A. Curriculum and objectives
Students majoring in Music at Sewanee cultivate musical skills while at the same time developing particular intellectual and critical abilities. In intellectual terms, students acquire knowledge of the development of music in Western culture and learn to think critically about music in contemporary culture and around the world. In addition to developing this historical and critical perspective, the music curriculum stimulates the sheer joy of the “music itself”—pitches and rhythms, voices and instruments. Specifically, Music majors will:
•Understand that music exists within a web of cultural and historical connections (required courses, Music 101, 201; recommended, Music 105)
•Engage current scholarship in musicology, critique it, and present it to their peers (required course, Music 301, and various electives)
•Understand music theory (Music 102/103, 260, 261, 360).
•Develop individual performance skills through private instruction in an instrument or voice (courses numbered 271-279 and 371-379). Working one-to-one with a teacher, students:
---Discuss repertory and develop concert programs, taking into account both technical demands and issues of connection with audiences
---Develop practice habits that promote technical and expressive goals
---Cultivate a stage presence of confidence, eloquence, and dramatic flair in public musical performances.
•Cultivate ensemble skills in Music 251 and 253. Students will learn to:
---Collaborate with others as “team players"
---Take and give direction (in the capacities of section member and section leader)
---Experience how the whole may exceed the sum of its parts
---Perform works previously encountered in the music history classes
B. Comprehensive Exam: Assessing history and theory
The comprehensive exam, normally administered during the senior year, allows the music major to demonstrate his or her mastery of historical, aural, and analytical knowledge of music. Students also display their facility for composition. It comprises three general sections:
•Aural and score IDs: From listening to audio excerpts and viewing score excerpts, students identify musical works by composer, title, date, and genre.
•Theory, analysis, and composition: Students make chordal identifications and formal analyses from musical scores. Students complete exercises in voice leading and modulation. In non- technical terminology, students demonstrate their facility for composing music.
•History essays and term IDs: In two essays students evidence a breadth of familiarity with music history, addressing intersections of music, history, and culture. In a third essay, tailored for each individual student, a specific question asks for synthesis of material from the student’s electives with that of the music history sequence. Also, from a list of 36 terms and images the student defines 30.
The comprehensive exam asks students to review, apply, and synthesize material they’ve previously encountered in their course work in music history and theory. It also requires students to be resourceful and self-motivated enough to process and learn some music, repertories, historical contexts, and terminology on their own.
C. Other student outcomes: Assessing performance
Other student outcomes in Music fall outside traditional academic learning. Music majors have a number of opportunities to perform individually and demonstrate music-making skills.
•Juries: At the conclusion of each semester of applied study (Music 271-279 and 371- 379), a music student performs a “jury,” a short (6-7 minute) performance that demonstrates his or her technical progress through the semester. The full Music Dept. faculty evaluate the juries, and other students taking applied lessons are also present as audience.
•Recitals: For Music students following a performance track in the major, more demanding recitals are prepared and presented in the junior and senior years. Typically the junior (“half”) recital will comprise around half an hour of music in contrasting styles and periods and the senior (“full”) recital around an hour in contrasting styles and periods.
•Piano/keyboard proficiency: All music majors must either demonstrate facility with keyboard performance or take a semester or two of piano lessons (Musc 277).
D. Honors
Music students who are particularly gifted and motivated may wish to pursue Honors in the major. This requires success on three fronts. First, the student’s GPA in the major will be 3.5 or higher. Second, he or she must pass the comprehensive exam “with distinction.” Third, the student completes a special project that the Music faculty judge outstanding. The project takes one of several forms:
•the senior recital, for students following the performance track
•an honors paper, for students focusing on music history or theory, or
•a special composition project for those interested in composition.
