MA and Ph.D. degrees in Composition
This document lays out academic requirements and policies for the MA and Ph.D. degrees in Composition at the Eastman School. A companion document provides similar information for students pursuing MM and DMA degrees in composition.
Contents
General information
Academic advisement
Preparing a program of study
The MA degree
MA degree requirementsThe Ph.D. degree
The MA thesis
Ph.D. degree requirements
Ph.D. language requirements
The Ph.D. comprehensive exams
The Ph.D. dissertation and defense
General information
Entering graduate students must take a Music History placement test and a graduate Theory placement test, which both are offered during the week before classes begin. These tests are evaluated, respectively, by the Music History and the Theory Departments. On the basis of their evaluations these departments may recommend or require that you take certain courses in their department during your studies at Eastman to redress areas considered weak or deficient. Results of these exams are made available to your academic advisor.
Oversight of all Eastman MA and Ph.D. degrees is provided by the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, currently Marie Rolf, and the Graduate Research Committee, which consists of one faculty member from each major department, including Composition. Dean Rolf's office is in room 103. Information in her office includes deadlines for various tests and requirements, guidelines for submitting a Program of Study and dissertation or thesis proposals, and forms for language exams and special courses.
To be considered a full-time student (for student loan and visa purposes) graduate students must enroll for 12 credit hours per semester. For students holding graduate awards, this requirement is 9 credit hours per semester. International students should refer visa questions to the office of the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies.
You must enroll continuously, every semester (excepting summers) from the time you enter Eastman until the date on which you graduate. Students who have completed all course requirements, but not all degree requirements (such as their Ph.D. dissertation, MA thesis, or a language requirement) can register for Eastman course number 999 Continuation of Graduate Enrollment (Full Time) or 995 Continuation of Graduate Enrollment (Part Time) while completing unfinished work. Note that these courses carry a fee.
Descriptions of Eastman courses can be found online at http:www.esm.rochester.edu/registrar/courses/. However, you must consult the course description guide that is included in your registration materials for each semester to determine which courses are offered during the current term. 200 level courses are considered undergraduate courses and generally cannot be counted toward an MA or Ph.D. degree. However, there are exceptions, such as CMP 225-6, Introduction to Computer Music Techniques, which can carry graduate credit. Entering MA and Ph.D. students with no or minimal experience in electroacoustic music are advised to enroll for CMP 225-6 as an elective during their first year at Eastman, then register for the required CMP 421-2, Advanced Computer Music Techniques course during their second year. 400 level courses are designed primarily for Masters students and 500 level courses almost exclusively for doctoral students.
Academic advisement
All Eastman composition majors are assigned a faculty advisor (or mentor) and must meet with this advisor when first entering Eastman, before registering for classes for their initial semester of study. The academic advisor for all MA and Ph.D. students currently is Allan Schindler. Students are encouraged to meet with their academic advisor periodically during their course of study, especially before preparing a Program of Study, but also to discuss procedures for submitting a dissertation or thesis proposal to the Department or to discuss questions or problems that arise at any time during their course of study. Many such questions can be handled by means of email correspondence. However, your advisor is ready to meet with you at any time to discuss more complex issues.
Preparing a program of study
Some time during their second or (more often) third semester -- at a point where they feel confident in determining all of the courses they will take at Eastman -- all MA and Ph.D. Composition majors must fill out a Program of Study (POS) in consultation with their advisor. The POS lists all of the courses you intend to register for at Eastman, grouped by category: Composition, doctoral seminars (for Ph.D. students only) and electives. Your POS also should indicate which of these courses you already have completed, and which ones you currently are taking, as well as number of credit hours for each course and the total number of credit hours for which you intend to register. You also should include a line for your advisor's signature. Sample POS forms are available in the Graduate Study Office, room 103, and also from your academic advisor.
After your advisor has signed this form, you must submit it in the Graduate Study Office for review by the Graduate Research Committee. The reason for the POS is to provide an additional check, in case your advisor has missed something or there are questions about the appropriateness of one or more particular courses, that the courses you have selected will fully meet the academic requirements for your MA or Ph.D. degree.
If at any point after approval of your POS you wish to make any changes in the courses for which you will register, you will need to write a short letter to the Graduate Research Committee requesting approval for these changes, and including a revised POS.
The MA degree
MA degree requirements
The MA degree at Eastman consists of at least 30 credit academic hours, although in practice Composition majors typically wind up registering for between 32 and 35 credit hours. Degree requirements include| Course number | Course title | Credit hours |
| CMP 401,402 | Advanced Composition | 6 |
| CMP 491,492 | Composition Symposium | 2 |
| CMP 421,422 | Advanced Computer Music Techniques | 6 |
| CMP 412 | Compositional Practices 1925-1955 | 3 |
| CMP 495 | MA thesis | 5-8 |
| Electives | 9-12 | |
| Total credit hours | 31-35 |
Electives can include 3 credit hours of CMP 591 (Composition Research Seminar). At least 9 hours of elective study must be in areas other than composition and applied study. Most elective credit hours typically are concentrated in 400 level music theory and history courses. In general, if you register for 12 hours of elective study, you will register for fewer hours (5 or 6) for MA thesis work. If you have any questions, consult with your academic advisor.
