Course Descriptions
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Sacred Music
6SMU 210 (I,II-1) Schola Cantorum
This singing group specializes in Gregorian chant, renaissance polyphony, and choral improvisation, and also performs romantic and contemporary music. Performance practice issues are approached as an aesthetic system of possibilities that generates expressive music making through informed choices. Students expand their listening, reading, and performance skills through rehearsals and subsequent public performance each week, singing the weekly Office of Compline at Christ Church on Sunday evenings at 9:00 p.m. (October through April). Rehearsals are Sunday evenings from 7:30 - 8:45 p.m. (rehearsals begin at 7:00 p.m. on first Sundays of the month) Permission of instructor Stephen Kennedy required following audition.
6SMU 407, 408 (I, II-2) Perspectives in Sacred Music
These courses focus on the history, function, and future of liturgical music in the Christian Church by examining theological, liturgical, historical, and philosophical issues pertaining to the practice of sacred music. Students will explore both church year and lectionary as contextual parameters for the function of music within the liturgy. The course also includes a comprehensive survey of Christian hymnody.
6SMU 471, 472 (I, II-1) Sacred Music Internship
Students in the internship will normally be employed in a church music position in the greater Rochester area. For those students who do not seek a paid position, placement as an intern in a large, local congregation is required. The internship is intended to provide students with opportunities to apply knowledge and skills under the guidance of faculty members teaching in organ, sacred music, conducting, and music education. The internship may include service playing, directing choirs, administration, and working as a member of a team ministry. Students, with the assistance of the professor of Sacred Music, will set individualized plans/goals of study for the internship. Each student can expect to be observed at least twice per semester by the faculty mentors, and can expect to participate in regular colloquia on current issues in church music.