Early Music Performance Minor (B.Mus.) (18 credits)
Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)
Degree: Bachelor of Music
Program credit weight: 18
Program Description
The Minor in Early Music Performance offers an opportunity for B.Mus. students to learn the elements of early music performance practice, and to play an early music instrument or to sing early music.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (3 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MUIN 272 | Performance Minor Examination 1. | 0 |
Performance Minor Examination 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Assessment of student's progress in the practical area. | ||
| MUPP 381 | Topics in Performance Practice. | 3 |
Topics in Performance Practice. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An overview of the techniques, methods, and problems of historical performance. Topics covered include theoretical matters involving source material, treatises, organology, 17th-century views of rhetoric and emotion, 18th-century composition methods, rhythmic interpretation, embellishment and ornamentation, tuning and temperament, and basso continuo. | ||
Complementary Courses (15 credits)
6 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MUEN 572 | Cappella Antica. | 2 |
Cappella Antica. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An ensemble of 8 to 12 voices specializing in early music. N.B. This ensemble may substitute as a Basic Ensemble in programs that specify Choral Ensemble, with Departmental approval. | ||
| MUEN 573 | Baroque Orchestra. | 2 |
Baroque Orchestra. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Open to singers and instrumentalists, this ensemble specializes in chamber music primarily of the Baroque era. | ||
| MUEN 580 | Early Music Ensemble. | 1 |
Early Music Ensemble. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An ensemble of 4-6 vocalists and instrumentalists which performs music of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods. | ||
| MUPD 560 | Music Information and Research Skills. | 1 |
Music Information and Research Skills. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to music information and research skills, including navigation of music information systems and tools, finding and evaluating online and physical resources, and documenting research through appropriate citations; introduction to writing performance-related content (e.g., program/liner notes, grant proposals). | ||
| MUPG 272D1 | Continuo. 1 | 2 |
Continuo. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An historically-oriented study of the principles of figured-bass. The student will realize at sight elementary bass patterns. Standard idioms from historical treatises will be introduced. | ||
| MUPG 272D2 | Continuo. 1 | 2 |
Continuo. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See MUPG 272D1 for course description. | ||
- 1
must be taken by Harpsichord students
3 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MUHL 366 | The Era of the Fortepiano. | 3 |
The Era of the Fortepiano. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Survey of the repertoire for keyboard 1750-1850: the instruments, Empfindsamkeit, gallant style, London, Paris, Vienna, the Czech school, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, sonatas, variations, character pieces, "high" and "low" salon music, virtuosos and the virtuoso repertoire, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, early Liszt. | ||
| MUHL 377 | Baroque Opera. | 3 |
Baroque Opera. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. History of opera from its origins in the musical, literary, and philosophical models available to the Florentine Camerata to the end of the baroque. The development of opera will be studied from the perspective of artistic style and in the light of historical, political, social, and economic conditions. | ||
| MUHL 380 | Medieval Music. | 3 |
Medieval Music. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The medieval style - an intensive study of one or more selected topics from the repertoire. Possible subjects include liturgical chant, Notre Dame, the medieval motet, secular developments, and instrumental literature. | ||
| MUHL 381 | Renaissance Music. | 3 |
Renaissance Music. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Sacred and secular musical genres of the 15th and 16th Centuries. Various phases of imitative practice, cantus firmus and parody techniques. The emergence of homophonic textures in peripheral areas of the repertoire. Selected problems in the fields of theory, bibliography and aesthetics. | ||
| MUHL 382 | Baroque Music. | 3 |
Baroque Music. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A detailed examination of several selected areas of Baroque music. Topics will be drawn from different geographical regions (e.g., Italy, France, Germany, etc.) and encompass church, chamber and theatre music, as well as performance practice. Each topic will be related to general musical developments of the period. | ||
| MUHL 383 | Classical Music. | 3 |
Classical Music. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The period covered will be from approximately 1740-1828, from the schools of the Italian keyboard composers, opera buffa and seria, and composers centred at Mannheim, Paris, London, Berlin and Vienna, through the Viennese Classic period of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, to the death of Schubert. | ||
| MUHL 591D1 | Paleography. | 1.5 |
Paleography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The theory and practice of musical transcription for the period 1100 to 1600. Black modal notation, Franconian notation, French and Italian Ars Nova notation, Mannerism, white mensural notation, proportions, and lute and keyboard tablatures will be studied. | ||
| MUHL 591D2 | Paleography. | 1.5 |
Paleography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See MUHL 591D1 for course description. | ||
| MUTH 202 | Modal Counterpoint 1. | 3 |
Modal Counterpoint 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Polyphonic techniques of the Renaissance period studied through analysis of works by Palestrina and others and through written exercises in two to three voices. | ||
| MUTH 204 | Tonal Counterpoint 1. | 3 |
Tonal Counterpoint 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The contrapuntal techniques of Baroque composers studied through detailed technical analysis of their works and through written exercises in strict style. | ||
| MUTH 302 | Modal Counterpoint 2. | 3 |
Modal Counterpoint 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Continuation of Modal Counterpoint I. Study of more advanced techniques through further analysis and written exercises in three or more voices. | ||
| MUTH 304 | Tonal Counterpoint 2. | 3 |
Tonal Counterpoint 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Further analysis and written exercises with special emphasis on fugal techniques in free style. | ||
| MUTH 426 | Topics in Early Music Analysis. | 3 |
Topics in Early Music Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Music from before 1700 is analyzed using recently developed techniques as well as materials gathered from treatises contemporaneous with the music. The implications of analysis for performance are considered. | ||
6 credits from the following (for Voice students only):
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MUIN 302 | Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 1. | 1.5 |
Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Coaching sessions on early music repertoire. | ||
| MUIN 303 | Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 2. | 1.5 |
Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Coaching sessions on early music repertoire. | ||
| MUIN 304 | Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 3. | 1.5 |
Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 3. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Coaching sessions on early music repertoire. | ||
| MUIN 305 | Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 4. | 1.5 |
Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 4. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Coaching sessions on early music repertoire. | ||
OR
6 credits from the following (for Instrumental students only):
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MUIN 270 | Practical Lessons Performance Minor 1. | 3 |
Practical Lessons Performance Minor 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Practical instruction as part of a performance minor program. | ||
| MUIN 271 | Practical Lessons Performance Minor 2. | 3 |
Practical Lessons Performance Minor 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Practical instruction as part of a performance minor program. | ||
| MUIN 273 | Practical Lessons Performance Minor 3. | 1.5 |
Practical Lessons Performance Minor 3. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Practical instruction as part of a performance minor program. | ||
| MUIN 274 | Practical Lessons Performance Minor 4. | 1.5 |
Practical Lessons Performance Minor 4. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Practical instruction as part of a performance minor program. | ||
| MUIN 275 | Practical Lessons Performance Minor 5. | 1.5 |
Practical Lessons Performance Minor 5. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Practical instruction as part of a performance minor program. | ||
| MUIN 276 | Practical Lessons Performance Minor 6. | 1.5 |
Practical Lessons Performance Minor 6. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Practical instruction as part of a performance minor program. | ||
| MUIN 302 | Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 1. | 1.5 |
Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Coaching sessions on early music repertoire. | ||
| MUIN 303 | Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 2. | 1.5 |
Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Coaching sessions on early music repertoire. | ||
| MUIN 304 | Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 3. | 1.5 |
Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 3. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Coaching sessions on early music repertoire. | ||
| MUIN 305 | Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 4. | 1.5 |
Early Music Minor Repertoire Coaching 4. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Coaching sessions on early music repertoire. | ||