CREATIVITY
Music
Find the music in you
At FGR, you can nurture your love for music through choir and band. You can learn Music Theory and or simply develop a stronger appreciation of music through Music Appreciation.
Our Madrigals Honors Choir is an available by audition for those who wish to dedicate time to developing vocal skills in an ensemble setting. This national award-winning group also performs at FGR and community-wide events by request. Band and choir performs two concerts each year.
Music Courses
Choir
Like singing and making music? Choir is a performance ensemble that aims to utilize the gifts of voice. Focusing on 3-part harmony, choir performs a wide repertoire of music, choir teaches you to sing with proper techniques, the joys of sight sighting, and most importantly how to work collaborative in a large group setting. Choir is open to all students no matter their skill or experience level. The choir will prepare and perform a variety of different school events.
Madrigals
Prerequisite: Audition and special permission only; Sophomores, juniors, and seniors
Madrigals is an audition only, acapella choir. Auditions are held in early March for upcoming sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Students will prepare a wide variety of repertoire, reach an advanced level of technical prowess, and learn to lead and work cooperatively in a small ensemble setting. Madrigals act as an outreach group for the school, going to perform at a variety of venues to use the gifts of music to meet the needs of the community. The Madrigals will perform on a regular basis at school Masses, concerts, and wherever else the school community calls us.
Concert Band
Students in concert band will rehearse and perform music of various styles and difficulty levels. The daily objective of the course is to foster and promote musical growth through the playing of an instrument by the student. As a member of the concert band, each student should know that group effort and cooperation are necessary for a successful program. Each student is expected to show technical and musical growth throughout the course. This class will also provide performance opportunities for the student.
Music Appreciation
This course will explore the many facets of music in the early 20th century. It is a general introductory course designed to enhance listening enjoyment and ability with an emphasis on the elements of music, the characteristic styles, and the lives and works of key composers. Students will have various opportunities to interpret, explore and listen to assorted musical genres for vocal/instrumental solos and ensembles. These kinds of music will include, but not be limited to popular music (pop, rock, jazz, rap, country and musical theatre) and classical music (symphonies, oratorios and music for opera and ballet). In this class, faith is integrated when students learn about the edifying effects of music and the ways in which music influences their own lives.
Music Theory
This introductory level course introduces the student to musicianship, theory, musical materials, and procedures. It integrates aspects of melody, harmony, texture, rhythm, form, musical analysis, elementary composition and, to some extent, history and style. Musicianship skills to will be covered are note, interval, and chord identification, composition, form and analysis, dictation and other listening skills, sight singing, and keyboard harmony. Simply put, this is a crash course into understanding how to read, listen to and write music effectively.