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Minor Conducting (18 credits)

Offered by: Performance     Degree: Bachelor of Music

Program Requirements

The B.Mus. Minor in Conducting contains two streams—orchestral conducting and choral conducting—which offer students an opportunity to develop technical skills in orchestral or choral conducting and rehearsal techniques. Students are admitted by audition and upon successful completion of the conducting entrance exam for the Minor. Enrolment is limited and is not open to U0 students.

Required Course (4 credits)

  • MUIN 384 Conducting Minor Project (1 credit)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Practical Instrument : Conducting project including selection, preparation, rehearsal and performance of 10-15 minutes of choral or orchestral music.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • Restriction(s): Open to students in the Minor in Conducting.

3 credits from the following:

  • MUPG 580 Rehearsal Techniques for Conductors (1.5 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Performance : Exploration of rehearsal techniques used by conductors and coaches in a variety of different settings (at McGill and in the larger Montreal community) including orchestra, orchestra sectionals, contemporary music ensembles, wind ensembles, early music ensembles, choral ensembles, jazz ensembles, chamber music ensembles, and opera through observation and discussion.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • Restriction: Open to graduate students in choral, wind, and orchestra conducting or with the permission of instructor

Complementary Courses (14 credits)

14 credits from one of the two streams

Orchestral Stream

4 credits from the following:

Large Ensembles
4 credits from the following:

  • MUEN 573 Baroque Orchestra (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Ensemble : Open to singers and instrumentalists, this ensemble specializes in chamber music primarily of the Baroque era.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 4 hours

    • Prerequisites: Audition

  • MUEN 590 McGill Wind Orchestra (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Ensemble : Large ensemble for wind instruments.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 4-6 hours

    • Prerequisite: Audition

  • MUEN 594 Contemporary Music Ensemble (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Ensemble : Ensemble for contemporary music - instruments and voice.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 4 hours

    • Prerequisite: Audition.

  • MUEN 595 Jazz Ensembles (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Ensemble : Ensemble for jazz - instruments and voice.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 3-4 hours

    • Prerequisite: Audition.

  • MUEN 597 McGill Symphony Orchestra (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Ensemble : Ensemble for orchestral instruments.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 6 - 7 hours

    • Prerequisite: Audition.

6 credits from the following:

  • MUCO 261 Orchestration 1 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Composition : Study of the instruments of the western orchestra, including performance techniques, used in different combinations. Score reading and notation. Analysis of excerpts of the repertoire from the point of view of instrumental writing and timbral combination. Reduction of orchestral scores for piano; scoring and transcription of piano works for different ensembles. Instruments studied: strings, harp, woodwinds, standard keyboards. Orchestration: scoring for string quartet, string ensembles, woodwind quintet and ensembles, small orchestra.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 3 hours

    • Prerequisites: MUTH 150 and MUSP 140.

    • Corequisite(s): MUSP 170

    • Restriction(s): Only open to B.Mus. Major in Composition students; students from other programs may be accepted with the permission of the instructor. Samples of previous work may be requested.

  • MUCO 360 Orchestration 2 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Composition : Reduction of orchestral scores for piano. Scoring and transcription of piano works for different ensembles. Instruments studied: brass and percussion. Orchestration: brass ensembles, percussion ensembles and combinations. Scoring for full orchestra.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • Prerequisite: MUCO 261

    • Restrictions: Only open to B.Mus. Major in Composition students; students from other programs may be accepted with the permission of the instructor, after submitting samples of previous work.

  • MUHL 383 Classical Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : The period covered will be from approximately 1740-1828, from the schools of the Italian keyboard composers, opera buffa and seria, and composers centred at Mannheim, Paris, London, Berlin and Vienna, through the Viennese Classic period of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, to the death of Schubert.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 384 Romantic Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : The Romantic style as traced by an analysis of works by the major composers of Lied, symphony, symphonic poem, chamber music, and opera.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 385 Early Twentieth-Century Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Development of European, Russian, and American music from the 1890s until the early 1940s, tracing its roots in late 19th-century Romanticism and following its evolution in central Europe, France, and the United States. The music of major innovators such as Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ives, and Varèse will be discussed.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 387 Opera from Mozart to Puccini (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Mozart's operas and the seria, buffa, and Singspiel traditions. Ottocento opera, grand opera, and cross-fertilization between France and Italy. German Romantic opera. Wagner. Eastern European opera. Verismo and fin-de-siècle opera in Vienna and Paris. Sociology of opera. Emphasis on critical understanding of music's role in articulating drama.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 388 Opera After 1900 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Major early twentieth-century works by Debussy, Strauss, Schreker, Bartók, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Opera in Europe between the Wars including operas of Berg, Milhaud, Krenek, Hindemith and Weill. Politics, sociology, and literature in relationship to musical style. Approaches since 1945 in selected works by Britten, Henze, Zimmermann, Ligeti, Somers and Glass.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 391 Canadian Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Survey of music in Canada from the 16th Century to the present. Current musical organizations and institutions, and contemporary Canadian music will be stressed. Time permitting, brief reference will be made to the folk music of indigenous and immigrant groups.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 392 Music since 1945 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Appearance and evolution of such post-war phenomena as total serialism, "chance" music of various kinds, and electronic music as seen in major figures such as Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage and others in Europe and the United States. Important developments during the 1960s. Rise of "minimalism" and "neo-Romanticism" during the 1970s and 80s.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Choral Stream

