my name is Dr. Karen Sunabacka I teach
music theory and Composition and any
courses related to those two subjects
here at Conrad Grebel
it's a music theory one i focus on or
the course focuses on music kind of the
beginning of written Western art music
so we start talking about cadences how
modal music was so the early church
music in the early church modes and also
early folk music so we start with that
and students learn how to write and
compose in the style of this early
church music we also go through texts
and how to set texts because the
earliest music that we have written down
is actually music that is inspired by
the text or is to be sung with text so
that's music theory one we get to a
point where we get to the beginnings of
tonal music so music theory one moves
from modal music into the early
beginnings of tonal music so music
theory 2 is baroque music essentially
and into classical music and this is
tonal music and students learn about
chord progressions about applied
dominance about all the more
complications of tonal music music
theory 3 then finishes our study on
tonal music with the music of the
Romantic period and this is where we
learn to compose like Beethoven and we
learn about the more chromatic harmony
that then leads to the 20th century
which is music theory four and music
theory four at the moment is an optional
course but it really finishes our study
of music theory because it gets us to
today and and how music is written today
which basically includes
all the styles up from music theory 1
all the way through music theory 4 and
it's a really fun one because mostly
students are composing their own works
and they're learning how to write in the
styles of all the contemporary music
composers
