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Music
Systems Area
Dr. Brian Belet, Area Coordinator
The Music Systems Area serves the School of Music and Dance
in three ways: as the foundation curriculum for all music majors;
as a secondary curriculum for music majors in the Composition
and Electro-Acoustic Concentrations; and as the primary curriculum
for music majors in the Music Systems Concentration. This new
program, revised in 1995 (formerly the Theory area), emphasizes
the established systems, current theories, and resultant musical
practices of contemporary music in the United States (including
the diverse influences from virtually every culture and era
that affect this music). The program is designed as a vanguard
curriculum that is leading the SJSU School of Music and Dance
into the rapidly approaching twenty-first century.
Lower-Division Music Systems courses for all music majors include
both broad-based and in-depth study of the components and structure
of music from many historical and geographical contexts. This
includes both written and aural skills, including analysis,
dictation, and sight singing. Students present individual and
group research projects beginning in the second semester of
the four-semester sequence. Upper-Division Music Systems electives
offer each student the opportunity to study specific aspects
of music that are particularly relevant to their major concentration
and/or post-graduate work.
Both a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music with a Concentration
in Music Systems and a Master of Arts degree in Music with a
Concentration in Music Systems are offered, with a limited number
of students accepted at each level through a competitive review
process, including faculty review of examination scores, course
work, project proposals, and the potential for post-graduate
work. Once accepted, undergraduate majors may study Applied
Music Systems as studio study each semester during their junior
and senior years, and graduate majors study Applied Music Systems
in preparation for their thesis project. A partial list of special
topics includes American Musical Icons, Harmonic Space and Ratio
Theories, Recursive Proportional Theories, Algorithmic Composition
Theory, History of Theory and Systems, Analytical Systems, Schenkerian
Analysis, and Sonic Design, which are designed to provide students
with much greater depth and breadth in this specialized area.
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