Graduate Entrance Exams
Remediation Explained
All entering Masters Degree students in Music will be evaluated in music theory and music history. In addition, students’ writing skills will be considered. These entrance examinations will be administered at the time of audition/interview. Students will be notified with results of these exams promptly:
- Admission with no remediation.
- Admission with remediation. On a case-by-case basis, faculty will recommend remediation targeted at specific deficiencies. Options for remediation are explained in the paragraphs below.
- Failure. Student is denied acceptance as a graduate student and may not enroll in the School of Music. Student may re-apply after one year.
Once the scores for the Graduate Entrance Exams have been calculated, a panel of graduate faculty will review these exams and make recommendations for remediation. These recommendations are included in your School of Music acceptance letter. The required remediation also become a condition for graduation. The Graduate School will not grant a diploma unless the remediation is successfully accomplished and documented your School of Music file.
The School of Music does not currently offer a remediation course in music history or music theory for graduate students. Each graduate student is considered individually. The required courses for remediation are generally handled through the undergraduate music and/or music theory courses. Graduate students are required to either enroll, audit or simply sit in an undergraduate class (or part) and sore an 80% or better on the final exam. The required documentation for he graduate student’s file is a copy of that final exam. In rare cases, remediation is handled privately with a specific and willing professor. But written documentation is required in either case.
Writing skills are considered imperative for all graduate students. A written essay is included with the music history entrance exam and is used to determine if an entering graduate student has the writing skills necessary to pass our program. The faculty panel who assesses music history and music theory also use a common writing rubric to grade the student’s writing. Should the faculty panel determine that there is a writing deficiency, the student will also be required to pass either: Eng 303 Introduction to Professional Writing and Editing or Eng 501 Writing for Careers. This course also becomes a condition of graduation and must be documented in the student’s Music School file.
Further Details about Entrance Exams
1. The Music Theory Entrance Exam will test the following:
a. Fundamentals: scales, keys, intervals, triads, 7th chords, inversions, Roman Numerals, figured bass, meter
b. Non-chord tones, cadences, periods, introduction to chromaticism, secondary dominants, modulation
c. Chromaticism: mode mixture, Neapolitan, Augmented 6th chords, enharmonic relationships
d. Form: binary & ternary, rondo, variations, sonata form, imitative counterpoint
e. 20th century music and techniques: scales, harmony, atonal theory, twelve-tone theory
2. The Music History Exam consists of objective questions based upon the following periods of music. Students will also be expected to write an essay based upon listening examples.
a. The Middle Ages (450 -1450) including Gregorian chant, the development of polyphony, and musical notation. Representative composers are: Hildegard of Bingen, Leonin, Perotin, Landini, and Machaut
b. The Renaissance (1450 -1600) including imitative counterpoint, word painting, the mass,motet, and madrigal, and the Venetian school. Representative composers are: Josquin, Palestrina, Dufay, Morley, Dowland, and Giovanni Gabrieli.
c. The Baroque (1600 -1750) including tonal harmony, contrapuntal techniques, basso continuo, the concerto grosso and ritornello form, fugue, opera, chorale, and oratorio. Representative composers are: Monteverdi, Purcell, Corelli, Rameau, Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel
d. The Classical Period (1750 -1820) including homophonic texture, sonata form, theme and variations, minuet and trio, rondo, symphony, concerto, and chamber music. Representative composers are: Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven
e. The Romantic Period (1820 -1900) including the art song, program music, nationalism and exoticism, and chromatic harmony. Representative composers are: Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Smetana, Dvorak, Brahms, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, and Mahler.
f. The Twentieth Century (1900 – 2000) including impressionism, expressionism, polytonality, atonality, polyrhythm, primitivism, serialism, chance music, minimalism, electronic music, and microtonal music. Representative composers are: Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Bartok, Ives, Gershwin, Copland, Cage, Boulez, Stockhausen, Reich, Glass, Babbitt, Penderecki, Crumb, Carter, and Zwilich.
Inquiries concerning specific aspects of the graduate music program should be directed to:
Mary Kay Bauer
Coordinator of Graduate Studies
School of Music
Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC 28723
(828) 227-3275, (828) 227-7162 (FAX)
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