Music Studies
The bachelor of arts degree program in music studies is designed for students who want an outstanding education in music irrespective of career goals. With many elective hours available, these students intend to pursue a career either in or outside of music, such as in medicine, law, business and more.
This course develops basic improvisation skills. The areas of study include theory, style, composition, scale patterns, and harmonic progressions, and experimentation with various sound sources, manipulating common elements in nontraditional ways.
This course includes study of baton technique, beat patterns and gestures, cuing, transpositions, terminology, score analysis and preparation, rehearsal techniques, programming, seating arrangements, performer/conductor rapport, and more. Students conduct live instrumental ensembles both in the classroom and in the rehearsal hall.
The format of the project can be a research paper, a multimedia project, or a lecture-recital. The major theme must include exploring pervasive cross-cultural and/or interdisciplinary influences in music. Required will be an analysis of the information from multiple sources to understand a proposed topic; a synthesis of information from multiple music disciplines (theory, history, performance, technology, etc.) to address the issue; a skillful presentation and defense of value judgments on the chosen topic; a demonstration of effective qualitative research methods; and the understanding of the importance of professional presentation of material and self-presentation. The selected capstone project requires approval by the supervising faculty member and the department chair before it is allowed to commence.