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Composition MM

​The Master of Music in composition program offers students one-on-one instruction with DePaul’s distinguished faculty of active composers, as well as seminars with guest composers and performers from Chicago and across the country. Graduate composition majors have their compositions performed at DePaul Composers Forum, a quarterly student composition concert, and second-year students may have a composition read through and recorded by the DePaul Chamber Orchestra. Graduate student compositions may also be performed by other DePaul ensembles, including Ensemble 20+, the Contemporary Music Ensemble. DePaul also offers two assistantships to graduate composition students.​​​​​ The Master of Music in composition is a two-year program.​​​​​​

Program Requirements Quarter Hours
Degree Requirements 48
Total hours required 48

Learning Outcomes

Core Outcomes​

Students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate basic music research techniques and apply knowledge of standard reference tools and bibliographic sources to the writing of a variety of professional and academic music texts.
  • Develop an expanded global, historical, and cultural understanding of music through the in-depth study of musical elements, compositional processes, and aesthetic properties.

​Program Specific Outcomes

Students will be able to:

  • Compose consistently throughout the two years of the degree program, and successfully produce performances of works.
  • Develop an individual compositional voice or style that reflects an awareness of prevalent musical styles and techniques of the 20th and 21st centuries and have a knowledge of works of the last 100 years that are an important part of the development of new sonorities and techniques.
  • Analyze music of the common practice period as well as music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Degree Requirements

Course Requirements​​

A minimum of 48 quarter hours of graduate credit is required for the Master of Music degree. This total is divided between the basic studies required of all master’s degree students and courses in the specialization.

Music Core Requirements (16 Credits)

Course Title Quarter Hours
COM 405ANALYTICAL STUDIES4
MUS 400MUSIC RESEARCH4
Music History: Select two of the following:8
JAZZ HISTORY
HISTORY OF THE ORATORIO
18th & 19th WIND HISTORY AND LITERATURE
20th CENTURY WIND HISTORY AND LITERATURE
MEDIEVAL MUSIC
RENAISSANCE MUSIC
BAROQUE MUSIC
HISTORY OF OPERA
WORLD MUSIC CULTURES
CLASSICAL MUSIC
ROMANTIC MUSIC
MUSIC SINCE WORLD WAR II
20TH CENTURY MUSIC BEFORE WWII

Composition Specialization Requirements (28 Credits)

Course Title Quarter Hours
COM 415COMPOSITION2
12 credits of composition lessons (2 credits in each quarter):12
COM 447NON-WESTERN SOUND AND CONCEPT IN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC4
COM 445TWENTIETH CENTURY MUSIC TOPICS4
COM 416COMPUTER ASSISTED COMPOSITION4
COM 446NEW MUSIC COMPOSITION SEMINAR4

Music Electives (4 Credits)

  • Students may choose from any 400 level course offered by the School of Music, except for additional applied lessons.

Terminal Requirements

Two terminal requirements are required of all students:

  • A written comprehensive examination, in which the students must demonstrate a satisfactory knowledge of their major field of study. The comprehensive examination may be taken at any time after 32 quarter hours of graduate credit have been earned.
  • The completion of an original work.

While preparation of the terminal requirement in the major may take place within some course or activity for which a student is registered for credit, additional academic credit is not granted for the project itself.

Residency Requirements  

All courses for the master’s degree must be taken at DePaul University. Graduate credit for courses completed at other institutions may not be applied toward the degree.

A full-time graduate student must be registered for a minimum of six quarter hours in any term. All requirements for the degree must be completed within six calendar years from the time a student is first enrolled. For students removing deficiencies, this period will begin when all deficiencies are removed and admission to the master’s degree program has been granted.