(a) Introduction.
  (1) The fine arts incorporate the study of dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts to offer unique experiences and empower students to explore realities, relationships, and ideas. These disciplines engage and motivate all students through active learning, critical thinking, and innovative problem solving. The fine arts develop cognitive functioning and increase student academic achievement, higher-order thinking, communication, and collaboration skills, making the fine arts applicable to college readiness, career opportunities, workplace environments, social skills, and everyday life. Students develop aesthetic and cultural awareness through exploration, leading to creative expression. Creativity, encouraged through the study of the fine arts, is essential to nurture and develop the whole child.
  (2) Four basic strands--foundations: music literacy; creative expression; historical and cultural relevance; and critical evaluation and response--provide broad, unifying structures for organizing the knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire. The foundation of music literacy is fostered through reading, writing, reproducing, and creating music, thus developing a student's intellect. Through creative expression, students apply their music literacy and the critical-thinking skills of music to sing, play, read, write, and/or move. By experiencing musical periods and styles, students will understand the relevance of music to history, culture, and the world, including the relationship of music to other academic disciplines and the vocational possibilities offered. Through critical listening, students analyze, evaluate, and respond to music, developing criteria for making critical judgments and informed choices.
  (3) Statements that contain the word "including" reference content that must be mastered, while those containing the phrase "such as" are intended as possible illustrative examples.
(b) Knowledge and skills.
  (1) Foundations: music literacy. The student describes and analyzes musical sound. The student is expected to:
    (A) identify the differences between the five voices, including singing, speaking, inner, whispering, and calling voices;
    (B) identify the timbre of adult and child singing voices;
    (C) identify the timbre of instrument families;
    (D) identify same/different in beat/rhythm, higher/lower, louder/softer, faster/slower, and simple patterns in musical performances; and
    (E) identify beat, rhythm, and simple two-tone or three-tone melodies using iconic representation.
  (2) Creative expression. The student performs a varied repertoire of developmentally appropriate music in informal or formal settings. The student is expected to:
    (A) sing or play classroom instruments independently or in groups;
    (B) sing songs or play classroom instruments from diverse cultures and styles independently or in groups;
    (C) move alone or with others to a varied repertoire of music using gross and fine locomotor and non-locomotor movement;
    (D) perform simple partwork, including beat versus rhythm; and
    (E) perform music using louder/softer and faster/slower.
  (3) Historical and cultural relevance. The student examines music in relation to history and cultures. The student is expected to:
    (A) sing songs and play musical games, including rhymes, folk music, and seasonal music; and
    (B) identify simple interdisciplinary concepts related to music.
  (4) Critical evaluation and response. The student listens to, responds to, and evaluates music and musical performances. The student is expected to:
    (A) identify and demonstrate appropriate audience behavior during live or recorded performances;
    (B) identify steady beat in musical performances; and
    (C) compare same/different in beat/rhythm, higher/lower, louder/softer, faster/slower, and simple patterns in musical performances.

Source Note: The provisions of this §117.103 adopted to be effective July 28, 2013, 38 TexReg 4575