Graduate Proficiency Examination

The Graduate Proficiency Examinations for History and Musicianship will be given on Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 12-3 p.m. in M146 Creative Arts Center. A take-home Theory examination will be handed out at the end of the Musicianship examination, to be returned to Dr. Cox's mailbox in the Music Office by Monday, October 31 at 9 p.m.

If you cannot attend these examinations, please contact Dr. Charles Larkowski (History) at charles.larkowski@wright.edu and Dr. Franklin Cox (Theory and Musicianship) at franklin.cox@wright.edu.

History Examination (12:00 p.m. - 1: 15 p.m.)

The History Examination will consist of three parts:

A.	Label major composers according to the historical periods in which they lived.
B.	Choose five of those same composers, representing at least three different periods, and provide nationalities and two or three genres for which those composers were important.
C.	Define terms referring to important musical genres, techniques, and styles, and relate those terms to appropriate periods and composers.

Musicianship Examination (1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.)

The Musicianship Skills examination will consist of a Dictation portion, taken by all students together, and an Individual Performance portion, taken individually.

1.	The Dictation portion will consist of the following: Melodic dictation, with a melody of a difficulty corresponding to ca. melody 270 in the Berkowitz Sight-Singing text (4th Ed.);
2.	Melodic dictation, identifying errors in a notated melody similar to the one played by Dr. Cox;
3.	Chord progression dictation, identifying errors in a notated chordal progression similar to the one played by Dr. Cox;
4.	Intervallic dictation, with seven intervals in different registers, each played three times (not rolled);
5.	Chord identification, with 7-10 chords, each played three times (the last time rolled), from the following repertoire: Triads: M, m, +, º --all inversions Seventh chords: Mm7 (=Dom7)--all inversions, MM7--root position, mm7--root position and 6/5, dim7, half-dim7--root position and 6/5;
6.	Chord progression, with a short cadential progression: identify the soprano tones (solfege or scale degrees) and chord functions/inversions. Example: mi fa re re do I IV ii6/5 V vi;
7.	Rhythmic dictation, with a three-bar rhythm in a standard meter.

The Individual Performance portion will consist of the following:

1.	A melody to be sight-read, corresponding in difficulty to ca. melody 300 in the Berkowitz Sight-Singing text (4th ed.);
2.	A short rhythmic example to be sight-read.

Theory Examination (take-home test)

The Theoretical Skills examination will consist of three main parts: I. Fundamentals, II. Harmony and part-writing, and III. Analysis. The following is a summary of main topics covered:

I. Fundamentals
A.	Major/minor scales and modes
B.	Identifying intervals
C.	Constructing intervals
D.	Constructing triads
E.	Writing key signatures
F.	Writing rhythmic patterns
G.	Using clefs
H.	Transposition

II. Harmony and part-writing
A.	Constructing dominant seventh chords.
B.	Adding alto and tenor voices to a chorale.
C.	Analyzing a Bach chorale.
D.	Completing a circle of 5ths sequence; identifying/completing ascending 5th, 5-6 ascending/descending sequences, etc.
E.	Making a Bach-style harmonization of a chorale tune.
F.	Writing and analyzing secondary dominants and leading-tone chords, Neapolitan chords, augmented 6th chords, and other elements of chromatic harmony.
G.	Basic elements of set theory and row structures

III. Analysis: Three musical examples will be provided for analysis.
	The main undergraduate textbook used through the 2008-2009 school year is Kostka/Payne Tonal Harmony (Fifth Edition). Most of the materials appearing on the Theoretical Skills part of the examination can be found in this textbook.
	It is especially important to be able to do exercises similar to the following exercises in the Kostka/Payne text (and corresponding exercises in the Workbook):
	Ch. 13, C. and D., pp. 212-213 Ch. 14 D., pp. 226-227 Ch. 15 D., p. 240 Ch. 16 B.-E., pp. 258-259 Ch. 17, B., p. 285 Ch. 22, D., p. 370 Ch. 23, D., p. 387 Ch. 26, A., p. 436 For Set Theory, Ch. 28, Self-Test 28-4, pp. 519-520

Additional study materials:

All of the above study materials are .pdf files. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, go to the Adobe site to download this free program.

*The file "Bach Choral Richter" consists of the majority of Bach's chorales; the file is over 35 MG and is 129 pages long. This is for your use but the entire file is not needed; just print any portion you need.

Dr. Franklin Cox
Assistant Professor, cello and music theory
M373 Creative Arts Center
franklin.cox@wright.edu
(937)775-3495