Music has a strong emotional impact and affects the soul directly. For that reason, curriculum indications for this art are a delicate matter. On the one hand, our emotional response  is individual, but there is more to it than that. A lullaby will inevitably be an expression of the place of origin, both in language and in melody. Just think of the difference between an English, a Chinese, or an Australian lullaby! Each will be unique in character. The mood of a song will bear the imprint of both nature and culture of a specific location. If you compare, for example, a folk song from America with one from  Eastern Europe, you will immediately feel the huge differences in expression arising from melody, harmony and rythm, and can gauge the impact of  a chosen song on young children..

For this reason, we opted not to use the music curriculum of the original German Richter Plan, based as it is on indications for the original, European music program.  This magnificent version, written by Stephan Ronner, principal music teacher at the teacher seminar in Stuttgart, Germany,  is readily available online.

For this English language edition, we chose to use the music curriculum written by Jason Child for the Emerson Waldorf school in North Carolina, USA. Like Mr. Ronner’s plan, it is based on the original indications given for music. Mr. Child’s interpretation and description has general validity and we feel it can inspire music lessons around the world.

It is beneficial to design a music program around the general developmental periods of ages 7-9, 9-12, 12-14, and 14-18.  This allows the children to progress incrementally from a feeling of “the music sings in me” to “I sing the music”, taking the word “sing” both literally and figuratively. By graduation from high school, most of the students should be well on their way to mastering some discipline in music.

Keynotes of this period:

•    Listening

•    Tone

•    Ensemble

•    the Qualitative aspects of music

Key activities:

•    Sing simple songs

•    explore through activity: pitch, melodic contour, archetypal rhythmic patterns

In grades one and two, the foremost goal of the music lessons is to encourage the children to develop a strong inner sense for music.  Through activity and experience, the children should explore basic music literacy concepts such as loud/soft, high/low, fast/slow, steady/unsteady and basics of notation. These are not taught as concepts; the children just engage in a variety of experiences that allow them to have a strong, distinct feeling for these archetypes in music.  Children should also learn practical skills such as good instrumental technique with pentatonic flutes and lyres, as well as vocal technique through working with songs and singing in a light, high, beautiful “head voice”, as singers call it. Although concepts and skills are introduced progressively during the first two years of instruction, the real focus is on the inner work of music: careful and observant listening, reflecting on and responding to music and conscientiously working to produce beautiful tones, whether in singing or playing an instrument. Becoming discerning listeners who are able to hear, identify, and appreciate a broad range of subtitles in tone and music is critical during these primary years. Through sounds and their relationships the children come to intuitively understand the lawfulness of their world. They gradually becoming masters of their senses, in this case listening, and this helps lay the groundwork for accurate observation of the world, which of course is a foundation for free thinking in future years.

The instruction in the first two grades is not academic, rather it is experiential, and the focus is largely on the qualitative aspects of music. The music concepts introduced are always presented in a very natural way. They grow gradually out of the concrete experiences of the music classroom, and the children become cognizant of them in a gradual but sure way. As games and activities arise out of the simple songs they share, and the children are actually working with important concepts in music such as rhythmic and melodic notation.

Every music class is filled with songs. In grades one and two, the children explore simple, beautiful melodies and work with them in different ways. The same melody that is learned as a song will become a piece to play on the flute, and later it is explored as a rhythmic exercise or a cooperative game. Eventually the children create their own arrangement of the piece, trying different combinations of voices and instruments. It is if they are surrounded by the language of music and are invited to explore every aspect of it through a variety of experiences, discovering relationships, order, and lawfulness in the way tones interact.

In the first and second grade, the songs should mostly be set in what is called the “Mood of the Fifth”. The tones used are based on a scale in which the relationship from one note to the next is an interval of the fifth. In music theory the interval of the fifth is called the “perfect fifth”, because the two tones acoustically are very similar and create a perfect consonance. This, of course, relates to the soul mood of the child before the nine year change; they are in perfect consonance with their world. A scale whose smallest interval is a fifth is not practical to sing, so the pitches can be condensed into one octave. This yields a non-tonicized pentatonic scale, neither major or minor, generally centered around the note A, with the relationship of A up to E and down to D as being very important. The melodies therefore feel floating and ungrouded, without a definite tonal center.  This allows the musical content to remain in the feeling realm. The children are also able to focus primarily on the quality and relationships of the tones, deeply experiencing the variety of feelings that melodic intervals can generate.  The children do no harmony singing during at least the first two years; the focus is truly on the basics of tone and natural, speech based rhythm.

