Music

The music education program at Princeton Friends School follows a “general music” format. Through singing songs, internalizing a steady beat, reading and performing rhythmic and melodic patterns, composing melodies and songs, and performing on instruments, the music program seeks to develop students’ melodic, rhythmic, and artistic skills. Additionally, the program places great importance on music’s history and cultural context, making connections between disciplines and to our yearly Central Study theme to explore why people make music, music’s functions in a modern world, and the impact music has on our lives.

Most importantly, vocal music is woven deeply into the fabric of life at Princeton Friends School and is as reflective of the notion of “voice” as the spoken words that emerge from the silence of Settling In or the written words captured in a student’s poem. All major school events use music to bring the community together, drawing our many individual voices into one voice. The songs that provide a sense of continuity and connectedness within our community tell stories, integrate with other disciplines, engage our sense of humor, and carry enduring messages that connect with the school’s Quaker underpinnings. Whether responding to crises that touch our lives, or celebrating the accomplishments of our community, Princeton Friends School children and adults clearly understand and appreciate the power of music to draw us together, to heal, and to express the soul-lifting qualities of our shared experience.

All students have one music class per week, and each Friday ends with an all-school gathering in which we sing together songs from the school’s repertoire. The “textbook” for the music program is the music binder, a collection of lyrics that has been assembled carefully over the years to include a rich selection of folk and contemporary songs, ballads, rounds, and holiday music. To increase confidence in their facility and comfort with their own instruments – their voices – students spend time in music classes singing, both learning new songs and revisiting old favorites. New songs often relate to the Central Study theme for the year, while songs that remain in the binder from past years provide a connection to previous years’ themes. Singing songs from the music binder is particularly supportive of emerging readers, as students practice alphabetical order while finding a particular song that has been requested and read along with the lyrics as they are sung.

Beginning School, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade Music

Music classes in the younger grades combine John Feierabend’s “First Steps in Music” curriculum with elements from Orff Schulwerk. In each class, students warm up their voices with pitch explorations; sing echo songs, call and response songs, and simple songs; improvise their own sung melodies; and move creatively and to the beat. Beginning in 1st and 2nd grade, students begin exploring Western music literacy by using simple songs to discover rhythm concepts and label them with syllables. They then learn how to read, write, and compose with them using iconic notation and Western music notation. Similarly, students begin learning melodic concepts by examining common intervals and patterns in these songs and labeling them with solfège syllables (do, re, mi, etc.). Throughout this process, students practice ensemble skills by performing rhythmic patterns using body percussion and on classroom instruments, including rhythm sticks, drums, xylophones, and handchimes. Additionally, students spend time in class engaging in creative movement through various songs and games and practice choreographed movement by learning age-appropriate folk dances. Finally, every class ends with a song from the PFS music binder, a collection of lyrics that has been assembled carefully over the years to include a rich selection of folk and contemporary songs, ballads, rounds, and holiday music. For 1st and 2nd grade classes, students take turns picking songs from week to week.

3rd-5th Grade Music

Music classes in the upper elementary draw from Orff Schulwerk and the Kodály approach. In each class, students warm up their voices through pitch explorations and by singing songs from the PFS music binder, a collection of lyrics that has been assembled carefully over the years to include a rich selection of folk and contemporary songs, ballads, rounds, and holiday music. Students explore Western music literacy by using simple songs to discover rhythm concepts and label them with syllables. They then learn how to read, write, and compose with these rhythms using Western music notation. Similarly, students begin learning melodic concepts by examining common intervals and patterns in these songs and labeling them with solfège syllables (do, re, mi, etc.). Students learn the Curwen system of hand signs that accompany these syllables and practice sight-singing from hand signs as well as creating their own patterns. Once students become comfortable working with certain notes and intervals, they learn how to place them onto a staff using Western notation. Students practice their rhythmic and melodic skills and grow their ensemble skills by using body percussion and performing on classroom instruments, including rhythm sticks, drums, xylophones, and handchimes. Greater attention is placed on choreographed dancing in the upper elementary grades as students learn more complicated moves in different American and international folk dances and continue to develop their spatial awareness. As time allows, students experiment with choreographing their own dances using known moves or ones they have created.

Students in the upper-elementary also have unique grade-level activities to look forward to. In conjunction with our school-wide Storytelling Season, third graders spend the winter illustrating one of the story songs from the music binder on a long paper scroll. When students get to fourth and fifth grade, they perform as a class at the Winter Arts Festival and weave the maypole at our May Day celebration on May 1st. Finally, all 3rd-5th grade students attend a concert by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra each spring.

6th-8th Grade Music

Music in the Middle School expands its focus beyond music literacy and creation to examine different facets of music history and culture. Guided by the tenets of Project Based Learning, students develop skills in songwriting, ukulele performance, digital music composition, musical and textual textual analysis, and folk dancing as they explore music from different perspectives, cultures, and traditions. Units of study include Theme Songs, Immigration Songs, Revolution Songs, Jazz and Blues music, Program Music, hip hop, and more, and sample projects include composing and performing an original song, using a digital audio workstation to write your own theme song, and writing an analysis of a song that explains its context, meaning, and musical elements. Throughout these units, students sing songs from the PFS music binder, a collection of lyrics that has been assembled carefully over the years to include a rich selection of folk and contemporary songs, ballads, rounds, and holiday music, and connect them to what they are studying in class. Finally, each spring, students spend time preparing for our May Day celebration on May 1st where the sixth and seventh graders perform a stick dance and the eighth graders perform a longsword dance.

Extra-Curricular Opportunities

Many more opportunities for both making and appreciating music occur throughout the PFS program. The PFS Chorus and the Chime Ensemble each meet once a week during the school day and the PFS Orchestra, a string ensemble of students with previous experience in their instrument, meets weekly after school. These groups perform at the Winter and Spring Arts Festivals along with occasional small ensembles from general music classes. The highlight of the year is our annual musical which is open to all students at PFS.

As much as possible, we invite outside musical groups to perform for our students. We are frequently visited by Out of the Blue, an a cappella group from Oxford University, who give a concert and workshop for interested students. Additionally, each year, a small ensemble from the Princeton Symphony Orchestra presents an informational concert for the entire school and 3rd-5th graders take a field trip to Princeton University each spring for a concert by the full orchestra.