Musicianship Skills for Adults
Adults who wish to develop and/or enhance their musical skills may enrol for this weekly class. This course is particularly suited to choral singers or parents wishing to engage with their children’s musicianship learning. Participants are introduced to the elements of pitch and rhythm through music‑making. Learners are also afforded the opportunity to perform class material on percussion instruments, recorder and keyboard in addition to singing. There are currently three levels of Musicianship Skills for Adults. Beginners (no experience necessary) may progress from Level 1 to 2 and then to 3 where more advanced concepts are introduced.
Singing from the Source
Reading Medieval/Renaissance music with solfa
Explore late Medieval and Renaissance vocal music from the source in this immersive evening course.
Before the advent of modern printed music, medieval musicians shared and preserved chants and other choral music using a range of older notational styles such as neumes and square notes that would evolve to become modern printed notation. Medieval choral singers had long used solfa to accurately intone sacred and secular chants, a practice that extended into the Renaissance and the advent of printed polyphonic music. In this course, we will use modal solfa in a step-by-step way to decipher and then perform original Medieval and Renaissance notational forms found in late medieval manuscripts and in early printed vocal scores. Both sacred and secular repertoire will be explored.
If you have ever wanted to try singing directly from a medieval manuscript or a Renaissance part-book, this course is your gateway. Designed for choral singers, and early music lovers, the course will both develop an understanding of how to read older notational forms, while improving sight-reading and aural skills more broadly through the use of solfège.
Course content:
- Reading historical notation: Becoming familiar with 4-line staves, square notes, simple neumes, mensural (rhythmic) notation, and Renaissance part-books.
- Sight-singing from the scores with solfège: Learn historical solmization (the original Ut-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La system) to help with intonation and to navigate shifting vocal ranges with ease.
- Exploring hidden performance rules: Learn about improvised practices such as the modal use of drones, and musica ficta—the art of applying unwritten accidentals to smooth out harsh intervals just as 16th-century singers did, along with an understanding of Medieval and early Renaissance rules for rhythm.
- Bridging the gap between old and new: Work with side-by-side score layouts, using modern notation as a helpful safety net before diving fully into original manuscripts.
- Singing the material in context: Option to sing the material learnt in class in traditional Vespers and other public performance events.
Course Details
- Duration: 1 hour per week (evening class).
- Repertoire Highlights: Short pieces by Hildegard, Praetorius, Du Mont, Josquin des Prez, Palestrina, Dowland, Gibbons.
- Prerequisites: Some singing experience in any style would be helpful. No prior experience with historical musical notation or solfège is required.
Fee: €100 per semester (13 X 1 hour classes)