By the end of the second grade, the students can vocally match pitch, sing in a well supported head voice and with good vocal production, identify in tune our out of tune pitches, indicate direction and shape of melodic contours, sight sing simple notated melodies with a range of over an octave, and can draw beautiful pictures that capture these concepts iconically. For example, a second grader can create a drawing in which floating clouds or falling leaves indicate a basic melodic contour. Through this playful iconic or “picture” notation a second grader should be able to begin to read and count basic rhythmic notation.

During the first and second grade the children should become competent Choroi flute and pentatonic lyre players, with the technique and aptitude necessary to play simple melodies by ear and produce an even, pleasing tone. Through a sort of musical “free rendering” (meaning working freely with simple instruments and creating simple arrangements), they can create simple accompaniments and arrangements for songs they've learned, and they respond to form in music through basic dances. Most importantly, they are discriminating listeners and have gained a subtler sense for beautiful tone and good ensemble work.

Keynotes of this period:

•    Fluency in music literacy

•    the “Quantitative” aspects of music

Key activities:

•    sing in simple harmonies

•    instrument playing

•    write and read music competently

The students begin the third grade year with the same simple, flowing and childlike melodies that characterized their first two years in Waldorf education. In the first half of the year, the students’ work continues to focus on the inner work of music: really understanding music concepts deeply and in a non-intellectual way, in the very same way that we learn our mother tongue. They should be becoming fluent and sophisticated in the language of music.  The children sing, play their flutes and lyres and a variety of other simple classroom instruments, always with care to produce beautiful sounds and to really listen deeply to what is happening in the classroom.

Around mid-year, the third grade instruction makes a dramatic shift toward the practical, and music instruction per se begins. The children began learning the proper names for the “tools” that musicians use such as the staff, the clefs, quarter notes, eighth notes and so on, as well as the names for each note, in Solfege (do, re, mi, etc.), scale degree indications (calling the notes of a scale one, two, three, etc.), and eventually by their proper names (C, D, E, etc.). The students hand in their pentatonic flutes and receive proper diatonic flutes so that they can begin to explore tonal music and the major scale. After two and a half years of exploring these concepts on a willing and feeling level there is seldom any confusion when they begin to explore them a bit more abstractly; they understand it all intuitively and are very glad to have the names for all of the concepts that they are so familiar with.

The children also begin their career in music literacy by writing the notation for songs they have learned.  They must learn about the rhythmic value of the different notes and they eventually learn to read and count some fairly complex rhythms. After having written songs and sung from the page, they may begin to read some simple melodic notation. By the end of the year, they can sight sing simply melodies. In playing the flutes, they can begin to sometimes read very simple notated melodies rather than always learning pieces by rote.

As these middle years of the grade school progress, they begin learning about choral singing.  Rather than simply “singing a song”, a fourth grade class can play at becoming an informal “chorus” and learn how to follow a conductor’s gestures and how to be sensitive members of an ensemble. The students learn about good vocal production and basic techniques of singing through imitating the teacher. Around the time of the nine year change, the students can begin their first singing in very simple harmonies. This is a sensitive thing, and the teacher really has to observe the class carefully to determine when they are ready to be divided as a group for this type of work. They start with simple vocal ostinati accompaniments, move into quodlibets, and eventually into rounds. A teacher should only have the children engage in part singing when they are able to do so with sensitive, careful attention to the overall sound of the whole group and effect of the harmonies.  Any ear-plugging, singing loudly so as to drown out the other parts, or similar activity shows that the children really aren't ready for part singing.  By the middle of fourth grade the students can begin singing in proper two part harmonies, including from written notation. Fourth graders also explore harmonies with their flutes, creating parallel harmonies for simple melodies.