The MA thesis
M.A students in Composition are required to complete a thesis that has two components: (1) a large-scale musical work, whose specific length, instrumentation and scope should be discussed with and approved by the designated advisor, and (2) an essay of publishable quality. Both components of the thesis are completed under the supervision of faculty advisors, usually during the student's second year at Eastman. There are often separate advisors for the composition and paper portions of the thesis.
Before work on the thesis can begin, the student needs to find a thesis advisor for each component of the thesis. The thesis advisor for the composition component will be a member of the composition faculty. The thesis advisor for the written component may be a faculty member outside the composition department, or a member of the composition faculty. In some cases, one member of the composition faculty will act as the advisor for both components of the thesis.
In consultation with her thesis advisor(s), the student will prepare a brief (maximum one-page) proposal of her thesis essay. This proposal must be submitted to the Composition Department faculty by November 1st. The composition faculty will determine the viability of the essay proposal by November 15. If modifications to the proposal are deemed necessary, the student should re-submit the modified proposal by November 22.
The thesis needs to be approved by a reading committee. The reading committee will consist of three members, who will be the thesis advisor (or advisors) and one (or two) composition faculty that will be appointed to serve. The thesis advisor(s) will determine when the thesis is ready to proceed to review by the full committee.
M.A. students planning to graduate in May, must submit both parts of their thesis for review to the reading committee by March 1. Failure to do so will result in a delayed graduation date. Please submit two copies of both the composition and the research paper for the reading committee review. Any corrections and revisions suggested by the reading committee will be implemented under the supervision of the thesis advisor(s). The revised and corrected documents will be submitted for approval to the thesis committee by April 1.
The Ph.D. degree
Ph.D. degree requirements
| Course number | Course title | Credit hours |
| Composition requirements | ||
| CMP 401,402, 501,502 | Advanced Composition | 12 |
| CMP 421,422 | Advanced Computer Music Techniques | 6 |
| CMP 412 | Compositional Practices 1925-1955 | 3 |
| CMP 495 | Ph.D. dissertation | 8-12 |
| Doctoral seminars | (12 hours total) | |
| CMP 591-2 | Composition research seminar | 3 or 6 |
| MHS 590 | Music history seminars | 6 or 9 |
| Music theory | ||
| Two 400 level theory courses | 6-8 | |
| Electives | 10-16 | |
| Total credit hours | 60 |
At least 20 credit hours must be taken in areas other than composition and applied study.
Note that students can register for two composition seminars (CMP 591-2) and two music history seminars (MHS 590), or else for one composition seminar and three music history seminars to fulfill the 12 credit hour doctoral seminar requirement.
A suggested elective is CMP 413 Compositional Practices 1955-1980.
Ph.D. students who also received their MA degree in Composition at Eastman already will have completed three of these course requirements ( CMP 421-422 and CMP 412). Courses applied to a masters degree cannot also be applied to a Ph.D. degree, and students in this category will need to find substitute courses for these three in consultation with their academic advisor so that their total credit hours will add up to 60.
Beware of exceeding more than 62 total credit hours, as this can result in additional tuition charges. Plan your Program of Study carefully.
While it is possible to register for dissertation credit hours (CMP 495) during any semester -- even ones initial semester at Eastman -- in order to fill out ones load, dissertation credits typically are taken in the third (and fourth) years at Eastman, when one actually is working on the dissertation.
Ph.D. language requirements
The Eastman Ph.D. degree requires a reading knowledge of two foreign languages. In the past these languages had to be some combination of French, German and Italian. Recently, however, Composition Ph.D. students have successfully petitioned the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies to apply tests in such languages as Spanish, Russian, Norwegian and Czech to satisfy one of their language requirements. In such cases, the student, after consulting with his academic advisor, must petition the Graduate Studies Associate Dean in a brief letter requesting such a substitution.
The language exam consists of two parts:
The use of a dictionary is permitted during the test. For more information on these tests contact Professor Reinhold Steingrover at rsteingrover@esm.rochester.edu.
If a student fails a test in a particular language twice, she generally will be required to enroll in a sophomore language course (without academic credit) and pass the second semester of this course with a grade of B+ or higher.