4 credits from the following:

  • MUPG 316D1 Introduction to Choral Conducting (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Performance : Group conducting tutorial. Technical and interpretive development and preparation of the conducting minor project.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • Students must register for both MUPG 316D1 and MUPG 316D2

    • No credit will be given for this course unless both MUPG 316D1 and MUPG 316D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms

    • Restriction(s): Open to students in the Minor in Conducting.

  • MUPG 316D2 Introduction to Choral Conducting (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Performance : See MUPG 316D1 for description.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • Prerequisite: MUPG 316D1

    • No credit will be given for this course unless both MUPG 316D1 and MUPG 316D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms

    • Restriction(s): Open to students in the Minor in Conducting.

Large Ensembles
4 credits from the following:

  • MUEN 563 Jazz Vocal Workshop (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Ensemble : Vocal workshop for jazz musicians.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUEN 572 Cappella Antica (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Ensemble : An ensemble of 8 to 12 voices specializing in early music. N.B. This ensemble may substitute as a Basic Ensemble in programs that specify Choral Ensemble, with Departmental approval.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 4 hours

    • Prerequisite: Audition.

  • MUEN 593 Choral Ensembles (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Ensemble : Students enrolling in Choral Ensembles will be assigned to one of the above groups.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 4 hours

    • Prerequisite: Audition.

    • Section 001 Chamber Singers: a group of approximately 24 mixed voices which explores the a cappella repertoire of all periods as well as works with chamber accompaniment.

    • Section 002 Concert Choir: an ensemble of approximately 60 voices (S.A.T.B.) which performs the repertoire from all periods appropriate to a group of this size.

    • Section 003 University Chorus: a mixed chorus of approximately 100 which performs a variety of choral material including both traditional and popular selections.

    • Section 004 Women's Chorale: an ensemble of approximately 40 women stressing the fundamentals of singing and ensemble participation.

6 credits from the following:

  • MUCO 261 Orchestration 1 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Composition : Study of the instruments of the western orchestra, including performance techniques, used in different combinations. Score reading and notation. Analysis of excerpts of the repertoire from the point of view of instrumental writing and timbral combination. Reduction of orchestral scores for piano; scoring and transcription of piano works for different ensembles. Instruments studied: strings, harp, woodwinds, standard keyboards. Orchestration: scoring for string quartet, string ensembles, woodwind quintet and ensembles, small orchestra.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 3 hours

    • Prerequisites: MUTH 150 and MUSP 140.

    • Corequisite(s): MUSP 170

    • Restriction(s): Only open to B.Mus. Major in Composition students; students from other programs may be accepted with the permission of the instructor. Samples of previous work may be requested.

