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Wright State University Department of Music is fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM)

Wright State University Department of Music is a proud OMEA

Graduate Proficiency Examination

The Graduate Proficiency Examination for Music Theory and Musicianship will be given Saturay, October 10, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. in M146 Creative Arts Center. If you cannot attend this exam, contact Dr. Franklin Cox at franklin.cox@wright.edu or by phone at X3495.

The Examination will consist of two parts: Musicianship Skills and Theoretical Skills. The Musicianship Skills portion will be administered by Dr. Cox for the first hour-and-a-half, and the Theoretical Skills portion will consist of a take-home examination that must be returned by 8:30 am on Monday, October 12 to Dr. Cox's mailbox located in M153 CAC..

Part 1: Musicianship Skills
The Musicianship Skills part of the 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.

Part 2: Theoretical Skills (24-hour take-home test)
The Theoretical Skills part 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

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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