The Master of Music Degree

About the Program:

Birmingham-Southern College awards the Master of Music degree in the following concentrations: composition, organ, piano, and voice.

The goal of this program is to develop musical ability in the appropriate field of students who have demonstrated the maturity, desire, and ability to succeed in graduate study. Such students will have successfully completed a suitable undergraduate degree, and, in many cases, will have acquired sustained professional experience as a musician. It is expected that such students have as a goal to further their own expertise and scholarship in their chosen field of musical scholarship. Students are expected to demonstrate competency, through a personal audition and interview, and by passing placement examinations, before they are admitted into the program.

Admissions Procedure:

Admission to the Master of Music program requires a completed application package. This application package is to include: official copies of all college/university transcripts, letters of recommendation from three sources, an acceptable score on a nationally-recognized graduate entrance examination, TOEFL scores for students for whom English is not their first language, submission of the application fee, and other requirements as specified below.

Audition Information:

Organ:
An audition before a committee of the music faculty, which will include four selections (scores may be used):

1. a major work by Johann Sebastian Bach
2. a work by a French or German composer of the seventeenth century
3. a work in a Romantic idiom by a French or German composer
4. a work composed after 1950

Selections to be performed should be of the comparable difficulty of the following:

• Albright, Organ Book I
• Bach, Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 532, Trio Sonatas, Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major, BWV 564
• Franck, Chorale in B Minor, Chorale in E Major
• Liszt, Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H
• Langlais, Te Deum
• Hindemith, Sonatas
• Dupré, Preludes and Fugues
• Pepping, Sonate für Orgel (Trio)
• Messiaen, Transports de joie
• Persichetti, Sh'ma B'koli, Sonata
• Rorem, A Quaker Reader

Piano:
An audition before a committee of the music faculty, which will include four selections:

1. a Prelude and Fugue of Johann Sebastian Bach, or a work of Bach's containing a fugal movement. Transcriptions are not permitted;
2. a sonata of Beethoven, excluding Op. 14, 49, and 79;
3. a substantial work from the Romantic period;
4. a twentieth-century work

Voice:
An audition before a committee of the music faculty, which will consist of four art songs and two arias, employing English, French, German and Italian texts, and representing contrasting periods and styles.

Composition:
The student must present an acceptable portfolio of scores for examination by a committee of the music faculty, and be interviewed by the composition faculty.

Other Information:

Music Theory and History:
Students will be required to take a proficiency exam upon admission to the program to determine whether remedial coursework is needed.

French, German, and Italian Diction:
Singers will be given an oral diction proficiency entrance exam covering pronunciation in these languages, to determine whether remedial coursework is needed.

Credit in such courses numbered 200 or below will not be given credit for graduate study, with the exception of ensembles, such as MU 211, Concert Choir, or MU 242, Opera Workshop.

Residency Status at the College:
Students should plan to enroll for a minimum of four semesters (fall and spring), exclusive of those students who transfer to the College from other graduate programs.

Transfer Credit:
A maximum of two (2) units of Transfer Credit from other institutions with similar graduate degree programs in music may be applied toward fulfillment of the Master of Music degree at Birmingham-Southern College. The student must have obtained a grade of B or better in each course for course credit to be transferred. Under no circumstances will transfer credit be given for undergraduate courses.

GPA Requirements:
Required undergraduate grade point average, if applicant has had no previous graduate study, should be a grade of B- or better (2.67 where 4.00=A) in undergraduate work.

Required grade point average in previous graduate work for entrance to the graduate program in music should be a grade of B- or better (2.67 where 4.00=A).

A minimum of twelve (12) units is required beyond the baccalaureate to complete the Master of Music in Performance degree.

For further information, please refer to the College online catalog, or contact Dr. Charles Norman Mason, coordinator of the MM program.