Composition
Diverse areas of expertise and interests represented among the faculty allow students to find the guidance they need to express their individuality through their music. Through studies in traditional concert music, film music, music for the theatre, improvisation, and advanced modern compositional techniques, students are exposed to an ever-changing array of music.
The Composition department
is a community that fosters cooperation between its students and faculty. Through once a week composition seminars, students and faculty members are given the opportunity to discuss each other's music and to hear music by visiting composers. An introductory, year-long freshman composition course, followed by three years of individual lessons with faculty composers, assures a regular, disciplined course of study. Essential to the development of composers is the opportunity to hear their music performed.
Hartt provides numerous score calls to its students, with several performance organizations sponsoring student performances. The Contemporary Players, a group dedicated to the performance of new chamber music, sponsors one concert of student works a semester. Additionally, students are given the opportunity through the student-run "Public Works" series to have their music performed. Each semester the Hartt Symphony Orchestra and Hartt Symphonic Band select several student works to read and play during their rehearsal time. Biennial collaborations between student composers and choreographers culminate in an exciting evening of premieres. Residencies by professional ensembles for whom students compose new works provide exposure to performance standards in the "real world". Annual electronic concerts and score calls by Performance 20/20, an honors chamber group, provide more opportunities for Hartt composers.
The Institute of Contemporary American Music (ICAM), founded at Hartt in 1948, also helps link Hartt to the larger new music community. ICAM provides a forum for the presentation and comparison of various styles and trends in new music. Such noted composers as Milton Babbitt, Earle Brown, John Cage, Anthony Davis, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Aaron Kernis, Melinda Wagner, Steve Reich, Steve Coleman, Lois Vierk, Ralph Shapey and Michael Torke have been featured as a part of the ICAM series. Real Art Ways, Hartford's alternative art space, offers students the opportunity to interact with some of the most adventuresome experimental composers, and to preview new works from around the world.
Major in Composition (137-141 credits)
First Year |
| Subject Code | Course Title | Credits | Credits |
| Sem. 1 | Sem. 2 |
| APC 122-123 | Piano-Keyboard Class | 2 | 2 |
| COM 110-111 | First Course Composition | 3 | 3 |
| COM 461 | Music Technology I | 3 | - |
| COM 470, 471 | Composers' Seminar | 0 | 0 |
| RPW 110 - 111 | Rhetoric and Writing I - II | 3 | 3 |
| TH 111-112 | Diatonic-Chromatic Harmony | 2 | 2 |
| TH 120-121 | Elementary Ear Training I-II | 2 | 2 |
| AUC | All-University Curriculum | - | 3 |
| HLM 020 | Information Literacy in the Performing Arts | 0 | - |
| MUS 110, 111 | Paranov Performance Hour | .5 | .5 |
| | Performing Organization 1 | - | - |
| Total Credits | 15.5 | 15.5 |
Second Year |
| APC 222-223 | Piano-Keyboard Class | 2 | 2 |
| COM 210-211 | Second Course Composition | 3 | 3 |
| COM 340 | Orchestration | 3 | - |
| COM 470, 471 | Composers' Seminar | 0 | 0 |
| HLM 212 | Music History - Perspectives on Music History
| 3 | - |
| HLM 213 | Music History - Classicism to the Present | - | 3 |
| TH 210-211 | Tonal Form — Post-Tonal Form | 2 | 2 |
| TH 220-221 | Intermediate Ear Training I-II | 2 | 2 |
| MUS 110, 111 | Paranov Performance Hour | .5 | .5 |
| AUC | All-University Curriculum | 3 | 3 |
| M | Mathematics Elective | - | 3 |
| | Performing Organization 1 | - | - |
| Total Credits | 18 .5 | 18 .5 |
Third Year |
| | Instrumental/Vocal Study or Elective | 2-3 | 2-3 |
| COM 310-311 | Third Course Composition | 3 | 3 |
| HLM 316 | Music History - Medieval through Baroque | 3 | - |
| | Music History Elective | - | 3 |
| | Foreign Language | 3 | 3 |
| COM 470, 471 | Composers' Seminar | 0 | 0 |
| | Theory or Composition Electives | 6 | 6 |
| COM 472, 473 | Composer's Ensemble | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Total Credits | 17.5 - 18.5 | 17.5 - 18.5 |
Fourth Year |
| | Instrumental/Vocal Study or Elective | 2-3 | 2-3 |
| COM 410-411 | Fourth Course Composition | 3 | 3 |
| COM 470, 471 | Composers' Seminar | 0 | 0 |
| TH 441 | Music Since 1950 | - | 3 |
| ES 562 | Acoustics for Musicians | 3 | - |
| | Theory or Composition Electives | 6 | 3 |
| AUC | All-University Curriculum | 3 | - |
| | Academic Elective | - | 3 |
| CON 314 | Fundamentals of Conducting | - | 2 |
| COM 472, 473 | Composer's Ensemble | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Total Credits | 17.5 - 18.5 | 16 .5 - 17.5 |