Goals and Requirements

• Goals - The student will understand the appropriate musical terms and concepts regarding counterpoint, be able to identify them when heard in music, and participate in singing that contains counterpoint.
• Grade Level - preK-12 (adaptable)
• Teacher Expertise - Teacher training in music education is not necessary to present these activities. The teacher should be familiar and comfortable with the terms and concepts regarding counterpoint. To lead the singing activities, the teacher should be able to sing each part independently and with confidence.
• Follow-up - Continue throughout the rest of the school year to introduce music with counterpoint for the students to listen to and perform.

Objectives and Assessment

• Objectives - While listening to recordings of a variety of music, the student will accurately assess whether each example is contrapuntal or not.
• Music Standards Addressed - National Standards for Music Education standard 6 (listening to, analyzing, and describing music).
• Student Prerequisites - When listening to music, the students should be able to recognize the melody.
• Time Requirements - 20-40 minutes, depending on the number of terms introduced and the number and length of examples.
• Extensions - For younger students or students unfamiliar with Classical music, choose short, simple, and very clear examples. older or more musically advanced students, you may choose longer and more complex examples. For more of a challenge, you may also to introduce the concepts of rounds, canons, and/or fugues, and ask the students to decide which of the counterpoint examples fall into these categories.
• Evaluation - Assess students on active participation in the discussion and on accurate use of the terms and correct identification of examples.

Materials and Preparation

• You will need a CD or tape player
• Gather the musical examples to play. Know the track numbers or have the tapes ready to play at the right spot.

Suggestions: Contrapuntal Music

• Pachelbel's Canon
• Any piece of music titled "Fugue", "Invention", "Canon", or "Round"
• Much (but not all!) of J. S. Bach's music.
• Handel's "Messiah" has many examples both of music that is contrapuntal and music that is not contrapuntal.
• Dixieland jazz
• Many of J. P Sousa's marches have very audible counterpoint, in the low brass for example, or in the piccolo part of "stars and Stripes Forever".

Suggestions: Music that is not Contrapuntal

• Most hymns and carols
• Most barbershop music
• Most classic ragtime (Scott Joplin's rags, for example), and most swing-era jazz
• Most music for an unaccompanied classical guitar, for one unaccompanied bagpipes or accordion, for an unaccompanied singer or string, woodwind, or brass player
• plainchant (Gregorian chant, for example)
• Most popular music and folk music
• Most of the classical music of India

Procedure

1. Play a couple of your chosen non-counterpoint examples. Point out that there is only one melody. See if they can sing along with it.
2. Introduce the terms that you wish the students to learn; these terms may include counterpoint, contrapuntal, polyphony, polyphonic, round, canon, fugue or countermelody. (See Introduction to Counterpoint.)
3. Play a couple of your chosen conterpoint examples. Ask them if they can hear more than one melody at the same time. Point out the different voices as best you can; if they are entering one at a time, as in Pachelbel's Canon, point out the entrances. If the parts are singable, can you or they sing along with the melodies of the different parts? If you are introducing these terms, point out which of your examples are rounds/canons (completely imitative), fugues (partly imitative), or non-imitative counterpoint.
4. Now play the rest of your examples and ask them to identify whether each is contrapuntal or not. If the class has discussed rounds, canons, fugues, and countermelodies, can they identify any of these in the examples?

Objectives and Assessment

• Objectives - The students will learn the melody of a round and sing it, first all together as a single group, and then broken into smaller groups, with each group singing one part of the round.
• Music Standards Addressed - National Standards for Music Education standard 1 (singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music).
• Student Prerequisites - The student should be able to sing a tune, as part of a group, with accurate pitch and rhythm.
• Time Requirements - If the students are learning a new tune, this will work best if spread over several short (5-15-minute) sessions over the period of a week or two. Early sessions should concentrate on learning the tune and singing it with confidence. Introduce and practice the round aspect only after the students know the song well. The number of sessions will depend on the students' ability and experience, and the length and difficulty of the music.
• Evaluation - Assess students on active participation in the singing and ability to remain on their part when other parts are introduced.

