Music Composition (BMus)

https://musicanddance.uoregon.edu/music-composition

At the core of Oregon’s composition program is a thriving artistic community of forty to forty-five undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral composers. Our comprehensive approach integrates compositional studies with theory, history, ethnomusicology, intermedia technology, contemporary performance practice, multimedia collaboration, and an intensive career development seminar. Our diverse yet focused curriculum prepares each student for a future as a professional composer.
Many of our students are accomplished instrumentalists, vocalists, and/or conductors, and as part of our program, they continually perform their own music and the works of their colleagues. Opportunities abound for the performance of new music through the Oregon Composers Forum, Music Today Festival, Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, Composing for Orchestra Seminar, and Pacific Rim Gamelan, as well as any of our five student-run new music ensembles.

Program's Admission Requirements

Please visit the program's website.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:

• General Studies Competencies: Think, speak, and write clearly and effectively.
• General Studies Competencies: A familiarity with fields of study beyond music such as those in the arts and humanities, the natural and physical sciences, and the social sciences.
• General Studies Competencies: A functional awareness of the differences and commonalities regarding work in artistic, scientific, and humanistic domains.
• General Studies Competencies: Awareness that multiple disciplinary perspectives and techniques are available to consider all issues and responsibilities including, but not limited to history, culture, moral and ethical issues, and decision-making.
• General Studies Competencies: The ability to identify possibilities and locate information in other fields that have bearing on musical questions and endeavors.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills - Performance: Technical skills requisite for artistic self-expression in at least one major performance area at a level appropriate for the particular music degree.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills - Performance: An overview understanding of the repertory in their major performance area and the ability to perform from a cross-section of that repertory.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills - Performance: The ability to read at sight with fluency demonstrating both general musicianship and, in the major performance area, a level of skill relevant to professional standards appropriate for the particular music degree.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills - Performance: Knowledge and skills sufficient to work as a leader and in collaboration on matters of musical interpretation. Rehearsal and conducting skills are required as appropriate to the particular music degree.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills - Performance: Keyboard competency.
• Common Body of Musical Knowledge and Skills - Performance: Growth in artistry, technical skills, collaborative competence and knowledge of repertory through regular ensemble experiences. Ensembles should be varied both in size and nature.
• Musicianship Skills and Analysis: An understanding of the common elements and organizational patterns of music and their interaction, the ability to employ this understanding in aural, verbal, and visual analyses, and the ability to take aural dictation.
• Musicianship Skills and Analysis: Sufficient understanding of and capability with musical forms, processes, and structures to use this knowledge and skill in compositional, performance, analytical, scholarly, and pedagogical applications according to the requisites of their specializations.
• Musicianship Skills and Analysis: The ability to place music in historical, cultural, and stylistic contexts.
• Composition/Improvisation: Students must acquire a rudimentary capacity to create original or derivative music: written, electronic, or improvisatory forms and methods. These may include but are not limited to the creation of original compositions or improvisations, variations or improvisations on existing materials, experimentation with various sound sources, the imitation of musical styles, and manipulating the common elements in non-traditional ways. A basic understanding of how to work freely and cogently with musical materials in various composition-based activities, particularly those most associated with the major field shall be demonstrated.
• History and Repertory: Students must acquire basic knowledge of music history and repertories through the present time, including study and experience of musical language and achievement in addition to that of the primary culture encompassing the area of specialization.
• Synthesis: While synthesis is a lifetime process, by the end of undergraduate study students must be able to work on musical problems by combining, as appropriate to the issue, their capabilities in performance; aural, verbal, and visual analysis; composition/improvisation; and history and repertory.

Music Composition Major Requirements

¹

Music Composition students must take 3 consecutive terms of MUP 163 Functional Piano for Composers, with exceptions allowed by proficiency examination administered by piano faculty during Week of Welcome.

²

A public performance of compositions written by the student under the guidance of the composition faculty. Final approval of the student’s recital and general qualifications are provided by the composition faculty.

³

For continued enrollment in the Music Composition major, students must successfully complete the music core courses (listed above) with grades of C- or better.  They must also successfully complete the Composition I series (MUS 240, 241, 242) with grades of B- or better.  Lastly, students may retake only one course in the nine-quarter Composition course sequence (Composition I, II & III series) in which they earn a C+ or lower. 

Four-Year Degree Plan

The degree plan shown is only a sample of how students may complete their degrees in four years. There are alternative ways. Students should consult their advisor to determine the best path for them.