The Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition

The Doctor of Musical Arts - the School of Music's highest professional composition degree - is designed for those students who have already demonstrated significant compositional achievement, and who show great professional promise.  Typically a 3-4 year program, the DMA program in Composition is designed to prepare the student for a career either as a university-affiliated composer or as an independent professional. 

Curriculum

The DMA in Composition requires 54 (effective for students entering fall 2007, 58) to 70 credit hours (including 12 hours of composition lessons) of non-remedial coursework beyond that completed for the MM degree.  There is normally a two-year residency requirement.  As a DMA Composition student, you will be advised into coursework based on the results of your entrance examinations: the Theory Placement Examination and the Music History Placement Examination, given to all entering graduate students, and the DMA Entrance Exam in Composition. 

• The Music History Placement Examination for fall 2009 is scheduled for Saturday, August 29, 2008, from 10:00 AM-12:00 noon in the School of Music (room TBA). 
• The Theory Placement Examination for fall 2009 is scheduled for Saturday, August 29, 2009, from 1:00-3:00 PM in the School of Music (room TBA). 
• The DMA Entrance Exam in Composition for fall 2009 is scheduled for Friday, August 28, 2009, beginning at 10:00 AM (room TBA). 

DMA Entrance Exam in Composition

The DMA Entrance Exam in Composition is typically administered in a single day, and evaluates your musical, analytical, and composition strengths and weaknesses.  The purpose of the examination is also to assist the advisor in planning a curriculum tailored to your specific needs.  The exam is in two (2) parts:

I.  Ear Training and Sight Singing (2 hours)

Skills evaluated:

• Sight singing of melodies (with or without solfège)
• Sight singing of rhythms
• Ear Training (recognition of intervals, scales, cadences)
• Melodic dictation
• Keyboard (piano) sight reading
• Figured bass realization
• Harmonization of melodies at the keyboard
• Open score reading at the keyboard (chamber and orchestral scores)

II.  Composition/Theory (3 hours) - written exam

Skills evaluated:

• Orchestration (transcription from a piano work)
• Composition of a four-voice fugue exposition on a given subject
• Analysis of a fugue
• Analysis of a given composition (generally focusing on pitch, form, textural and motivic elements)

Any deficiencies observed as a result of these exams will be addressed by appropriate coursework.  Coursework deemed to be remedial does not count toward the DMA degree; however, such courses may be taken concurrently with graduate courses, provided that the remedial courses are not prerequisites to the graduate courses.

Degree coursework should be completed before you are permitted to register for the four (4) components of the dissertation requirement (worth 6 credit hours each). 

Although each DMA student's curriculum is individually tailored, a typical curriculum might resemble the following:

DMA in Composition

12 credit hours	MUPI 885	Composition (private study)
4	MUS 629	Composition Seminar (effective for students entering fall 2007)
3	MUS XXX	Music Theory (by advisement)
3	MUS 714	Advanced Counterpoint
3	MUS 581	Advanced Orchestration
3	MUS 6XX	Conducting
6	MUS	Music History electives
24		Required compositions and lecture-recital (see "Dissertation requirement," below)

Total: 58-70 required credit hours (54-70 for students who entered prior to fall 2007)

Dissertation requirement

The dissertation requirement consists of four independent parts:

a.) an extended work of major proportions for orchestra or instrumental ensemble;

b.) a major work for chorus and orchestra, a short opera, an extended operatic scene, or an accompanied Mass;

c.) a chamber music composition;

d.) a public lecture-recital at which the student presents a formal paper discussing and analyzing his or her own compositions.

Further information on the structure of, and requirements for, the lecture-recital is available from the Composition faculty. 

Concentration in Latin American music

The DMA in Composition degree also offers the option, for interested students, of including a Latin American Music minor in cooperation with the Latin American Music Center, housed in the School of Music.  In consultation with the student's advisory committee, the DMA curriculum will include at least 12 credit hours of Latin American music elective courses. Additionally, the dissertation composition b.) listed above (major work for chorus and orchestra, short opera, extended operatic scene, or an accompanied Mass) should be based upon a Latin American text or subject matter. 

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