Students have the opportunity to act as both listeners and composers of art songs.

Before beginning their work on original Art songs, students listen to several examples of German lieder.

Students spend several classes analyzing "The Erlking" which is a poem by Goethe set to music by Schubert. Students listen to details in the music in order to understand many techniques that Schubert used in order to create a very expressive piece of music. Students also learn information about Art Songs and the composer Schubert.

After listening to several other examples of Art songs, students begin composing their own art songs.