INSTRUMENTAL GROUPS
Jazz Ensemble
This course is a performance class combining the instrumentation of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and a rhythm section. Students acquire a working knowledge of scales, rhythmic patterns, melodic patterns, and listening skills. A variety of genres are explored, exposing the student to music from the swing era to modern rock. Students also experience the educational benefits of touring. The jazz ensemble has represented The Hill School locally, throughout the United States, and in the Bahamas.
Orchestra
This course is a performance class combining the instrumentation of strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Students acquire a working knowledge of scales, rhythmic patterns, melodic patterns, and listening skills. A variety of genres are explored, exposing the student to music from the Baroque period to the modern. Students also experience the educational benefits of touring. The orchestra has represented The Hill School locally, throughout the United States, and abroad.
Jazz Improvisation (Enrollment by audition)
This course is a performance class combining the instrumentation of a select group of auditioned jazz musicians. Students acquire a working knowledge of scales, chord symbols, chord changes, rhythmic patterns and listening skills. This musical knowledge becomes the vocabulary in which the musicians improvise and create melodies over standard chord progressions. A variety of styles including swing, bop, bossa nova, Latin and rock are explored. Students also experience the educational benefits of touring. The Jazz Improvisation Group has represented The Hill School locally, as well as throughout the United States and abroad.
VOCAL ENSEMBLES
Glee Club
This full-year course is a large ensemble open to all male singers; no previous singing experience is required. A variety of repertoire will be performed as part of concerts on campus, both alone and with the Chorus. Fundamentals of music reading, theory, and vocal technique are emphasized.
Chorus
This full-year course is a large ensemble open to all female singers; no previous singing experience is required. A variety of repertoire will be performed as part of concerts on campus, both alone and with the Glee Club. Fundamentals of music reading, theory, and vocal technique are emphasized.
Hilltones/Hilltrebles (Enrollment by audition)
These ensembles are intended for students who have demonstrated significant vocal ability and/or musical knowledge. Members demonstrate significant potential for growth and a desire for more extensive involvement in choral music, including additional performance opportunities. The Hilltones, the all-male ensemble, and Hilltrebles, all-female ensemble, perform a variety of a cappella repertoire, and they have represented The Hill School locally, throughout the United States and abroad. Male students auditioning for these groups must be enrolled in Glee Club or Chorus.
NON-PERFORMING COURSES
Aside from groups that allow students to explore performance opportunities, The Hill School also offers courses that introduce students to music. The following are non-performing music courses:
History of Art and Music
This course is designed as an introduction to the art and music of Western civilization from the medieval period to the modern. Students acquire a working vocabulary of the elements of art and music as they learn to create a critical analysis of the art and music of each time period. Students utilize laptops, textbook reading, note taking, music and art identification, and library research as preparation for quizzes, tests, and exams. Ultimately, the student is expected to be able to identify a variety of paintings, sculptures, architecture, and musical compositions by historical period. The social, economic, political, and religious events of each of the seven time periods studied are synthesized with the art and music of each epoch.
Music Theory
This course is designed to thoroughly educate music students regarding all aspects of musical notation and composition as seen in western "classical" music since the early Baroque. Students learn to recognize, analyze, and reproduce the fundamental building blocks of tonal musical composition, including time and key signatures, intervallic relationships, chordal structure, harmonic progressions, and part-writing. Emphasis is placed on analysis of standard repertoire to demonstrate concept understanding outside the abstract. Additionally, students spend a portion of each class strengthening basic musicianship skills through melodic and rhythmic recitation and dictation.