Another option that has been exercised by many recent Composition Ph.D. students is substitution of an original research project, employing one or more programming languages such as C, Java, Pure Data, MAX, Csound or SuperCollider, for the second language requirement. This research project should comprise at least 40 or 50 hours of work and should produce compositionally, musically or pedagogically useful source material or analyses in a manner not easily attainable with existing commercial or open source computer applications. (In other words, your project cannot simply duplicate resources available in existing applications.) Many other avenues of research also are possible, however, such as in-depth comparisons of the strengths and problems associated with various types of sound synthesis or processing procedures, or new approaches to sound synthesis or algorithmic composition.
Students wishing to pursue such a project should discuss their ideas with the Director of the Eastman Computer Music Center. When the project is completed the student must document the project in a two page paper.
The Ph.D. comprehensive exams
The Ph.D. comprehensive exams, offered three times each year, are designed to assess the student's breadth of knowledge and competency in music history in theory, primarily (but not exclusively) in Western art music from the medieval period to the present. These exams consist of two portions:
- a written exam, lasting two full days, consisting of essays, score and term identification and musical analyses, evaluated by faculty from the music history and theory departments; and
- an oral exam, usually scheduled between four and six weeks after successful completion of the written exam. During the oral exam, which normally lasts about two hours, the student will meet with four faculty members (two from the Composition Department), with a focus on major developments in 20th and 21st century music and the student's ability to articulate his or her own assessment of several compositional issues.
Samples of past written exams are available in the Graduate Studies Office (room 103). Students who fail the written exam will be permitted to re-take it a second time. A second failure will result in termination of the student's Ph.D. program. Students who fail the oral exam may re-take it once, or, at the discretion of the examining committee, may be asked to fulfill a remedial project to address weak areas of the exam.
In determining how best to prepare for their comprehensive exams, students are encouraged to consult with their academic advisor. Fellow students who already have taken these exams can of course also provide valuable suggestions.
The Ph.D. dissertation and defense
The dissertation is the capstone of a Ph.D. student's work at Eastman. Although work on a dissertation typically begins during the student's third or fourth year, while he may also be completing other degree requirements, a completed dissertation cannot be submitted until all of these other degree requirements have been completed.
A Ph.D. dissertation in Composition is in two parts:
- a large scale composition, although not necessarily for a
large ensemble.
There is considerable flexibility in media, including large or small ensemble, soloist, or an electroacoustic work. The Composition Department considers this composition to comprise about 75 % of your dissertation. - a research paper of 30-40 pages, including bibliography, comparable to a lengthy article in a scholarly journal that presents original research. Here again there is considerable flexibility in possible topics. The paper might analyze a composition, or some aspect of a composition, or compare two or three compositions, or might examine some composer's approach to particular compositional resources or issues. The paper cannot be primarily concerned with your own music.
As with the MA thesis, work on both components of the dissertation are supervised by a faculty advisor. Often there are separate dissertation advisors for the composition (a member of the Composition Department faculty) and for the paper (who may be a faculty member from any department).
Your initial task, typically undertaken during your third year of study, is to map out projections for both the composition and the paper. Your academic advisor or composition teacher may be able to assist you in clarifying and sharpening your ideas or in suggesting appropriate dissertation advisors. Next you should arrange a meeting with the advisors with whom you would like to work, present your ideas to them and see if they are willing to serve as a dissertation advisor. Working with these dissertation advisors you then need to submit a two page proposal to the Composition faculty outlining your plans for both portions of your dissertation. In discussing your paper proposal you should make mention of related studies and delineate the unique aspects of your own proposed study.
There will be three members of your dissertation reading committee, including your dissertation advisor(s). If you have preferences for the other member(s) of your reading committee contact these faculty members to see if they are willing to serve on your committee, and include the names of all committee members in your proposal.
Your dissertation advisor(s) will determine when your composition and paper are ready for review by all members of your committee. Students intending to graduate in May must submit their dissertation to their readers by March 1. Any revisions requested by your committee must be submitted several weeks before your intended graduation date to give your readers adequate time for a thorough examination of your work.
When all three readers have approved both portions of your dissertation a defense will be scheduled, in which you will be asked to summarize your work and your three readers, along a chair from outside the Composition Department, will ask you questions and engage you in discussions on topics pertinent to both portions of your dissertation. After passing the defense, you will have completed all degree requirements.
For a variety of reasons, but most often because they have obtained a teaching or other position, or wish to research the paper portion at some other appropriate location, some students request that they be allowed to work on their dissertation in absentia. If this is your intention, be sure to obtain approval from all members of your reading committee, and recognize that this can introduce considerable complication and delay in the process of completing your Ph.D. thesis.
The Ph.D. degree must be completed within seven years of the date at which you began your studies. If you realize that you will be unable to meet this deadline, you must write a letter to the Graduate Research Committee, signed by your department chair, academic advisor or dissertation advisor(s) stating the reasons for your request, a proposed new completion date (typically between one year and a year and a half after your original seven year expiration date), your outstanding requirements and your progress in completing these requirements.