Graduate Music Theory Study Guide
Guidelines for Graduate Music Theory Placement Examinations
Revised 08-05-08
There are five graduate music theory placement examinations: music theory, ear training, tonal counterpoint, keyboard harmony, and score reading. The information given below summarizes the purpose and content of each examination. Suggested books for study are given for each examination. For information regarding required placement examinations for various graduate programs and majors, consult the The Hartt School graduate admissions website at www.hartford.edu
MUSIC THEORY
The Graduate Music Theory Placement Examination is a written examination covering three areas:
(1) tonal harmony, (2) tonal form, and (3) modern techniques. Each area is graded separately.
Entering students are to prepare for the examination by studying the following topics:
1. Tonal harmony: chords (diatonic and chromatic triads & seventh chords), voice leading,
harmonic progression (cadences, sequences), modulation, non-chord tones, figured bass.
2. Tonal form: forms (phrase, part, rondo, sonata), procedures (variation, contrapuntal).
3. Modern techniques: harmony (scales, modes, chords), rhythm (meters, beats, subdivisions),
pitch-class set theory (atonal, twelve-tone).
The following books are suggested for study:
1. Tonal Harmony, Stefan Kostka and Dorothy Payne, 6th edition, McGraw-Hill, 2009.
2. Musical Form and Analysis, Glenn Spring and Jere Hutcheson, McGraw-Hill, 1995.
3. Materials and Techniques of Twentieth-Century Music, Stefan Kostka, 3rd edition, Prentice Hall, 2006.
Students not passing one or more parts of the Graduate Music Theory Placement Examination
must take and pass one or more of the following music theory review courses before being admitted to graduate courses in music theory. Credits earned in the following review courses do not count toward any Hartt graduate degree.
TH 611 (Graduate Music Theory Review: Tonal Harmony)
TH 612 (Graduate Music Theory Review: Tonal Form)
TH 613 (Graduate Music Theory Review: Modern Techniques)
EAR TRAINING
The Graduate Ear Training Placement Examination is a sight-singing examination. Each graduate student will meet individually with an ear-training instructor. The student will be asked to sight read solo as well as in duet with the ear-training instructor. Students may use the sight-singing method (syllables, numbers) according to their training.
Entering graduate students are to prepare for the examination by studying the following topics:
treble, alto, tenor, and bass clefs; modal, diatonic, and chromatic melodies; simple and compound meters, modulation to closely-related keys.
The following book is suggested for study:
Music for Sight Singing, Robert W. Ottman and Nancy Rogers, 7th ed., Prentice Hall, 2007.
The following websites are suggested for ear training practice:
www.good-ear.com , www.teoria.com , www.theory.net .
Students not passing the Graduate Ear Training Placement Examination must take and pass TH 614 (Graduate Ear Training Review) before being admitted to graduate courses in music theory.
Credits earned for TH 614 do not count toward any Hartt graduate degree.
TONAL COUNTERPOINT
The Graduate Tonal Counterpoint Placement Examination consists of writing and analyzing:
two-voice and three-voice tonal counterpoint (non-imitative, imitative, invertible) in the eighteenth-century style of J. S. Bach.
The following book is suggested for study:
Counterpoint, Kent Kennan, 4th ed., Prentice Hall, 1999.
Students not passing the Graduate Tonal Counterpoint Placement Examination must take and pass TH 511 (Tonal Counterpoint).
KEYBOARD HARMONY
The Graduate Keyboard Harmony Placement Examination consists of performing at the piano:
diatonic and chromatic chord progressions, cadences, figured bass, and melody harmonization.
The following book is suggested for study:
A New Approach to Keyboard Harmony, Allen Brings and others, Norton, 1979.
Students not passing the Graduate Keyboard Harmony Placement Examination must take and pass TH 627 (Graduate Keyboard Harmony).
SCORE READING
The Graduate Score Reading Placement Examination consists of playing at the piano:
transposing various instrumental parts, sight reading an excerpt from a Classical string quartet score, sight reading an excerpt from a Classical symphonic score.
The following book is suggested for study:
Preparatory Exercises in Score-Reading, R. O. Morris and Howard Ferguson, Oxford, 1959.
Students not passing the Graduate Score Reading Placement Examination must take and pass TH 628 (Graduate Score Reading).
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