Materials and Preparation

• Choose the round(s) to be taught. For very young students, it's hard to beat the old stand-by's like "Row, Row, Row your Boat", "Three Blind Mice", and "Frere Jaque". For older students, there will be some rounds to choose from in almost any children's sing-along book (for example, those published by your church or scouting organization, or the "Sing Along" book in the "Wee Sing" series). Or you may use the rounds below. "Hey Ho" is easy enough for even young children; "Dona Nobis Pacem" is challenging enough to be interesting to older students.
• Have copies for the students of the words only, or of the words and music, if you think they are needed.
• If you will be uncomfortable singing or playing the melody by yourself, have a tape (and player) for the students to listen to and sing along with. If at all possible, find a version that includes the melody in unison (everyone singing all together without the round). You can listen to the melody of Hey Ho or Dona Nobis Pacem here.

Procedure

1. Ask the students if they know what a round is. Let them explain how a round works if they can; if not, you explain. (See Counterpoint for Everyone.)
2. If appropriate, introduce the term counterpoint and/or canon. Explain that in counterpoint, there is more than one melody happening at the same time. Tell your students that a round (or canon) is a special type of counterpoint: all the melodies are actually the same, but since they start at different times, at any particular time they sound different.
3. Sing or play your chosen round for the students.
4. Sing or play the round repeatedly, asking the students to join in with you as soon as they can. Sing it all together as many times as necessary until everyone can sing the melody confidently. For very young students, this may take more than one session.
5. Once everyone is very comfortable with the melody, try breaking into two groups and singing the song as a round. Group 2 starts singing at the beginning when Group 1 reaches the "2" marked in the music. If that goes well, you can try breaking into more groups. Group 3 starts singing at the beginning when Group 1 reaches the "3" marked in the music.

Objectives and Assessment

• Objectives - As a group, the students will learn the melody or countermelody of a song, and will sing their part while another group sings the other part.
• Music Standards Addressed - National Standards for Music Education standard 1 (singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music).
• Student Prerequisites - The student should be able to sing a tune, as part of a group, with accurate pitch and rhythm.
• Time Requirements - If the students are learning a new tune, this will work best if spread over several short (5-15-minute) sessions over the period of a week or two. Early sessions should concentrate on learning the parts and singing them with confidence. Try putting them together only after the students know both parts well. The number of sessions will depend on the students' ability and experience, and the length and difficulty of the music.
• Evaluation - Assess students on active participation in the singing and ability to remain on their part when other parts are introduced.
• Adaptations and Extensions - Ask younger, musically inexperienced students to learn very simple, repetitive, countermelodies. Ask advanced or gifted students to learn and be able to do either part as required.

Materials and Preparation

• Choose the song to be taught. Songs with countermelodies can be a little harder to find than rounds. You are basically looking for a song that has two independent parts (not just a harmony) to be sung at the same time. They may have the same words, but often do not. If you cannot find a song with a countermelody, you can use the Israeli folk song included here.
• If appropriate, have copies of the words or of the words and music, for the students.
• Be prepared to sing or play both the melody and the countermelody. If you are uncomfortable with this, perhaps you can find (or have someone make) a tape to use instead. The students will need to hear each part separately. Here are the chant melody, the verse melody, and both together for "Zum Gali Gali".

Procedure

1. If you are teaching terms to your students, explain that countermelodies are also counterpoint. But they are different from rounds because the countermelody is not the same as the melody. It is a completely different tune sung at the same time.
2. Choose a group of students to learn the melody and a group to learn the countermelody. This often works best if the students singing the countermelody are fewer in number but are the more confident singers.
3. Let each group hear their part separately, and let them practice separately, also. If everyone is present for the entire rehearsal, you can encourage them to learn each other's parts so they don't get bored.
4. When both groups are confident with their parts, have them sing together.