Many students believe their music study begins and ends on their instrument. However, to be well-rounded, a music student needs to acquire much more than mere technique. Artistry is discovered, in part, through music history.
Here are 3 ways history contributes to a student’s deep understanding of music:
1
Learning music history gives students the opportunity to explore and gain appreciation for different eras, genres, and styles of music.
2
Learning music history gives students the opportunity to be inspired by musicians from other times and places than their own.
3
Learning music history gives students the ability to learn and perform a song in a manner consistent with the song’s historical era, genre, and style.
(Image of Strauss statue in Vienna, Austria)
An Overview of the Music History Award
All three components help students to think about music in a historical way. According to Andrews and Burke, the 5 C’s of historical thinking are “change over time, causality, context, complexity, and contingency,” (quote from article for “Perspectives On History,” the American Historical Association newsmagazine).
The Music History Award for 2025 Ends In:
- Students may gain entries during the months of June and July.
- Prizes will be awarded, and the grand prize drawing will commence, at Vance Music’s August recital.
- The 1st completed entry must be a memorized music era.
- The 2nd completed entry must be a listening test.
- The 3rd completed entry must be a composer fact sheet.
- Subsequent entries must alternate between music eras and composer fact sheets.
- Students must memorize a song during June or July and perform it in either the June or July recital.
- Students are allowed no more than 10 minutes during each 30-minute lesson to check off information for entries.
- When memorizing musical eras, the following sections should be treated as part of an era, not an era within themselves: Notes, Bridge Composers, Contested Composers.
- Music eras and composer fact sheets must be assigned by a Vance Music teacher in order to qualify for the award.
Prizes
Prize Level 1: Chronicler
Students who complete 1 entry (music era + recital performance as detailed in the rules section) will receive the Chronicler’s prize.
Prize Level 2: Budding Historian
Students who complete 3 entries (music era + listening test + composer fact sheet + recital performance as detailed in the rules section) will receive the Budding Historian’s prize (in addition to the Chronicler prize).
Prize Level 3: Antiquarian
Students who complete 9 entries (4 music eras + listening test + 4 composer fact sheets + recital performance as detailed in the rules section) will receive the Antiquarian’s prize (in addition to the Chronicler & Budding Historian prizes).
Prize Level 4: Archivist
The student who completes the most entries (as detailed in the rules section) will receive a special prize.
Grand Prize Drawing
Students who participate in the Music History Award will get their name in the grand prize drawing for each entry they complete (as detailed in the rules section). The student whose name is drawn will win the grand prize.
Memorize A Music Era
Why should students memorize a music era?
- Students grasp a broad narrative of how music has changed over time.
Miller Skills, a company equipping educators, states, “Teaching history in a linear timeline helps students understand the relationships between different historical periods…”
- Students begin to construct a broad music history framework.
Lindsay Gibbon, in his article for Public History Weekly, recommends “frameworks of knowledge,” which act as “scaffolds to accelerate and facilitate learning.” He writes that frameworks help students “contextualize, organize, and analyze events, developments, and people over broad temporal and spatial scales,” and that frameworks are “open and flexible to new content and perspectives,” “expected to be extended, deconstructed, and reconstructed over time.”
- Students start to develop an understanding of how music history fits into a larger historical context.
- Students are introduced to composers who have been considered important throughout history.
How do students complete a music era entry?
- Get a history level from your teacher.
- Memorize the facts of a musical era.
- Era information in parenthesis does not need to be memorized
- Only eras count as entries. Notes, Bridge Composers, or Contested Composers may be required as part of an era, but do not count as eras themselves.
- Recite the information to your teacher in lesson by memory (within the 10-minute time limit).
Study & Pass A Music Listening Test
Why should students pass a listening test?
- Students learn to listen for music characteristics that imply a historical context.
- Students are exposed to pieces and composers which they may not be able to perform on their instrument.
- Students start reading music on a score.
- Students hear professional musicians performing great works of music.
How do students complete a listening entry?
Listening Test Preparation
- Using the music era tabs below (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century & Beyond), listen to the score and performer examples for each piece. Make sure to take note of the given stop and start times for each example.
- Memorize each piece’s era, title, and composer.
- Practice recognizing the pieces by ear: have a partner play the examples in random order.
- Practice recognizing clips of the pieces by ear: have a partner choose the examples in random order, and start somewhere random between the given start and stop times.
Water Music, Suite No. 2, Mvts. 1 & 2
By George Frideric Handel
Start at 0:00, Stop at 6:36
Start at 0:00, Stop at 5:40
Symphony No. 104 In D (aka London Symphony), Mvt. 4 (Finale: Spiritoso)
By Franz Joseph Haydn
Start at 24:33, Stop at 31:15
Start at 21:56, Stop at 28:55
Symphony No. 2, Mvt. 4 (Finale: Allegro)
By Alexander Borodin
Start at 19:14, Stop at 25:05
Start at 23:14, Stop at 30:05
Turangalilia-Symphonie, Mvt. 3 (Turangalila)
By Olivier Messiaen
Start at 14:39, Stop at 21:21
Start at 15:11, Stop at 21:00
Listening Test Day
- Your teacher will play a 20-second clip of each example in your lesson.
- Identify each clip, reciting the matching title, composer, and era by memory.
- Students must identify all four clips correctly back-to-back during one lesson (within the 10-minute time limit).
Research, Submit, & Memorize A Composer Fact Sheet
Why should students research and memorize a composer fact sheet?
- Students develop research skills and knowledge of music research resources.
- Students understand how composers shape and are shaped by history.
- Students understand how composers influence one another.
- Students learn about music repertoire that has been considered important throughout history.
(Image of Mozart monument in Salzburg, Austria)
Vance Music’s Composer Challenge Award is a great preparation for the Music History Award!
How do students complete a composer fact sheet entry?
- Get a composer fact sheet from your teacher.
- Research the composer to fill out the fact sheet as best you can.
- Give your teacher your completed fact sheet. Your teacher will let you know if you need to make corrections or additions.
- Memorize the information on the composer fact sheet.
- Recite the information to your teacher in lesson by memory (within the 10-minute time limit).
(Image of Beethoven bust in New York City, NY)
How To Submit Subsequent Entries
- Continue alternating Music Era entries and Composer Fact Sheet entries.
- Every entry increases your odds of winning the grand prize!
Congratulations!
Congratulations on taking these first steps towards a deeper understanding of music through The Music History Award!
