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Major and Minor in Music
Declaration
Prior to declaring (on DartWorks) a major, modified major, or minor in music, please complete the Music Major or Minor Declaration Form (PDF) in consultation with your faculty advisor and submit it to the Department Administrator via email. You are encouraged to submit this form roughly one term before you plan to officially declare so that the music faculty will have time to collectively discuss and approve your plan.
If you have not yet requested and been assigned a faculty advisor, please take a moment and think about whom you'd like to work with. A suitable faculty advisor will typically be someone who shares some of your interests and/or someone with whom you have taken a class.
Music Major
The music major functions on an open course count model. Students craft a curricular plan, in close consultation with a faculty advisor, that draws on three key areas of study (PDF): 1) critical engagement with the roots and lineages of multiple music traditions, 2) creative practice with the tools and techniques that structure sounds into forms, and 3) performance via individual instruction and/or ensemble participation. This framework centers student agency, maximizes curricular flexibility, and offers major and minor pathways as vibrant and varied as the students we serve.
Requirements: Students must take MUS 99: Proseminar (which fulfills the Culminating Experience*) plus ten additional music courses that cover critical engagement, creative practice, and performance.
MUS 99 is offered only once a year during the fall term. Please plan ahead!
*If a student is unable to take MUS 99 due to an unavoidable scheduling conflict (e.g., they are away on an off-campus program during the term MUS 99 is offered), the student must fulfill their Culminating Experience by enrolling in MUS 86: Other Special Studies during a term in their senior year. To complete MUS 86, the student will choose an existing upper-level music course in consultation with (and with approval of) both the department chair and the course instructor. The student will attend all meetings for this course and complete all its assignments; the student may also be asked, at the instructor's discretion, to complete modified or additional assignments to raise the coursework to the level of a Culminating Experience/MUS 99.
Modified Major
For more details about the modified major at Dartmouth, please see the Registrar's description in the ORC.
Requirements: If Music is the primary department, students must take MUS 99: Proseminar (which fulfills the Culimating Experience*) plus seven additional music courses that cover critical engagement, creative practice, and performance (PDF). If Music is the secondary department, students must take four music courses that cover critical engagement, creative practice, and performance. Modified majors must be approved by the Chair.
MUS 99 is offered only once a year during the fall term. Please plan ahead!
*If a student is unable to take MUS 99 due to an unavoidable scheduling conflict (e.g., they are away on an off-campus program during the term MUS 99 is offered), the student must fulfill their Culminating Experience by enrolling in MUS 86: Other Special Studies during a term in their senior year. To complete MUS 86, the student will choose an existing upper-level music course in consultation with (and with approval of) both the department chair and the course instructor. The student will attend all meetings for this course and complete all its assignments; the student may also be asked, at the instructor's discretion, to complete modified or additional assignments to raise the coursework to the level of a Culminating Experience/MUS 99.
Music Minor
Requirements: Students must take seven music courses that cover critical engagement, creative practice, and performance (PDF).
Example Major Concentration Pathways
The example course plans below approach critical engagement, creative practice, and performance from various hypothetical vantage points. They act not as roadmaps but as idea generators conveying the flexible rigor of the music major.
A jazz musician
● MUS 5 – Jazz: Black Creative Music and American Culture
● MUS 18.02 – Hip-Hop in the United States
● MUS 20 – Creative Music Theory I
● MUS 32 – Improvisation
● MUS 35 – The Jazz Language
● MUS 38 – Noise: Exploring Liberation in Sound
● MUS 45.04 – Music and Social Justice
● MUS 50.31, 50.32, 50.33 – Performance Lab in Jazz Improvisation
● MUS 58.01, 58.02, 58.03 – Percussion Individual Instruction
● MUS 59.11, 59.12, 59.13 – Coast Jazz Orchestra
● MUS 99 Proseminar
A DJ
● MUS 3.02 – American Music: Covers, Theft, and Musical Borrowing
● MUS 16.02 – Music and Media in Everyday Life
● MUS 18.01 – Pop Music: Past, Present, Future
● MUS 25 – Sonic Arts I: Machine Music
● MUS 26 – Sonic Arts II: Sound Is Alive
● MUS 28 – Sonic Space and Form
● MUS 35 – The Jazz Language
● MUS 36 – Songwriting 1
● MUS 46 – Video Games and the Meaning of Life
● MUS 59.31, 59.32, 59.33 – Dartmouth College Gospel Choir
● MUS 99 – Proseminar
A classical instrumentalist
● MUS 11 – Introduction to Opera
● MUS 20 – Creative Music Theory I
● MUS 22 – Creative Music Theory II
● MUS 23 – Timbre and Form
● MUS 32 – Improvisation
● MUS 42 – From Plato to Mozart (Early Classical Music)
● MUS 43 – From Beethoven to Now (Modern Classical Music)
● MUS 45.03 – The Music of Central Asia
● MUS 54.01, 54.02, 54.03 – Flute Individual Instruction
● MUS 59.61, 59.62, 59.63 – Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble
● MUS 99 – Proseminar
A singer/songwriter:
● MUS 2 – The Music of Today
● MUS 27.01 – Musical Theater Writing
● MUS 28 – Sonic Space and Form
● MUS 30.02 – Film Scoring
● MUS 35 – The Jazz Language
● MUS 36 – Songwriting 1
● MUS 37 – Songwriting 2: Making the Album
● MUS 45.05 – Polyphony
● MUS 56.01, 56.02, 56.03 – Guitar Individual Instruction
● MUS 57.01, 57.02, 57.03 – Voice Individual Instruction
● MUS 99 – Proseminar
A technologist/sound engineer
● MUS 1 – Beginning Music Theory
● MUS 8 – Programming for Interactive Audio-Visual Art
● MUS 14.01 – Music, Mind, Invention
● MUS 16.02 – Music and Media in Everyday Life
● MUS 25 – Sonic Arts I: Machine Music
● MUS 26 – Sonic Arts II: Sound is Alive
● MUS 28 – Sonic Space and Form
● MUS 30.02 – Film Scoring
● MUS 34 – Sound Art Practice
● MUS 59.21, 59.22, 59.23 – Glee Club
● MUS 99 – Proseminar
A writer/scholar/journalist
● MUS 18.02 – Hip-Hop in the United States
● MUS 21 – Melody and Rhythm
● MUS 25 – Sonic Arts I: Machine Music
● MUS 42 – From Plato to Mozart (Early Classical Music)
● MUS 43 – From Beethoven to Now (Modern Classical Music)
● MUS 38 – Noise: Exploring Liberation in Sound
● MUS 45.13 – Global Sounds
● MUS 59.51, 59.52, 59.53 – Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra
● MUS 70 (London FSP) – Perspectives in Music Performance
● MUS 71 (London FSP) – The History of Music in England
● MUS 87 (London FSP) – Special Studies in Music Abroad: Piano Individual Instruction
● MUS 99 – Proseminar
Learning Outcomes
At graduation, music majors will be able to:
- Engage critically with the roots and lineages of multiple musical traditions
- Control and apply tools and techniques that structure sounds into forms
- Demonstrate proficiency in a creative practice that involves musical performance, composition, and/or improvisation