Share

Requirements for the Major and Minor in Music

All course descriptions can be found in the Registrar's Organization, Regulations, and Courses (ORC) Catalog.

The Music Major, Modified Major and Minor requirements listed below apply to the Class of 2025 and onward. Requirements for the Class of 2024 and earlier can be found in previous years' ORC catalogs found here.

New Major and Minor Flyer (PDF)

Key Areas of Study Guide (PDF)

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: 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) plus ten additional music courses that cover critical engagement, creative practice, and performance.

Modified Major

Requirements:

Students must take MUS 99 (Proseminar) plus seven additional music courses that cover critical engagement, creative practice, and performance. Modified majors must be approved by the Chair of the Music Department.

Music Minor

Requirements:

Students must take seven music courses that cover critical engagement, creative practice, and performance.

Example Major Concentration Pathways

The 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, for example, might pursue:

● MUS 5 – Jazz: Black Creative Music and American Culture

● MUS 12 – Music, Ceremony, Ritual, and Sacred Chant

● MUS 14.02 – Datascapes: Objective and Subjective Cinematic Interpretations of Data

● MUS 18.02 – Hip-Hop in the United States

● MUS 35 – The Jazz Language

● MUS 45.04 – Music and Social Justice

● MUS 45.08 – Cities, Subjects & Sonic Africa

● MUS 50.31, 50.32, 50.33 – 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 might pursue:

● 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 I

● 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 might pursue:

● MUS 11 – Introduction to Opera

● MUS 20 – Creative Music Theory

● MUS 22 – Harmony and Rhythm

● 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 59.51, 59.52, 59.53 – Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra

● MUS 99 – Proseminar

A Singer/Songwriter might pursue:

● MUS 2 – The Music of Today

● MUS 27.01 – Emerging Musical Theater

● MUS 28 – Sonic Space and Form

● MUS 30.02 – Film Scoring

● MUS 35 – The Jazz Language

● MUS 36 – Songwriting I

● 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 might pursue:

● 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 28 – Sonic Space and Form

● MUS 30.02 – Film Scoring

● MUS 30.03 – Movie Musical Lab (pending)

● MUS 34 – Sound Art Practice

● MUS 45.11 – The Power of Music

● MUS 59.21, 59.22, 59.23 – Glee Club

● MUS 99 – Proseminar

A Writer/Scholar/Journalist might pursue:

● MUS 4 – Global Sounds

● MUS 17.06 – The Language-Music Connection

● MUS 18.02 – Hip-Hop in the United States

● MUS 21 – Melody and Rhythm

● MUS 25 – Sonic Arts I: Machine Music

● MUS 38 – Noise: Exploring Liberation in Sound

● MUS 40.06 – Sounds of Totalitarianism and Resistance

● MUS 70 (FSP LONDON) – Perspectives in Music Performance

● MUS 71 (FSP LONDON) – The History of Music in England

● MUS 87 (FSP LONDON) – Special Studies in Music Abroad: Piano Individual Instruction

● MUS 99 – Proseminar