Nov 24, 2024  
Whittier College 2024-2025 
    
Whittier College 2024-2025

Music, B.A.


All students will find the Music Department to be a varied and enriching program in performance and study. Exceptional opportunities for both solo and ensemble performance are available, and all students are eligible to audition for membership in the vocal and chamber music ensembles. Individual instruction in voice, instruments, and composition isare offered at all levels of proficiency by an outstanding faculty.  

The Whittier College Music Department offers preparation for a wide range of career opportunities, and students with serious aspirations in music are encouraged to consider a major. In addition to applied music, class instruction is offered in conducting, music history, theory, music business and music technology. A digital piano and music technology lab as well as a state-of-the-art recording studio are available for student use; these facilities are integrated into several course offerings. Students may also develop areas of specialization or individual projects under faculty supervision in related fields such as church music, management, musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, music industries, and musical theater.   

Students interested in pursuing a music major or minor are encouraged to take a music placement exam normally offered during Orientation Week. Students who are unable to pass this exam will need to enroll in MUS 070 - Introduction to Music Theory & Musicianship before taking other music core courses in the core curriculum. Please contact the Music Department for more information.

Requirements


Core Courses


33 Credits

Proficiencies


All music majors must pass a piano proficiency examination before graduation. Music majors are expected to demonstrate basic keyboard skills by the end of the first academic year in the department. Students expecting to major in music will be examined for keyboard skills upon entry into the music major. If the audition is not passed, the student is expected to enroll in MUS 110 - Piano Class for Beginners , or in private piano instruction until the proficiency examination is completed.

 

Proficiency Requirements: 

  • Play all major and minor scales and arpeggios, two octaves, hands together.
  • Prepare a memorized composition of the intermediate level using the damper pedal.
  • Accompany an instrumentalist or vocalist; appropriate assignments based on level and technique will be distributed in class.
  • Prepare a harmonization of a simple folk tune.
  • Read a piece of the late elementary level at sight.