  • MUCT 235 Vocal Techniques (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Choral Techniques : Development of basic singing skills through group voice lessons, lectures, and Choral Lab performances. Emphasis will be on: text production, breathing, projection, clarity of vowels and consonants, the International Phonetic Alphabet, and definition of voice categories. Simple diagnostic teaching skills will be developed through observation of group voice lessons.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 377 Baroque Opera (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : History of opera from its origins in the musical, literary, and philosophical models available to the Florentine Camerata to the end of the baroque. The development of opera will be studied from the perspective of artistic style and in the light of historical, political, social, and economic conditions.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 380 Medieval Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : The medieval style - an intensive study of one or more selected topics from the repertoire. Possible subjects include liturgical chant, Notre Dame, the medieval motet, secular developments, and instrumental literature.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 381 Renaissance Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Sacred and secular musical genres of the 15th and 16th Centuries. Various phases of imitative practice, cantus firmus and parody techniques. The emergence of homophonic textures in peripheral areas of the repertoire. Selected problems in the fields of theory, bibliography and aesthetics.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 382 Baroque Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : A detailed examination of several selected areas of Baroque music. Topics will be drawn from different geographical regions (e.g., Italy, France, Germany, etc.) and encompass church, chamber and theatre music, as well as performance practice. Each topic will be related to general musical developments of the period.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 383 Classical Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : The period covered will be from approximately 1740-1828, from the schools of the Italian keyboard composers, opera buffa and seria, and composers centred at Mannheim, Paris, London, Berlin and Vienna, through the Viennese Classic period of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, to the death of Schubert.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 384 Romantic Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : The Romantic style as traced by an analysis of works by the major composers of Lied, symphony, symphonic poem, chamber music, and opera.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 385 Early Twentieth-Century Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Development of European, Russian, and American music from the 1890s until the early 1940s, tracing its roots in late 19th-century Romanticism and following its evolution in central Europe, France, and the United States. The music of major innovators such as Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Ives, and Varèse will be discussed.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 387 Opera from Mozart to Puccini (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Mozart's operas and the seria, buffa, and Singspiel traditions. Ottocento opera, grand opera, and cross-fertilization between France and Italy. German Romantic opera. Wagner. Eastern European opera. Verismo and fin-de-siècle opera in Vienna and Paris. Sociology of opera. Emphasis on critical understanding of music's role in articulating drama.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 388 Opera After 1900 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Major early twentieth-century works by Debussy, Strauss, Schreker, Bartók, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Opera in Europe between the Wars including operas of Berg, Milhaud, Krenek, Hindemith and Weill. Politics, sociology, and literature in relationship to musical style. Approaches since 1945 in selected works by Britten, Henze, Zimmermann, Ligeti, Somers and Glass.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 390 The German Lied (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Survey of the German Lied from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, focusing on songs and song cycles by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. Topics include text, musical form and text-music relationships, melodic style and harmonic organization, accompaniment, and performance practice.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 391 Canadian Music (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Survey of music in Canada from the 16th Century to the present. Current musical organizations and institutions, and contemporary Canadian music will be stressed. Time permitting, brief reference will be made to the folk music of indigenous and immigrant groups.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 392 Music since 1945 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : Appearance and evolution of such post-war phenomena as total serialism, "chance" music of various kinds, and electronic music as seen in major figures such as Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage and others in Europe and the United States. Important developments during the 1960s. Rise of "minimalism" and "neo-Romanticism" during the 1970s and 80s.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 591D1 Paleography (1.5 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : The theory and practice of musical transcription for the period 1100 to 1600. Black modal notation, Franconian notation, French and Italian Ars Nova notation, Mannerism, white mensural notation, proportions, and lute and keyboard tablatures will be studied.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUHL 591D2 Paleography (1.5 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music History and Literature : See MUHL 591D1 for course description.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • Prerequisite: MUHL 591D1

    • No credit will be given for this course unless both MUHL 591D1 and MUHL 591D2 are successfully completed in consecutive terms

  • MUPG 209 Introduction to Lyric Diction (1 credit)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Performance : Rules of lyric diction and the sounds of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 1 hour

    • Restriction: Open to singers and collaborative pianists.

  • MUPG 210 Italian Diction (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Performance : Study of International Phonetic Alphabet. Study of Italian pronunciation in singing using song and opera texts.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 2 hours

  • MUPG 211 French Diction (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Performance : Study of French pronunciation in singing using song and opera texts.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 2 hours

  • MUPG 212 English Diction (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Performance : Study of International Phonetic Alphabet. Study of Standard English pronunciation in singing using song and opera texts with a special emphasis on problematic vowels, diphthongs and consonants.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 2 hours

  • MUPG 213 German Diction (2 credits)

    Offered by: Performance (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Performance : Study of German pronunciation in singing using song and opera texts.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    • 2 hours

  • MUTH 202 Modal Counterpoint 1 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music Theory and Analysis : Polyphonic techniques of the Renaissance period studied through analysis of works by Palestrina and others and through written exercises in two to three voices.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUTH 204 Tonal Counterpoint 1 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music Theory and Analysis : The contrapuntal techniques of Baroque composers studied through detailed technical analysis of their works and through written exercises in strict style.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUTH 302 Modal Counterpoint 2 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music Theory and Analysis : Continuation of Modal Counterpoint I. Study of more advanced techniques through further analysis and written exercises in three or more voices.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

  • MUTH 304 Tonal Counterpoint 2 (3 credits)

    Offered by: Music Research (Schulich School of Music)

    Overview

    Music Theory and Analysis : Further analysis and written exercises with special emphasis on fugal techniques in free style.

    Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2024-2025 academic year.

    Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Schulich School of Music—2024-2025 (last updated Apr. 3, 2024) (disclaimer)
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