Senior Assessment

*All seniors must complete a reasonably polished thesis or portfolio or substantial paper (standard track) and/or present a senior recital before April 19, 2024 for spring graduates and before November 18, 2023 for fall graduates. Orals will be subsequently administered.

Composition track:

Portfolio: note the above due dates
Recital (minimum of 40 minutes of music): note the above due dates
Oral conversation about the portfolio/recital literature (1 hour; see reverse)

Jazz track:

Recital (50-60 minutes of music): note the above due dates
Oral conversation about the recital literature (1 hour; see reverse)

History track:

Thesis: note the above due dates
Oral thesis conversation (1 hour; see reverse)

Performance track:

Recital (50-60 minutes of music): note the above due dates
Oral conversation about the recital literature (1 hour; see reverse)

Standard track:

Recital (25-30 minutes of music or 50-60 minute lecture-recital): note the above due dates
Substantive paper about the recital works, which may include history, theory, and performance practice
Oral conversation about the recital literature & the paper about those works (1 hour; see reverse)

Technology and Production track:

Substantive project involving music technology and/or production, such as a produced album (25-30 minutes of music), recital with performance technology (25-30 minutes of music), a research thesis, or similar: note the above due dates
Substantive paper about the project
Oral conversation about the portfolio/recital/thesis/project (1 hour; see reverse)

Theory track:

Thesis: note the above due dates
Oral thesis conversation (1 hour; see reverse)

Honors:

The College-wide guidelines for honors candidacy are available on the Registrar’s website. Music majors who wish to be considered for honors candidacy must fill out the Honors in Major Study Application, also available on the Registrar’s website and turn it in to the Chair of the Music Department by October 9, 2023. Students should accompany that form with a statement about activities and achievements of which you would like the full music faculty to be aware. If a student chooses to submit this statement, it is also due October 9, 2023. Students should not list or discuss music courses on this statement. The voting faculty makes the decision about honors.

Each student will be notified in late-October as to whether or not they have been accepted as an honors candidate in music.

The Music Faculty will use the following criteria to evaluate possible honors candidates: overall excellence in music academic classes, performances, and contributions to ensembles, with primary emphasis toward the student’s music major track. For example, composition or performance of a caliber that would gain admission to major graduate programs, or scholarship that would warrant acceptance at regional conferences or in undergraduate journals. To a lesser extent, leadership and citizenship within the music community and College will be considered. As a general guide, the music department typically awards honors to students who are in the top 10% of current and past majors.

Once accepted as an honors candidate, a student will be granted honors if their thesis or recital performance demonstrates distinction and if they subsequently pass orals with distinction.

Guidelines for Oral Exams:

Scheduling: see due dates on first page

Expectations for Orals for Performance, Jazz, And Composition Tracks:
At least one week prior to the oral exam, students in the performance, jazz, and composition tracks (in collaboration with the primary instructor) will submit to the relevant faculty a list of topics (ca. 3-5) to be discussed during the oral exam. These topics should be drawn from the student’s recital/portfolio preparation process.

These topics might look something like: 1) strategies for dealing with performance anxiety; 2) how metric considerations inflected performance decisions; 3) how tempi were selected; 4) how various types of analysis (phrase-structural, textural, motivic, timbral, harmonic, formal, gestural, character-driven, rhythmic, textual, etc.) inflected performance decisions; 5) how various expressive indications (tempo, accent marks, dynamic marks, etc.) inflected performance decisions; 6) thoughts about effective practice techniques; 7) remarks on how extra-musical factors influenced performance; 8) for composers, remarks about the compositional processes that led to the finished products, problems encountered, whether rehearsals of the pieces altered the compositions themselves, etc.

Each student should come prepared to speak/present on the selected topics for 20-30 minutes, after which the student will take questions from the faculty. The presentation and responses should display that the topics have been considered deeply and rigorously, and that the student is capable of articulating his/her ideas clearly.

Expectations for Orals for The Standard Track:
At least one week prior to the oral exam, students in the standard track (in collaboration with the primary applied instructor and the substantive paper advisor) will submit to the relevant faculty a list of topics (ca. 3-5) to be discussed during the oral exam. These topics should be drawn from the student’s recital preparation process and substantive paper.

These topics might look something like: 1) how the substantive paper informed the performance; 2) whether, when learning the music, the student encountered significant flaws in the initial thoughts about arguments to be presented in the paper; 3) strategies for dealing with performance anxiety; 4) how metric considerations inflected performance decisions; 3) how tempi were selected; 5) how various types of analysis (phrase-structural, textural, motivic, timbral, harmonic, formal, gestural, character-driven, rhythmic, textual, etc.) inflected performance decisions; 6) how various expressive indications (tempo, accent marks, dynamic marks, etc.) inflected performance decisions; 7) thoughts about effective practice techniques; 7) remarks on how extra-musical factors influenced performance, etc.

The student should come prepared to speak/present on the selected topics for 20-30 minutes, after which the student will take questions from the faculty. The presentation and responses should display that the topics have been considered deeply and rigorously, and that the student is capable of articulating his/her ideas clearly.

Expectations for Orals for History And Theory Tracks:
Students should come prepared to speak for 30 minutes about the thesis: what is/are the main argument(s)? What are the most salient points supporting their contentions? Did the student encounter new information that changed the course of their thinking around their research topic? In the end, what were the most or least influential research resources? Following the student’s 30-minute presentation on the selected topics, the student will take questions from the faculty for approximately 30 more minutes. The presentation and responses should display that the topics have been considered deeply and rigorously, and that the student is capable of articulating his/her ideas clearly.

Expectations for Orals for The Technology & Production Track:
At least one week prior to the oral exam, students in the technology & production track (in collaboration with the student’s project advisor) will submit to the relevant faculty a list of topics (ca. 3-5) to be discussed during the oral exam. These topics should be drawn from the student’s project and substantive paper.

These topics might look something like: 1) how the substantive paper informed the project; 2) whether the student encountered new information that changed the course of their research and initial conceptions of the issue; 3) how the project exhibits new scholarly or creative practice in the field; 4) how the student dealt with the unexpected in their project; 5) how their project synthesizes their work in the major.

The student should come prepared to speak/present on the selected topics for 20-30 minutes, after which the student will take questions from the faculty for approximately 30 more minutes. The presentation and responses should display that the topics have been considered deeply and rigorously, and that the student is capable of articulating their ideas clearly.