Authoring the AP Music Theory Exam: Consultation and Collaboration Jocelyn Neal UNC Chapel Hill and Elizabeth West Marvin The Eastman School of Music

Test Development Committee Three college faculty Three high school faculty Chief Reader (responsible for grading the exam) College Board Advisor (also faculty)

Test Development Committee College faculty have included: Joseph Kraus, FSU Elizabeth West Marvin, Eastman Matthew Bribitzer-Stull, Univ of Minnesota Patrick McCreless, Yale Jo Anne Caputo, Cleveland Inst. Jocelyn Neal, UNC Chapel Hill Jane Clendinning, FSU Sam Ng, Univ. of Cincinnati Melissa Cox, Emory Teresa Reed, Univ. of Tulsa Jonathan Holland, Berklee Ron Rodman, Carleton College Eric Isaacson, Indiana Univ. Ken Stephenson, Univ. of OK Rebecca Jemian, Univ. of Louisville Harvey Stokes, Hampton Univ. YouYoung Kang, Scripps

How a Test Is Written Stage 1: individual committee members write questions Stage 2: committee meets and edits questions; questions put in a pool Stage 3: committee reviews and selects questions from the pool for an actual exam Stage 4: committee members review and take the test Stage 5: page proofs go to the committee co- chairs

Exam COVERAGE Diatonic tonal harmony and voice leading plus secondary dominant chords Basic topics of rhythm, meter, phrase structure and small forms Motivic transformations (e.g., inversion) and sequences Vocabulary for texture and performance markings Repertory: tonal music, including a few selections from twentieth-century art music, jazz, world, and popular music

Exam Format Section I: Multiple-choice Score-based 80 minutes 75 questions pitch structure, harmony, cadences, form and phrase structure, meter, rhythmic devices such as hemiola, texture, key relations, and compositional devices such as sequences or motivic transformations Multiple-choice Recording-based

Exam Format Section I: multiple choice Sample questions based on a recording Exam Format

Exam Format Section I: multiple choice Sample questions based on a score

Exam Format Section II: free response FREE-RESPONSE WRITTEN ANSWERS 80 minutes 9 questions 7 written answers 2 sight singing melodies FREE-RESPONSE WRITTEN ANSWERS SIGHT SINGING

Exam Format Section II: free response 1. melodic dictation #1 3. harmonic dictation #1 4. harmonic dictation #2 5. realize a figured bass 6. realize a harmonic progression 7. write an 18th-c. chorale-style bass line 8. sight-singing #1 9. sight-singing #2

Try It Out! Let’s sight-sing:

Exam History 1978: first offered 1996: sight singing added 2002: part-writing from Roman Numerals added 2004: chorale-style bass line question streamlined * Teach the material from any standard college-level textbook.

College Correlation Continuously reviewed Syllabi and exams drawn from a range of types of music departments and schools

College Correlation Continuously reviewed Syllabi and exams drawn from a range of types of music departments and schools Exam coverage is equivalent to one or two semesters of theory across the aggregate of programs

College Correlation Continuously reviewed Syllabi and exams drawn from a range of types of music departments and schools Exam coverage is equivalent to one or two semesters of theory across the aggregate of programs Individual faculty should figure out how that correlates to your own courses

= 5 (2014) (2015) Internal Correlation Statisticians, test-creation procedures grading processes equate scores from one year to the next = 5 (2014) (2015)

Summary Incredibly stable format Reflects the aggregate of first-semester college theory courses Authored by a committee of 8 professional theorists and teachers

Authoring the AP Music Theory Exam: Collaboration and Consultation Jocelyn Neal UNC Chapel Hill and Elizabeth West Marvin The Eastman School of Music