Music

Music education is the education of human feeling through the development of a responsiveness to the aesthetic qualities of sound. Performance classes provide intimate contact with these expressive qualities. In this context, performance is not an end in itself, but a means to an end, which includes the following:

• the knowledge and understanding of the structural elements of music, and of music as a creative art form;
• the cultivation of habits, attitudes, and appreciations;
• the development of each student’s aesthetic potential, sensitivity and responsiveness to that which is beautiful in music.

The goals of the Strathcona Music Department are to graduate students who:

• Make music alone and with others;
• Improvise and create music;
• Use the vocabulary and notation of music;
• Respond to music aesthetically, intellectually and emotionally;
• Acquaint themselves with a wide variety of music, including diverse musical styles and genres;
• Understand the role music has played and continues to play in the lives of human beings;
• Make aesthetic judgments based upon critical listening and analysis;
• Support the musical life of the community and encourage others to do so;
• Continue their musical learning independently