In grades three through five the students begin a rudimentary study of music theory in a non-pedantic way by learning about major and minor tonality and by singing moveable-do solfege (do-re-mi, etc.) as well as intervallic singing (scale degree names, 1, 2, 3, etc.).  In fourth grade the students can begin to learn about half-steps or chromatic intervals, which allows for the exploration of different scales and learning about tonality and key signatures, including an awareness of key relationships within the circle of fifths. The third – fifth grade student also works intensively with the recorder and learns to play songs by rote, from written notation and in improvisations. As the children grow they will begin to be able to handle larger recorders, and students in fifth grade are fully capable of handling alto and sometimes even tenor recorders.  It is possible to have an entire class move to the alto recorder, although there are generally many students who will still benefit from work with the soprano. One solution is to have the students who are progressing quickly with recorder learn the alto recorder while continuing with soprano as well, while the rest of the group continues to focus on building skills only with the soprano. Throughout all of their work with the recorder, students must always ensure that they play with the best possible tone, and that their sound blends beautifully.

In third grade the students can begin hearing stories about the orchestra and the different personalities of the instruments.  This prepares them to choose their first orchestral instrument, which ideally happens in fourth grade.  Waiting until that year is desirable because playing in a string orchestra necessarily divides the group into soprano, alto, and tenor/bass “voices” (violin, viola, cello), and it is ideal to keep a class as a unified whole until the nine year change.  By the end of grade 3 the children have heard all about the orchestra and are ready to choose to play the violin, viola or cello. They begin small group lessons on their string instrument of choice in fourth grade.  In fifth grade the instruction continues, but in slightly larger groups. By mid year in the fifth grade the students are ready to play together as a class orchestra, which is a moving and inspiring moment!

In fourth grade the children expand their learning of classical music forms and begin learning folk songs for “sing along” with the guitar or on the recorder. They often create simple arrangements of these songs using a variety of instruments. They explore folk music further by learning traditional circle dances and contra dances.  This study of folk music is continued throughout their education as a compliment to the formal music studies that continue throughout the grades.

The thorough groundwork laid in first through third grades allows for rapid and easy acquisition of skills and relevant aspects of music theory. By the end of fifth grade the students have a solid foundation in music literacy, and their musical skills are blossoming.  They can sight sing melodies and play notated melodies on the flute by sight.  They understand the major scale and its intervallic relationships, both by numbered scale degrees (1, 2, 3, octave, etc.) and also by Solfege relationships (do, re, me, etc.). They can notate familiar melodies as well as take basic music dictation. They are familiar with major scales and keys through four sharps and four flats. They play a violin, viola or cello and are able to read string orchestra music in the appropriate clef: treble, alto or bass.  They are able to play the recorder one and a half octaves and know the notes f#, c#, and g#, and b-flat. The more advanced recorder players move to alto, tenor and possibly bass recorders. They all sing in tune in a well produced head voice, and can sight read basic choral music in two parts. They learn about the qualities of major and minor chords and begin improvising basic harmonies within those frameworks. They also know a variety of traditional, standard folk songs from their own and other cultures. Most importantly, care and attention put toward tone and beauty in the early grades continues to be emphasized so that their orchestra and chorus work progresses easily and with real artistry. As the students complete their first five years of music education they are prepared to begin real ensemble work and truly apply their learning.

Keynotes of this period:

•    from the adults,“yes, you will” and just “keep it going” through ages 12-14

•    ages 14-18 making music out of own initiative

•    accountability throughout all of these years- make the children responsible for disciplining themselves in order to progress in their musical skills

Key activities:

•    Build skills- drilling is alright as long as it always leads back to something whole and aesthetic

•    activities that push the children out of their comfort zone and provide real challenge

•    culmination of work, especially through performance

•    work that is modeled after real world activities

Middle and high school students learn about music by making music. In 6th grade the students can be given the option to change from their orchestral string instrument to an orchestral wind (band) instrument, or to begin with orchestral percussion. The classes during these years are rehearsals with two aims: to prepare artistic concerts, and to use the rehearsal time to apply, reinforce and round out the students' music education. Naturally, some instrumentalists will be more advanced than their counterparts. Rehearsals may be arranged so that these students can be section leaders. In high school these leaders can be excused from rehearsal on an occasional basis to work independently in established, higher level chamber ensembles, whether a string quartet, brass ensemble, or jazz combo. This allows these players the opportunity to excel in a self-directed chamber ensemble. This also allows the rest of the ensemble time for extra rehearsal in order to “catch up” to these leaders.  In addition, high school players who are more advanced should be featured as soloists in concertos, accompanied by their classmates playing simpler orchestral or band parts.

