, one from China, one from India - pick your colonialized locations, and maybe do one from 100+ years ago and one from now to show the impact that imperialism had on composers, musicians, technology and instruments, etc. Throw in an English composer, a French one, a Portuguese, a Spanish, and you have both sides of the coin. You did World Music once, many years ago, and it was eye-opening.

But no such luck this year. So instead you have the most densely packed music write-up I have seen in all my years of coaching, accompanied by a cd with a song about a disemboweling swan.

Oh, USAD, you make it so easy to be frustrated.

I haven't seen the music section this year...but as a second year music major in college, your description seems similar to the descriptions of music history classes by my friends. That is a very frightening thing, seeing as many of my friends have gotten C's or below after studying music history as though it were their only class. May USAD have mercy on all the poor decathletes.

They might be making up for the relative easiness of music. Its generally one of the highest scoring subjects. I remember scoring 860 my jr year as a varsity and not medalling. I think when I looked at the last four years of medal scores music was second to sq

This might be what you're looking for: http://demidecscores.gilslotd.com/wiki/Sta...op_Scores#Music . I need to make these easier to find...

Score inflation aside, your description of the curriculum does make it sound like a woozy

And all epic-length Romantic pieces? That's a horribly narrow focus. Hopefully this year marks the beginning of USAD moving to more open themes.

Actually, I have the music pretty much nailed this year; but this is only after spending quite a lot of time reading and working on powerpoint lectures on it that I gave in June to my students. I love the music this year, and I think the reason USAD did not go the "World Music" topic is that they did that with the Art instead. Like you mentioned, USAD has gone "World" in Music several times before, and I don't think they have to do it every time. The music very much fits with the rest of the curriculum, and can be taught that way. A couple of years ago, in the French Revolutionary Art guide, most of the 18 "given" works were companion or "pendant" pieces, and required a lot of research of the other works in order to understand the given works. The music this year works like that--there are several composers and works that are discussed that are not "given" to us on the CD. The writer is not "casually" mentioning Smetena, he is one of the many composers integral to understanding "nationalistic" music; USAD expects students (and coaches) to research these people and concepts. So . . . go find them! I found multiple examples of every mentioned work on the Internet, most all of them on Youtube--even obscure ones like Schubert's Arpeggione which I already had the sheet music for, and am going to enjoy playing it with my son (transcribed for viola, since hardly anyone plays the arpeggione anymore).

Here is a link to one of the better renditions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P_5mEVDOxg

As for your Mendelssohn reference, it actually is a fairly straightforward statement of fact. Listen to the music, it's on Youtube multiple times, and even comes with cool video clips of Fingal's Cave, which looks like a really neat place to visit (it's now officially on my bucket list). If you listen carefully to the music, you can identify the two themes in question. They then get more interesting (as they develop) and eventually come home to the tonic.

Back in the olden days, we had to do a lot more research, and I guess I still expect (and enjoy) that aspect of ACADEC. So, instead of moaning and groaning, have your kids find all of these composers and learn about them!

Student: I know the music. I will take the test and do well!
Test: All of the following were works by Smetana with insane titles EXCEPT...
USAD Music Author: Problem?
USAD Test Writer: You mad?
Student: SMUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I actually like the way they did this year's music. This lessens the curriculum's dependence on rote memorization, and pushes students to understand music, making the subject more like, say, econ which synthesizes the content with the basics.

But Smetana is AWESOME.

And, just in case you were curious, Czech and Slovak are two distinct languages. And their names aren't too, too difficult to pronounce if you keep a few things in mind; Czech is almost phonetic (unlike English, where letters can often make multiple sounds), accent marks just mean a long vowel instead of a short vowel, the stress of every Czech word is on the first syllable, and single letters can sometimes be syllables at the end of words.

See, I really like the packet this year...particularly the selected works. I find them very distinctive and memorable, even for a guy whose total musical experience is playing plastic guitar in Guitar Hero/Rock Band. All of the selections are much better, and the information much more understandable, than in years past. Section I is especially improved--they actually linked it to Romantic music this year, as opposed to the theory divorced from context. It's my favorite section this year so far--much more cohesive than Super Quiz, that's for certain.

Exactly! Last year's basic music guide re-do as section I of the new-improved Music Resource was really not done well at all. This re-boot of the re-do is much better, and like Stephen says, is linked to the romantic music, complete with an analysis of the Mazurka.

Last year, I was disappointed at not having more music history in section I (like in the art guide section I). They did not put it it this year, but they did put in a lot more music history in the rest of the sections by talking about other composers and their works. It gives students a much better feel for the romantic period. Of course, it is difficult to explain why the romantic period was taking place without putting it in context of coming after the classical period, but I do that in my lectures and it works out fairly well.

It's fun getting into all of the personalities of the cast of characters this year, what with the sheer crazy lives of Schumann and Berlioz, the love triangle of Robert, Clara, and Johannes, the mighty five, the improbably love affairs of several of them, the wackiness of the plot lines of several of the works like Peer Gynt, dancing chicks, schizophrenic character-writing in Carnaval . . . it goes on and on and on. So much good stuff--go read up on them and have some fun!!!

