Graduate Entrance Exam: Description and Study Guide

SC HOOL OF MUSIC AND DANCE
Music Graduate Office

(541) 346-5664 • gradmus@uoregon.edu • music.uoregon.edu
Graduate Entrance Exam:

Description and Study Guide
A two-hour entrance examination in music history and a two-hour entrance examination in
music theory and aural skills are required of all graduate students before their first term of
enrollment. The examination is given before the beginning of each term. Students who score
below the designated levels must enroll in a prescribed course or courses at the first
opportunity (review courses are offered in the fall and summer terms of each year).
Music History
Part One
Listening
Ten listening examples will be played twice (each approximately 30–90 seconds in
length). For each example, identify a probable or likely composer, a fifty-year span
during which the example could have been composed (e.g., 1875–1925, 1700–1750), and
a probable title, form or genre as far as it may be evident. (30 points)
Part Two
Short-Answer Questions
1. Nine musical terms will be listed (e.g., the term madrigal). You are to (1) describe
each term as it applies to music and (2) name a specific stylistic period or periods
associated with the term. (18 points)
2. Ten composers will be listed. Name the style period and nationality generally
associated with each composer. (20 points)
Part Three
Essay
You will be asked to write on one essay question from a selection of four (e.g., discuss the
main developments in opera from its beginnings to Wagner) (20 points). PhD students
with a primary area in musicology will choose two essay questions. (40 points total)
Part Four
Score Recognition
Three excerpted scores will be provided. Give a likely composer, approximate date of
composition (within the limits specified on the listening portion of the exam), possible
genre, and one reason for your answer. (12 points)
Suggested Study Materials for Exam Preparation

Music history textbooks such as:
J. Peter Burkholder, Donald J. Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 7th
edition. (N.Y.: Norton, 2005).
Richard Crawford, America's Musical Life: A History (N.Y.: Norton, 2003).
Sarah Fuller, The European Musical Heritage, 800-1750, revised edition (Boston: McGraw Hill,
2006).
Donald J. Grout and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, 6th edition (N.Y.: Norton,
2001).
H. Wiley Hitchcock, Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction (Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974).
David Poultney, Studying Music History: Learning, Reasoning, and Writing About Music
History and Literature, 2nd edition (Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall, 1996).
K. Marie Stolba, The Development of Western Music, 3rd edition (Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998).
Anthologies of Western music and recorded anthologies of Western music such as:
Norton Anthology of Western Music, 2 vols, 4th edition, edited by Claude V. Palisca, and The
Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music, 2 vols, 4th edition, edited by Claude V.
Palisca (N.Y.: Norton, 2001).
The Norton Anthology of Western Music and The Norton Recorded Anthology, 5th edition,
edited by J. Peter Burkholder. (N.Y.: Norton, 2005);
K. Marie Stolba, The Development of Western Music: An Anthology, 2 vols. 3rd edition
(Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998); Compact Discs, vol. 1-2 for use with The Development of
Western Music: An Anthology, 2 vols. 3rd edition (Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998).
Music Theory and Aural Skills

Part One, Aural Skills
A. Melodic Dictation (20 points)
A melody of moderate difficulty (diatonic with large skips) will be performed five
times by the instructor at the piano. Clef and key will be given (i.e. “Eb major,” but
not time signature or starting pitch. The student will determine the meter and starting
note, and notate the melody correctly.
B. Singing a Melody at Sight (tested individually, 30 points)

The notation of a melody will be given. After one minute of preparation and a
reference pitch from the piano, the student is asked to sing the melody.
Note: in this exercise, the melodies are not necessarily from a familiar repertory, but
are equivalent in their level of complexity.
A typical example:
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C. Harmonic Dictation/Identifying Chords in Context (50 points)
A short, chordal excerpt from a piano sonata will be played three times. The student
will be given the notation of the excerpt’s rhythm, with certain notes numbered:
1 2 4 5 6 7 8 etc.
The first and third playings of the excerpt will be in a regular tempo (about MM=60),
but on the second hearing the instructor will pause on the numbered chords. The
student is asked to identify those chords by Roman numeral and inversion, or
alternatively by lead-sheet symbols with “slash-chord notation” indicating the bass
note (e.g. G7/B).
The vocabulary of chords includes the following: diatonic triads and seventh chords
(including the fully-diminished seventh chord) and secondary dominants, dominant
sevenths, and diminished sevenths of all scale degrees (V/ii, V7/iii, viio7/V, etc.). Any
chord may appear in inversion, and there may be a simple modulation to a closely
related key.
Part Two, Concepts
A. Analysis (65 points).
An excerpt from a string quartet will be given in score. Five of the chords and five of
the non-harmonic (non-chord, complementary) tones will be marked with numbers.
The student is asked to identify the chords by Roman numeral, and the non-harmonic
tones by type. Some non-harmonic tone types that could occur include the following:
Passing tone Upper neighbor Suspension
Escape tone (incomplete neighbor) Appoggiatura (incomplete N) Rearticulated suspension
In addition, a schematic representing the measures of the excerpt will be given:

1 5 10 15
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | etc.
The student will be asked to mark the excerpt’s phrases on this schematic with
brackets or arches, and to identify each phrase’s cadence as authentic (V-I), plagal (IV-
I), half (x-V) or deceptive (V-vi).
B. Harmonization/Figured Bass Realization (35 points)

A short four-part writing exercise will be given (four measures), in which the first half
consists of a melody, and the second half is a bass line with figures representing the
intervals above the bass. (The figures use the standard shorthand taught in
undergraduate theory courses—a blank space represents the root position triad, 6
represents first inversion, 7 a root position seventh chord, etc.). The student will be
Graduate Entrance Exam Study Guide Page 3

asked to harmonize the melody in four parts (including choosing appropriate chords),
and realize the figured bass in four parts (the chords will be indicated by the figures). It
is important for the student to follow proper voice-leading principles in this exercise:
avoiding parallel fifths and octaves, resolving active tones in the right direction, and
doubling and spacing chords correctly.
Suggested study materials for exam preparation

Some textbooks/exercises that could be useful in preparing for the theory entrance exam:
Aural Skills (melodic dictation and sight singing): Robert Ottman, Music for Sight Singing
Aural Skills (harmonic): find a repertory of chordal music (any traditional Protestant
hymn book will suffice—not one of the more recent ones), and have another student
play you excerpts, stopping on certain chords after the first hearing and asking you to
identify them.
Concepts: Stefan Kostka and Dorothy Payne, Tonal Harmony, Edward Aldwell and Carl
Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading, or Elizabeth West Marvin and Jane
Clendinning, The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis
[Study Guide Ent Exam.doc • Revised 05/05]
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What does the exam cover in terms of music history and theory?

What study materials are recommended to prepare for the music history portion of the exam?

SC HOOL OF MUSIC AND DANCE

Music Graduate Office

Graduate Entrance Exam:

Suggested Study Materials for Exam Preparation

Music Theory and Aural Skills

B. Singing a Melody at Sight (tested individually, 30 points)

Page 2 Graduate Entrance Exam Study Guide

Escape tone (incomplete neighbor) Appoggiatura (incomplete N) Rearticulated suspension

In addition, a schematic representing the measures of the excerpt will be given:

B. Harmonization/Figured Bass Realization (35 points)

Graduate Entrance Exam Study Guide Page 3

Suggested study materials for exam preparation

[Study Guide Ent Exam.doc • Revised 05/05]

Page 4 Graduate Entrance Exam Study Guide

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