(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) categorize and explain a variety of musical sounds, including those of children's voices and soprano and alto adult voices;
    (B) categorize and explain a variety of musical sounds, including those of woodwind, brass, string, percussion, keyboard, electronic instruments, and instruments of various cultures;
    (C) use known music symbols and terminology referring to rhythm; melody; timbre; form; tempo; dynamics, including crescendo and decrescendo; and articulation, including staccato and legato, to explain musical sounds presented aurally; and
    (D) identify and label small and large musical forms such as, abac, AB, ABA, and rondo presented aurally in simple songs and larger works.
  (2) Foundations: music literacy. The student reads, writes, and reproduces music notation using a system. Technology and other tools may be used to read, write, and reproduce musical examples. The student is expected to:
    (A) read, write, and reproduce rhythmic patterns using standard notation, including separated eighth notes, eighth- and sixteenth-note combinations, dotted half note, and previously learned note values in 2/4, 4/4, and 3/4 meters as appropriate;
    (B) read, write, and reproduce extended pentatonic melodic patterns using standard staff notation; and
    (C) identify new and previously learned music symbols and terms referring to tempo; dynamics, including crescendo and decrescendo; and articulation, including staccato and legato.
  (3) Creative expression. The student performs a varied repertoire of developmentally appropriate music in informal or formal settings. The student is expected to:
    (A) sing and play classroom instruments with accurate intonation and rhythm, independently or in groups;
    (B) sing or play a varied repertoire of music such as American and Texan folk songs and folk songs representative of local cultures, independently or in groups;
    (C) move alone and with others to a varied repertoire of music using gross motor, fine motor, locomotor, and non-locomotor skills and integrated movement such as hands and feet moving together;
    (D) perform various folk dances and play parties;
    (E) perform simple part work, including rhythmic and melodic ostinati, derived from known repertoire; and
    (F) interpret through performance new and previously learned music symbols and terms referring to tempo; dynamics, including crescendo and decrescendo; and articulation, including staccato and legato.
  (4) Creative expression. The student creates and explores new musical ideas within specified guidelines. The student is expected to:
    (A) create rhythmic phrases through improvisation or composition;
    (B) create melodic phrases through improvisation or composition; and
    (C) create simple accompaniments through improvisation or composition.
  (5) Historical and cultural relevance. The student examines music in relation to history and cultures. The student is expected to:
    (A) perform a varied repertoire of songs, movement, and musical games representative of diverse cultures such as historical folk songs of Texas and Hispanic and American Indian cultures in Texas;
    (B) perform music representative of America and Texas, including "Texas, Our Texas";
    (C) identify and describe music from diverse genres, styles, periods, and cultures; and
    (D) examine the relationships between music and interdisciplinary concepts.
  (6) Critical evaluation and response. The student listens to, responds to, and evaluates music and musical performances. The student is expected to:
    (A) exhibit audience etiquette during live and recorded performances;
    (B) recognize known rhythmic and melodic elements in aural examples using appropriate vocabulary;
    (C) describe specific musical events in aural examples such as changes in timbre, form, tempo, dynamics, or articulation using appropriate vocabulary;
    (D) respond verbally and through movement to short musical examples;
    (E) describe a variety of compositions and formal or informal musical performances using specific music vocabulary; and
    (F) justify personal preferences for specific music works and styles using music vocabulary.

Source Note: The provisions of this §117.115 adopted to be effective July 28, 2013, 38 TexReg 4575