Oh, the fun of reading USAD Materials. Also, Decker, I'm having a blast beta testing all of the DemiDec materials. It pays pretty nicely as well.

Glad you're enjoying the beta testing! We're very glad you're involved.

It's not you. Trust me, this is the weakest music resource I've ever seen, both in terms of writing and organization.

The more I read of the music, the more I support my original post. I am comparing it to the art packet, which, in contrast, is one of the BEST I have ever had the pleasure of teaching. The art author clearly gets the concept of "Imperialism in Art" and makes a concerted effort in each and every piece to connect it to the topic. In fact, s/he explicitly discusses how and why each piece is a good fit for this year's topic.

Actually, back when I was coaching many years ago, we didn't even have an overarching topic. Each of the 7 objectives were stand-alone ideas. That being said, if you decide to have a theme, then your selections shouldn't just be based on contemporaneousness (if that's even a word).

Also, did an editor read this before it was published? The Russian Five are in two different locations in the packet (so far...haven't finished yet), with no references back and forth. Same with Dukas.

I am still annoyed by this music. And one final rant - why do so many of the pieces cut off right in the middle?

This and the next post are why I'm reading Art right now.

This is my last word on the subject (or, I'm trying to make it so). But here is a paragraph, verbatem, from page 69. Read it and weep:

"Brahms' father, a musician in Hamburg, played the flute, horn, violin, and double bass. Although his parents were of modest means, they were extremely devoted to their children. Brahms attended good private schools and developed a great love of learning at an early age. At the time of his death, Brahms had amassed a library of over eight hundred titles, including works of fiction, poetry, drama, art, history, philosophy, religion, and travel. Brahms took piano, cello, and horn lessons. A few years later, one of Hamburg's leading teachers, the composer and pianist Eduard Marzsen (1806-87), accepted Brahms into his studio, giving him lessons in piano and theory free of charge. Brahms' first documented public performance occured in 1843, when he was ten years old."



I think that summarizes how I feel.

Art was a blast to read, Physics an enjoyable breeze, Lang and Lit and Super Quiz both pleasant.

MUSIC IS WRONG, JUST WRONG.

I'm up to page 23 on it, and the entire first section was like sitting on a runway: a lot of stuff went waaaaaaaaay over my head. Even the summary of section I had an extremely high "whoosh!" factor. That's not good when the summary is opaque.

I mean, seriously?

"... Consider a piece where the chord progression is F major to D minor to G7. This progression makes very good sense in C major (IV – ii – V7). One might expect the next chord in the progression to be C major functioning as tonic. Now imagine seeing this progression in a piece written in D major!...

Oh yeah, D major! I lol'd. NOT.

Yes, there are tie-ins to the era, which I *do* appreciate. But, so far, the level of detail in the "basics" section has gone way beyond the beginner level. The hand-scribbled notations on diagrams are more distracting than helpful.

I haven't posted in a long while, but I felt kind of motivated to post in response to this. While I understand that this is a lot of (kind of silly) information packed into a short paragraph that is kind of badly written, parsing this sentence into knowledge that you need to know for Decathlon purposes isn't too terrifying.

- Brahms' father is a musician in Hamburg
x Brahms' father played flute, horn, violin, double bass (this one is a gimme for a "which of these instruments did he NOT play" question)
- His parents were of modest means, but he was educated and loved learning
- He had a library of 800+ titles
x Brahms took piano, cell, horn lessons
- Brahms was taught by pianist Eduard Marzsen, a leading teacher
- Brahms was taught piano and theory
x Brahms first performed when he was ten in 1843

And of these, the ones that most people aren't going to know are the things that are not conceptual but just rote memorization - basically, the ones marked with x's in front of them. And consequently, those are the questions USAD will ask the most. But if you know general information about Brahms (i.e. read the packet 2+ times), you can answer the ones that aren't marked with an x fairly easily, and the others you just have to commit to memory. But that doesn't seem different at all from how Decathlon usually is.


I admit the "basics" section looks much more daunting and worthy of complaint, though. Luckily that's not the entirety of the test.

Oh snap! I can just imagine...D major, seriously!

One more thing...

MOAR ANIMAL BATHS!!!

I agree with rickshawman and I'd venture to say that this year might be one in which a power guide will be superior to the resource.

Hey, I like the music resource guide. Especially the Chopin analysis in Sec. 1 pg.19 - I think its a great way to allow kids to actually understand the music theory they cram.

I hated the Chopin analysis. It added to my confusion.

The Practice Test, however, was not as difficult as I imagined it would be. This gives me hope on the other tests. Music might not be an uber-scoring event, but it may also turn out to not be where objective scores go to die. It may be a tough packet, but with forgiving questions.

I dunno, with only one data point, I can't say much else. But I do strongly recommend reading it and taking notes on details. Taking the Practice Exam will help in guiding a reader on what sort of notes to take, I surmise.

I'm getting more and more psyched about how everyone is hating on the Music packet, because I think it's pretty easy, and I have neat ways of explaining it to the kids; so, if everyone else struggles, we'll be fine!