McGILL UNIVERSITY SCHULICH SCHOOL OF MUSIC

GRADUATE PLACEMENT EXAMINATIONS – MUSIC EDUCATION

All students beginning graduate studies in Composition, Music Education, Music Technology and Theory are required

to take placement examinations in order to determine that their academic preparation in Music is sufficient. On the

basis of the results of these examinations, incoming students may be required to take certain remedial courses in Music

History and Theory and, depending on their area of specialization, other undergraduate preparatory courses as well.

All of these then form an additional part of the students’ program of study.

Applicants to Music Education must submit copies of calendar course descriptions for all History courses taken

elsewhere than at McGill.

Students who are notified of their acceptance into graduate studies in Music are encouraged to prepare for the

placement examinations by perusing the following general descriptions of the examinations. After a decision has been

made on your admissibility to the graduate program and upon your acceptance of our offer of admission, these

placement exam descriptions will be sent to you. The placement exams will be sent to you approximately one month

after this date. You will have three weeks to complete and return them. You are not required to have an invigilator,

but are expected to write these examinations unaided, without the use of text books and within the allocated time

for each question. A list of books useful in preparation for the examinations can be found on pages 3-4.

GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS

MUSIC EDUCATION [Total duration of MUSIC EDUCATION examinations: 5 hours]

Music Education [3 hours]

-- Essay questions covering historical and contemporary music education philosophies and methodologies,

string, brass, woodwind, vocal, orchestra/band techniques and choral conducting, and recent research

developments.

Example questions:

- Trace the important events in the history of compulsory music education in either Canada or the United

States from 1850 until the present day.

- Outline briefly the historical development of one of the following elementary music methodologies:

Orff, Kodaly, Suzuki, Dalcroze with a focus on its introduction into North America.

- What do you believe are the major factors influencing the implementation of Music Education

programs in contemporary classrooms? Discuss.

- Music education research is expanding beyond the traditional classroom to include early childhood

education, community music, and life-long learning. How should the field react to this in terms of

teacher training?

- Using a common problem experienced by music students (i.e. breathing issues, rhythmic inaccuracy),

explain how you would identify and solve this issue in a classroom or studio setting based upon current

research findings.

- Technological advances are drastically changing the contemporary music education studio and

classroom. Critically analyze the use of 1-2 of these advances and their possible impact upon teaching

and learning.

Page 2 GRADUATE PLACEMENT EXAMINATION DESCRIPTIONS

Music Theory

Part 1 Form and Analysis [2 hours]

A: The 19th-century analysis exam [1 hour] is an analysis of a large-scale form (usually one movement of a

sonata), with discussion of its normative and non-normative aspects as defined in Part IV of Caplin,

Classical Form, and its motivic materials, as well as identification of chromatic harmonies as presented in

Chs. 26-31 of Aldwell/Schachter/Cadwallader, Harmony and Voice Leading or a similar theory textbook

(applied chords, extended and altered chords, Neapolitan sixth chords, and augmented sixth chords). The

chapters include relevant exercises.

Example questions:

Johannes Brahms, Sonata for clarinet and piano in F minor, op. 120 no. 1, mvt. 1 http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/e/e0/IMSLP112444-PMLP52918-Brahms_Werke_Band_10_Breitkopf_JB_41_Op_120_No_1_filter.pdf

I. Keys, cadences, harmony. Annotate the score, using the symbols you are used to, of the

following two passages: mm. 1-24 and 77-89. Label all cadences and clearly indicate any

modulations.

II. Form. Answer the following questions pertaining to the form.

1. In what measure does the main theme end? Why?

2. What are the boundaries of the transition?

3. In what measure does the subordinate theme group begin? Why?

4. To what extent does the tonal organization of the subordinate theme group conform to Classical norms

(i.e., the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven)?

5. What is unusual about the tonal organization of the subordinate theme group in relation to

Classical norms?

6. In what measure does the recapitulation begin? Why?

7. To what extent does the tonal organization of the recapitulation conform to Classical norms?

8. What is unusual about the tonal organization of the recapitulation in relation to Classical norms?

B: The post-tonal analysis exam [1 hour] is a consideration of the pitch structures in a work, using set theory

or twelve-tone theory where appropriate, discussion of motivic relationships, and structural shifts in

rhythm, texture, register and timbre. Chs. 1, 3, 7 and 10 of Roig-Francoli, Understanding Post-Tonal

Music are recommended for study and include sample questions.

Example questions:

Charles Ives, “The Cage”

http://javanese.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/5/52/IMSLP255985-SIBLEY1802.23812.0079-39087030301123voice___piano__1st_mvt_.pdf.

1. Analyze the pitch structures within the work, their potential for combinatorial and complement

relationships, and the realization of such relationships, and/or lack thereof.

2. Discuss the phrase structure, rhythmic organization, texture within the piano part, relationship

of piano and vocal parts, and use of register.

3. How do the musical elements discussed above relate to the title or text of the song?

4. Comment on which aspects of this song are typical of Ives’ compositional oeuvre, and which

are not.

Page 3 GRADUATE PLACEMENT EXAMINATION DESCRIPTIONS

SUPPLEMENTAL READING LIST

MUSIC EDUCATION

Abeles, H.F., Hoffer, C. R., & Klotman, R. H. (1994). Foundations of Music Education. (2nd ed.) New York:

Schirmer Books.

Chosky, L., Abramson, R. M., Gillespie, A. E., & Woods, D. (1986). Teaching Music in the 20th Century. Englewood

Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Elliott, David. Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education. Oxford University Press, 1995.

Kohut, Dan. Musical Performance ... Learning Theory and Pedagogy.

Madsen, C. & Madsen, C. (1978). Experimental Research in Music Education. Raleigh, NC: Contemporary

Publishing Company.

Mark, M. (1986). Contemporary Music Education. (2nd ed.) New York: Schirmer Books.

Merrion (1989). What works: Instructional Strategies for Music Educators. Reston, VA: MENC.

Schafer, Murray. Creative Music Education.

Various journals: Journal of Research in Music Education, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education,

and Psychology of Music.

Philosophic Foundations and Developmental Sections in Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning.

ed. R. Colwell. Schirmer Publications, 1992.

Method books (instrumental, vocal, and elementary).

Music History:

Chadabe, J. (1996). Electric sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music. Upper Saddle River, NJ,

Prentice Hall.

Assayag, G. (1998). Computer assisted composition today. First Symposium on Music and Computers, Corfu.

19th-Century Analysis:

E. Aldwell, C. Schachter, and A. Cadwallader, Harmony and Voice Leading, 4th ed., chaps. 28-33

S. Kostka, D. Payne, and B. Almen, Tonal Harmony, 7th ed., chaps. 21-25

William Caplin. Analyzing Classical Form. New York: Oxford University Press, May 2013.

Post-tonal Analysis:

Joel Lester. Analytic Approaches to Twentieth-Century Music. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989.

Page 4 GRADUATE PLACEMENT EXAMINATION DESCRIPTIONS

Joseph N. Straus. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2004.

Miguel Roig-Francoli. Understanding Post-Tonal Music. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.