Fall 2008 Diagnostic Exam Information for New Students  

All entering graduate students are required to take the diagnostic examinations in music history and music theory prior to registering for their first semester of graduate work.  The diagnostics are designed to determine the levels of competence which students have in these areas at the time they enter the graduate program.  Any student who is found to be deficient in either of these areas must remove the deficiency by enrolling at the earliest opportunity in the appropriate undergraduate or special remedial course or courses and by passing these courses with a grade of "B" or better.  Required remedial courses may not count towards degree requirements and may add to a student's overall course load.  The diagnostics schedule is listed below.

The diagnostic examinations will be administered according to the following schedule:  The music history and music theory examinations are usually given two or three days prior to registration.  A second music theory examination for theory or composition (non-Jazz) majors, and a third music theory examination, required for composition (non-Jazz) majors, is usually given within the same time frame.  Those students pursuing an MM or DMA degree program with a Jazz Emphasis will take two additional diagnostic exams in Jazz history and jazz theory (see other side).  Students pursuing an MM or DMA in Voice or Opera Performance will take an additional diagnostic exam in diction and languages.  Exam times for all of these exams will be made available by the Graduate Office.
 

Music History Diagnostic Examination:

The examination in music history consists of 133 questions and is divided into three sections.  The examination is approximately three hours long (including breaks).  Questions are in multiple-choice format.

Tests general academic knowledge of music history dating from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.  Included are general questions, matching definitions with terms, matching musical event/style with city/state with which it is associated, and matching approximate decade of composition or first performance with the musical work listed.  This section has 60 questions.

Tests score identification of works dating from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.  This section has nine score excerpts to identify, with a total of 43 questions.

Tests listening knowledge covering musical styles dating from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.  After reading a set of questions pertaining to a musical example, you listen to the example and mark your answers.  This section has six listening excerpts, with a total of 30 questions.

Preparation:  Students should prepare for this examination and are urged to review a wide range of musical works covering all periods through the study of scores and recordings.  They also might find it helpful to review music history texts such as A History of Western Music, by Donald J. Grout, and the period histories in the Norton or Prentice-Hall series.

Music Theory Examination:

All entering students will be examined on their ability to take harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic dictation and to write standard tonal progressions involving four voices.  They also will be required to analyze a composition in a standard musical form.  The successful completion of parts of this examination will depend on an understanding of the nature and uses of the various idiomatic features characterizing the music of the most well known composers of the first half of the twentieth century from Debussy through Bartok.

Preparation:  Students will find it useful to review undergraduate theory as presented by Kostka and Payne in Tonal Harmony (Knopf), and the following books on twentieth-century music: Stefan Kostka, Materials and Techniques of Twentieth-Century Music (Prentice Hall); Joseph Straus, Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory, second edition (Prentice Hall)

Requirements for specific majors (Theory Tests #2 and #3):

Graduate students in composition (non-Jazz) or theory will take Test #2 and will be tested on knowledge of both sixteenth and eighteenth century counterpoint.

Preparation: Review Robert Gauldin, A Practical Approach to Sixteenth Century Counterpoint and A Practical Approach to Eighteenth Century Counterpoint (Waveland Press).  More detail about Theory #2 is available here.

Graduate students in composition (non-Jazz) will take Test #3 and will be tested on:
a. Ability to read alto and tenor clefs and orchestral scores.
b. Ability to orchestrate/notate given passages of music.

Preparation: Review Kent Kennan and Donald Grantham, Orchestration (Prentice Hall).

Jazz Studies Diagnostic Examinations:

These specialized exam components in jazz history and jazz theory are required of those students entering the MM or DMA programs with jazz emphasis in addition to the diagnostics already mentioned.

Jazz History Examination:

 This exam will cover the entire history of jazz and will include listening identification. In this section students will be offered a choice of primary artist and style from which to select. The Smithsonian Classic Collection of Jazz is an ideal way to study for the aural component of this exam. The written component of the exam will consist of a series of questions following the multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, definitions, and true/false format.  You should be familiar with all primary styles and innovators throughout the history of the music as well as major characteristics which define each style. A review of Mark Gridley's text Jazz Styles (published by Prentice Hall) would be helpful in preparing for this exam.

Jazz Theory Examination:

This exam will require students to be familiar with chord symbology and construction, standard chord progressions such as blues, rhythm changes and modal styles, chord substitution principals, and scale/mode construction and identification including their relationship to various chord types. An examination of aural skills may also be also be a component of this exam. A review of any jazz theory text such as Jazz Theory and Practice by Richard Lawn and Jeff Hellmer or Dan Hearle's The Jazz Language would be helpful in preparation for these exams.