Studying Composition at the UTSA Divison of Music

Courses
Composition Lessons
Performance Opportunities
Electronic Music
Music Theory and Other Courses

Courses
Students in the Bachelor of Music with a Composition Emphasis program at UTSA take the same courses outside of music (the Core Curriculum) and the same music courses (the "music core") as other Bachelor of Music students. (For details on all the courses required for this degree, click here.) The remaining courses, the Composition Emphasis requirements, are:

Private Composition Lessons:
- MUS 2142 Composition I
- MUS 3162 Composition II
- MUS 4142 Composition III (may be repeated)
Additional Music Theory Courses
- MUS 3133 Analysis of Twentieth-Century Music
- MUS 4113 Composition with Contrapuntal Techniques
MUS 3143 Orchestration
MUS 3123 Introduction to Electronic and Computer Music
MUS 3252 Advanced Studies in Music: Music Since 1950
MUS 4561 Senior Recital

(For information and sample syllabi on these courses, click here.)

In addition to the degree requirements, composition majors often take additional courses such as:

MUS 2413 Conducting II
MUS 3153 Introduction to Audio Technology
MUS 3172 Composition in Electronic Media
For non-piano principals, piano lessons
Additional lessons in composition (Composition III) and in the student's principal instrument

(Click here to see all of the undergraduate music courses as described in the 2002-2004 UTSA Undergraduate Catalog.)

Composition Lessons
Composition lessons are one on one with a member of the faculty. Preference for a particular teacher will be honored, subject to the constraints of individual faculty teaching loads. Students are free to change teachers during their course of study, and are indeed encouraged to do so. Composition majors typically receive weekly private lessons, and also meet together about six times a semester in a group seminar for discussion of issues of mutual interest, presentations by guest composers, and the like.

Typically students begin taking composition lessons their sophomore year, after completing Basic Skills II. This is done to ensure that students have a basic music theory foundation and an adequate musical vocabulary so that student and teacher can communicate effectively in lessons. Advanced students can request that lessons begin during the first year if they wish.

Composition students are expected to compose music in a wide variety of media. The faculty believes that the best training a young composer can have, regardless of his or her ultimate interests, is thorough grounding in the techniques of Western art music (the "classical" tradition). With training such as this as a background, composers can go on to write virtually whatever type of music they wish. Aside from this, the composition faculty do not promote any particular compositional style or ideology. Faculty and students composers alike represent many diverse stylistic outlooks, and students are encouraged to explore these both through composing and listening.

Students electing the Composition emphasis must interview with the Composition Committee for approval to pursue the Composition emphasis at the upper-Department level. Typically this interview takes place after the student's sophomore year.

Performance Opportunities
There are regular opportunities for students to arrange performances of the music they write. There is typically one Composition Area Recital each semester on which all students taking composition lessons are expected to have at least one piece performed. There is also occassionally a recital devoted to electronic, multi-media and video works (usaully created at the UTSA Electronic Music Studio). In addition, students are encouraged to have their music performed on MUS 2001 concerts (which are regularly scheduled throughout the year on Tuesday mornings at 11:00AM), recitals given by other students or to put on ad-hoc recitals themselves, either singly or in groups. Click here for information on upcoming (and past) events, including programs.

All composition majors must give a Senior Recital of their music. The Student’s Senior Recital (MUS 4561) shall include a selection of the student’s compositions totaling a minimum of 30 minutes. The student will submit completed musical scores, representing a majority of the proposed recital program, to an examining committee the semester prior to that of the recital. The examining committee shall determine the acceptability of the recital program.

Electronic Music
Two courses allow students to utilize the UTSA Electronic Music Studio: MUS 3123: Introduction to Electronic and Computer Music and MUS 3172: Composition in Electronic Media. (MUS 3123 is a prerequisite for MUS 3172.) Students who are particularly interested in learning about and composing with computers and synthesizers can take MUS 3123 as soon as they have taken its prerequisite (MUS 3313: Microcomputer Applications in Music), which is required of all music majors; students with extensive electronic music experience can have this prerequisite waived at the discretion of the professor. Upper-Department level composition students will sometimes substitute MUS 3172: Composition in Electronic Media for extra semesters of MUS 4142: Composition III (beyond the one required semester). Like Composition III, Composition in Electronic Media may be repeated for credit; the course is essentially an electronic and computer music composition lesson. Due to the increased emphasis on technology in society, not to mention the increased job opportunities, all composition students are required to take Introduction to Synthesizers and Music and encouraged to take at least one semester of Composition in Electronic Media.

Music Theory and Other Courses
All music majors are required to take five semesters of music theory courses (Basic Skills I-IV and Analysis I), as well as four semester of Aural Skills courses (Aural Skill I-IV). The additional music theory course required of composition majors (MUS 3133: Analysis of Twentieth-Century Music and MUS 4113: Composition with Contrapuntal Techniques) are upper-Department level courses, taken after all of the other music theory courses have been completed successfully.

The other courses required of composition majors (MUS 3252: Advanced Studies in Music: Music Since 1950 and MUS 3143: Orchestration) are also upper-Department level courses. Music Since 1950 is a music history course which deals with the recent past and current trends in art music throughout the world. Study in instrumentation and orchestration is a basic part of any composer's education. All of these courses are designed to give students tools to become better composers, theorists and musicians.