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Dec 03, 2024
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Undergraduate Catalog 2021-22 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Music Composition Major (MUCJ)
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A student must be able to demonstrate previous music composition practice and competency before being admitted to a music composition major. Previous compositional practice will be assessed through a review of the student’s creative work involving sound. The student will need to have completed two or three works. All Bachelor of Music: Music Composition candidates are required to present a Senior Recital consisting of at least 30 minutes of original compositions which are an outgrowth of the candidate’s course work and which have been approved by the composition faculty member with whom the student is studying at the time of the recital. No minor is required for this major. In addition to core requirements for all Bachelor of Music majors, Music Composition majors must fulfill the following:
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1. WMU Essential Studies (36 hours)
2. CORE MUSIC REQUIREMENTS (26-28 hours)
Music Convocation (7 semesters)
Music History and Literature (9 hours)
History or Theory Elective (2-3 hours)
Theory Electives
Theory electives may be selected from the following:
Music History/Literature Electives
Music History/Literature electives may be selected from the following list of courses:
3. Composition Core Courses (36-43 hours)
Introductory Courses (9 hours)
Applied Level Assessment
After completing two of the introductory courses or after completing one of the introductory courses and being currently enrolled in a second course, students submit their creative work to date for evaluation in order for their progress to be assessed. Students demonstrating sufficient progress will be approved to enroll in MUS 2000 Applied Composition Lessons and MUS 3620 Applied Composition Lessons.
Applied Music Composition (16 hours)
- MUS 2000 - Applied Music Credits: 1 to 4 hours
(Topic: Composition) (instructor approval required) And/Or - MUS 3620 - Applied Music Composition Credits: 2 to 4 hours
(Minimum of four semesters for 12 hours) The final semester of MUS 3620 will include your senior hearing and recital. This must include at least 30-minutes of original compositions. This recital should be tailored to the individual student’s goals and interests, but should reflect various techniques and skills. The senior hearing will assess the student’s composition portfolio, contemporary music knowledge and professional development activities.
Creative Focused: (9-16 hours)
*See below, under “Support and Focus Course Options”, for suggested options based on area of focus.
4. Support and Focus Course Options (11-24 hours)
Select from the courses below in order to complete 122 credit hours. It is recommended that you determine a focus and pursue courses that fit that focus, while seeking some amount of variety. Some of the possible areas of focus also relate to what creative-focused courses you should select under the composition core courses. The following focuses, in addition to other possibilities are 1) composer-performer, 2) media/technology composer, 3) sound artist, 4) traditional concert-music composer, and 5) jazz-focused.
- For the composer-performer it is recommended that you take fewer creative-focused courses as part of your composition course and that you take 20 credit hours of performance credits below, in addition to other selections.
- For the media/technology composer focus, it is recommended that you take a minimum of 9 credit hours in the creative-focused course list in order to take all the technology course options in that category and that you take 12 credit hours of technology courses from the list below.
- For sound artist focused students it is suggested that you take 9 credit hours of technology courses from the creative-focused course list and that you take the suggested maximum of 12 credits of classes from the interdisciplinary course list below.
- For traditional concert-music composers it is suggested that you take 12 hours of performance credits and that you take 7-8 credit hours of the traditional music classes listed below.
- For jazz-focused composers it is suggested that you select Jazz Composition from the creative-focused course list, that you take jazz theory, jazz history and literature, and that you take a significant number of jazz-focused performance opportunities.
With composition faculty and School of Music advisor approval any other School of Music, College of Fine Arts, or University courses can be counted towards your degree, including adding a minor to replace a significant number of these credits. Please discuss options that are specific to your goals with composition faculty.
Traditional Music Classes
Music Performance (Suggested maximum of 20 hours)
*With instructor approval composers can register for ensembles as “composer-in-residence” and observe the ensemble and write a piece for that ensemble, in coordination with their private composition instructor for the semester, to be read by that ensemble at the end of the semester.
- Any instrument or voice technique class (MUS 1170, MUS 1290, MUS 1300, MUS 1420, MUS 1430, MUS 1440 or MUS 1460)
Technology: (Suggested maximum of 12 hours)
Interdisciplinary (Suggested maximum of 12 hours)
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