The time signature, also known as meter signature, of a piece of music defines how the beat is organized by prescribing how many beats occur per measure and what kind of note designates one beat. Each beat is counted sequentially.

Repetition and contrast are the two most basic elements of musical form. These concepts evolved as a response to the human need for comfort in the familiar and then, becoming bored with the familiar, a change to something new.

Music Fundamentals for Dance is a text for student dancers, choreographers, and dance educators written by an experienced educator and choreographer. This book presents foundational knowledge of the elements of music and describes their application to dance performance, choreography, and teaching. It includes a web resource offering exercises, activities, projects, downloadable examples of music, and web links that provide a range of active learning experiences.

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Product Description

Music Fundamentals for Dance provides students with a fundamental understanding of music and how it applies to dance performance, composition, and teaching. This valuable reference helps professional choreographers, dance educators, and dancers expand their knowledge of music and understand the relationships between music and dance.

Music Fundamentals for Dance helps dancers understand of the elements of music—form and structure, musical time, melody, texture, and score reading—and how they relate to dance performance and choreography. They will learn music vocabulary for easier communication with other dancers, musicians, and conductors. Overviews of musical forms, styles, and genres are complemented by an examination of their relation to dance and choreography.

Each chapter ends with exercises, activities, and projects that offer students a range of active learning experiences to connect music fundamentals to their dance training. An accompanying web resource contains these features:

Extended learning activities and support materials, including practice opportunities combining music skills with dance or choreography, chapter summaries, a glossary, websites, and handouts to help students practice music skills

Music clips on the website offer ready-made examples, which students can use in applying concepts from the book

Written by an experienced dance educator, dancer, and choreographer, Music Fundamentals for Dance is the only current text that explains essential concepts of music and examines these concepts in relation to dance performance, composition, and teaching. By providing readers with a foundation of music knowledge, Music Fundamentals for Dance assists both future and current professionals in understanding the art form that will enhance their contributions as performers, choreographers, and educators.

Text for undergraduate and high school dance courses. Supplemental text for dance composition or dance methods courses. Reference for dancers, choreographers, and dance educators.

Nola Nolen Holland, MFA, is an assistant professor in the department of dance at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. For 10 years Nolen Holland taught courses in music for dance. Her search for a music text written specifically for dancers led her to create Music Fundamentals for Dance.

An experienced dancer, dance educator, and choreographer, Nolen Holland danced with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and has initiated several composer collaborations in order to develop original music for her dance works. She is president of CORPS de Ballet International, Inc., a professional organization for ballet teachers in higher education.

Recognition for Nolen Holland’s choreography includes presentation of her work at the 1992 American College Dance Festival National Gala; the 1994 5th Biennial International University Dance Festival at the Université Lumière in Lyon, France; and the 2007 International Dance Alliance Festival in Chennai, India.