The Development of an Instrument to Grade the Difficulty of Vocal Solo Repertoire

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to design a valid and reliable instrument—the Ralston Repertoire Difficulty Index (RRDI)—to measure the difficulty of solo vocal repertoire. Another aspect of this study was to determine the RRDI's ability to be used by voice teachers of all experience levels and to discriminate songs' difficulty into levels. Seven criteria—range, tessitura, rhythm, phrases, melodic line, harmonic foundations, and pronunciation—were incorporated in the instrument. The RRDI was tested by 34 postsecondary voice teachers. Results of the study showed that each criterion was significantly related to one overall rating established by Boytim (1982). The results also indicated high validity and reliability, and analyses revealed that the RRDI discriminated across difficulty levels and was used similarly by teachers of all experience levels.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Boytim, J. F. (Ed.), (1982). Solo vocal repertoire for young singers: An annotated bibliography (2nd ed.). New York: National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Coffin, B. (Ed.). (1960). Singer's repertoire. New York: Scarecrow Press.

De Young, D. (1977, December). Music literature for band and wind ensembles. Music Educators Journal, 64, 26–29.

Espina, N. (Ed.). (1977). Repertoire for the solo voice. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.

Grant, G. S. (1993). An evaluation by Missouri high school band directors of criteria used to select concert band music (Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1991). Dissertation Abstracts International, 55 (04), 899A.

House, R. W. (1965). Instrumental music for today's schools. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Hoyt, C. (1941). Test reliability obtained by analysis of variance. Psychometrika, 6, 153–160.

Hu, Y. (1991). Study of selected solo vocal works of Ernst Krenek: A stylistic and vocal analysis (Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1991). Dissertation Abstracts International, 53 (01), 13A.

Intravia, J. L. (1972). Building a superior band library. New York: Parker Publishing.

10.

Jarvis, P. J. (1987). The mature female voice in transition (Research project, Arizona State University, 1987). Dissertation Abstracts International, 49, 3, 375-A.

11.

Jones, R., Jr. (1988). A comprehensive catalog of the published art songs of Ottorino Respighi (Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1991). Dissertation Abstracts International, 49 (01), 3545A.

12.

Kagen, S. (Ed.). (1968). Music for the voice. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

13.

Madsen, C. K. , & Yarbrough, C. (1985). Competency-based music education. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

14.

Martin, F. (1957, December). Repertoire selection. The School Musician, 29 (4), 27.

15.

Prescott, G. R. , & Chidester, L. W. (1938). Getting results with school bands. New York: Carl Fischer.

16.

Ralston, J. (1996). The development of a valid and reliable instrument to grade the difficulty of vocal solo repertoire (Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996). Dissertation Abstracts International, 57 (11), 4683A.

17.

SAS Institute Inc. (1989). Proprietary software release 6.08. Cary, NC: Author.

18.

Saville, K. (1991). A computer assisted program for the selection of band music relative to the difficulty rating of individual instruments (Doctoral dissertation, Utah State University, Logan, 1991). Dissertation Abstracts International, 53 (03), 749A.

19.

Williamson, J. (1981, February). Poor educational music: Who's at fault? Instrumentalist, 35, 109.