Middle and high school students may also be offered the opportunity to participate in after school extracurricular music activities at the school such as individual instruction, chamber ensembles or jazz ensembles.  However, if the music instruction has progressed well, the high school students should actually feel compelled to create their own music groups, usually rock bands, jazz combos, a cappella groups, folk ensembles, etc. If high school students aren't having regular impromptu jam sessions throughout the school day and afterward, then there is some obstacle that is holding back the natural burgeoning creative energy of the 14-18 year old.

In terms of class scheduling, ideal would be to have students in the upper grades participate each week week two chorus rehearsals and two applied instrumental music classes. Instruction in music literacy continues in very practical ways during these years. Reading music, music theory, and general music literacy are all expanded during ensemble rehearsals. Students learn how to follow a conductor and how to work with the expressive elements in music in order to make their performances artistic and interesting.

Chorus lessons focus on strengthening sight reading skills and on vocal technique, choral sound and blend.  Band and String Orchestra rehearsals focus on instrumental technique, ensemble playing and general music literacy.  In these settings, individual students share leadership roles within their sections, so the students also learn much about cooperating in order to create something beautiful.

The upper school (middle and high school) will need some contingency for students who join the program with little or no musical experience. It is best to have some option for those who are new to the school. This class should, like its counterparts, help the students to develop skills, and it should have some opportunity for advancement over the years. Therefore, a guitar class or recorder ensemble can serve these purposes. A percussion ensemble can also serve this purpose, if the teacher knows how to create a situation that demands a continual development of skills and real accountability for progress, but these often devolve into jamming drum circles, which can be play- along situations.

The middle and high school student applies the diverse learning which characterized their primary years.  The emphasis continues to be on artistic, beautiful performances, and the repertoire explored should reflect that aim. The students prepare and perform what is truly best and beautiful, not simply what is fun, popular or simply heavily marketed. Just as the early grades explored musical archetypes, the senior ensembles learn “eternal music”, meaning compositions which capture true musical archetypes in an artistic, aesthetically moving way.  This could range from selections from Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, to selections from Mozart's Requiem, contemporary choral compositions by Eric Whitacre, Sousa marches for band, Duke Ellington pieces, Leroy Anderson compositions, or 16th century English madrigals. Our curriculum is not limited to masterpieces of European music. Favorites of the upper school students might include spirituals, South African choral music, jazz standards, or a capella arrangements of great popular music from throughout the 20th and 21st century. In addition to all of this nourishing music, it is beneficial to also have some musical “candy”, or fun music that keeps the ensembles lively. By high school some of these selections can come at the students' requests. Overall, the curriculum focuses on skill and knowledge, but with the end toward producing beautiful and moving music, regardless of the genre.

A lively, well rounded music program helps the growing child to find the right relationship between the rarefied world of tone and their everyday, earthly experience.  The children come to us as beings fresh from a pre-earthly, spiritual experience that is filled with patterns, forces, intentions, relationships, and indeed beings that are highly ordered and which interpenetrate one another in profound ways.  In essence, our spiritual, pre-earthly experience contains in a more sublime way all that lives in music.  Children are born with this world still resounding in their beings, and a quality music program really only helps them recall truths that they already understand unconsciously. Moreover, it empowers them to use music to maintain a relationship with that sublime world, and to bring their entire earthly organism into harmony.  As Rudolf Steiner noted:

When the musical ear of human beings is cultivated, they are inspired to experience in a living way the musical essence of the world itself. This is of the utmost value for the developing individual.  We must not forget that in the sculptural, pictorial realm we look at beauty, we experience it in a living way, whereas in the musical realm we ourselves become beauty. This is extraordinarily significant. - Practical Advice to Teachers, Lecture Three

The students love a well-developed music curriculum because it systematically allows them to “become beauty”. It does not deaden their inherent musical sensibility with abstractions in the early years, and in the middle grades it gives them all of the tools they need to express themselves musically. It also gives them something substantial, challenging and meaningful in their teenage years. A full music curriculum resonates with the growing child and allows them each to fully claim their full musical birthright.