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Bachelor of Arts: Program Requirements

Click here for a downloadable completion checklist.

General Curriculum: (60 hours)
Specific course requirements listed in The George Washington University Bulletin. Majors in Music must satisfy the foreign language competence exam. The Freshman Proseminar is required, but does not count towards the 120 hours necessary for the degree.
Prerequisites Courses: (4 cr.)
MUS 001 (3 cr.): Elements of Music Theory
Theoretical and written coverage of notation, scales, keys, intervals, terms, rhythms, and chord structure and progression. Introduction to music literature, with emphasis on rudimentary aural analysis.

MUS 061 (1 cr.): Class Piano
Study of the rudiments of musical notation and piano playing in a small classroom setting; designed to take students who do not read music to a beginner's level of proficiency.
Music Curriculum:
Core: (28 cr.)
Theory and Musicianship Sequence
MUS 002 (2 cr.): Comprehensive Musicianship I
Aural and Keyboard skills development through dictation, sight singing, and performance and improvisation at the keyboard.

MUS 101 (3 cr.): Harmony
Triads, inversions; chord analysis, construction, and progression; figured-bass realization, part writing, modulation, altered chords.

MUS 102 (2 cr.): Comprehensive Musicianship II
Aural and keyboard skills development through dictation, sight singing, and performance and improvisation at the keyboard.

MUS 139 (3 cr.): Form and Analysis
Analysis of musical forms in representative musical literature.
History and Literature Courses
MUS 126 (3 cr.): Music History I
The development of Western European music from its earliest traceable roots to the conclusion of the early, experimental Baroque period.

MUS 127 (3 cr.): Music History II
Style, structures, social foundations, and aesthetic change in European music of the late 17th through the late 19th centuries.

MUS 106 (3 cr.): Music History III
Western musical traditions and styles since Romanticism and approaches to music as art in contemporary society.

MUS 105 (3 cr.): Ethnomusicology
Models of understanding music as a cultural endeavor. Application and critique of models in the design and execution of student independent field research.

Performance Courses
Private Study (4 cr.)
MUS 011-050, 057-060, 081-082, 111-120, 157-160, 185
Ensemble (2 cr.)
MUS 051-053, 056

Elective Credit In Music: (12 cr.)
(Atleast 3 credits must be 162 or above)
History Topic (3 cr.)
MUS 109, 110, 121, 122, 125, 175
Theory Topic (3 cr.)
MUS 070, 133, 135, 137, 161, 162, 174, 184
Free (6 cr.)
Capstone: (3-7 cr.)
Project (any performance number of MUS 199) (2-6 cr.)
Seminar (1 cr.)
A capstone experience for music majors in their final spring semester. Presentations of required senior projects in progress. Readings and discussion will place the projects in a broader musical and intellectual context.
TOTAL CREDITS IN MAJOR: 43-47 cr. (47-51 cr. with prerequisites)