Composition Minor (B.Mus.) (18 credits)
Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)
Degree: Bachelor of Music
Program credit weight: 18
Program Description
The B.Mus.; Minor in Composition focuses on an introduction to the techniques and aesthetics of contemporary instrumental and digital composition, including a foundation in orchestration, music history and music theory.
Required Courses (9 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MUCO 230 | The Art of Composition. | 3 |
The Art of Composition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to compositional techniques and notational practices of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including the analysis of selected works. | ||
| MUCO 260 | Instruments of the Orchestra. | 3 |
Instruments of the Orchestra. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introductory study of the instruments of string, woodwind and brass families, elementary acoustics of the instruments. Techniques of playing including embouchure, fingering, bowing, hand-stopping, transposing instruments. Evolution of the instruments, their technique and their music from the 18th century to the present. | ||
| MUCO 341 | Digital Studio Composition 1. | 3 |
Digital Studio Composition 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Composition with MIDI, audio recording, digital audio signal processing software and hardware. Creation of small-scale composition studies using technological resources in the context of electroacoustic music. The hands-on activities will include critical listening and evaluation of electronic and computer music repertoire. | ||
Complementary Courses (9 credits)
9 credits selected from
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MUHL 375 | Introduction to Ethnomusicology. | 3 |
Introduction to Ethnomusicology. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Central themes and methods in contemporary ethnomusicology. Music and its meanings in several contrasting cultural regions and groups. Topics include: colonialism, politics, globalization, and the impact of technology. Techniques of transcription, ethnography, and fieldwork. | ||
| MUHL 385 | Early Twentieth-Century Music. | 3 |
Early Twentieth-Century Music. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Development of European, Russian, and American music from the 1890s until the early 1940s, tracing its roots in late 19th-century Romanticism and following its evolution in central Europe, France, and the United States. The music of major innovators such as Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ives, and Varèse will be discussed. | ||
| MUHL 388 | Opera After 1900. | 3 |
Opera After 1900. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Major early twentieth-century works by Debussy, Strauss, Schreker, Bartók, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Opera in Europe between the Wars including operas of Berg, Milhaud, Krenek, Hindemith and Weill. Politics, sociology, and literature in relationship to musical style. Approaches since 1945 in selected works by Britten, Henze, Zimmermann, Ligeti, Somers and Glass. | ||
| MUHL 391 | Canadian Music. | 3 |
Canadian Music. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Survey of music in Canada from the 16th Century to the present. Current musical organizations and institutions, and contemporary Canadian music will be stressed. Time permitting, brief reference will be made to the folk music of indigenous and immigrant groups. | ||
| MUHL 392 | Music since 1945. | 3 |
Music since 1945. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Appearance and evolution of such post-war phenomena as total serialism, "chance" music of various kinds, and electronic music as seen in major figures such as Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage and others in Europe and the United States. Important developments during the 1960s. Rise of "minimalism" and "neo-Romanticism" during the 1970s and 80s. | ||
| MUHL 393 | History of Jazz. | 3 |
History of Jazz. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A study of the history and development of jazz through listening, reading, video viewing, lectures and discussion. The central goals will be to learn how to hear jazz critically and to understand the values, meanings, and sensibilities of jazz as a social practice. | ||
| MUHL 396 | Era of the Modern Piano. | 3 |
Era of the Modern Piano. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Survey of keyboard repertoire from 1850 to the present: instruments, the crisis at mid-century, character pieces, Brahms, late Liszt, national schools, commercialization - the concert hall, music for the bourgeois - salon music, Scriabin, the Second Viennese School, Impressionism, Neo-Classicism, Neo-Romanticism, serialism, the sonata in the 20th-century, North American composers. | ||
| MUTH 322 | Topics in Post-Tonal Analysis. | 3 |
Topics in Post-Tonal Analysis. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Topics in advanced analysis of post-tonal music. | ||
| MUTH 526 | Methods in Tonal Theory and Analysis. | 3 |
Methods in Tonal Theory and Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Theoretical topics and analytical applications in tonal music. Topics include some of the following: reduction, prolongation, voice-leading/linear models,motive/Grundgestalt, schema, partimento, and phrase rhythm/hypermeter. | ||
| MUTH 528 | Schenkerian Theory and Analysis. | 3 |
Schenkerian Theory and Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to the principles and graphing techniques of Schenkerian theory, analysis of tonal works from 1700-1900, and study of prolongational techniques in relation to formal types. | ||
| MUTH 538 | Mathematical Models for Musical Analysis. | 3 |
Mathematical Models for Musical Analysis. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Theoretical topics and analytical applications selected from the following: serial theory, atonal set theory, contour theory, similarity metrics, transformational networks, elementary group theory and generalized interval systems, neo-Riemannian theory, atonal voice-leading and geometry, scale theory, models of tuning and temperament and information theory. | ||
| MUTH 539 | Topics in Advanced Writing Techniques. | 3 |
Topics in Advanced Writing Techniques. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced writing skills, including intensive four-part harmonization, advanced harmonic vocabulary and syntax, post-tonal counterpoint. | ||