Program: Music Composition MA - University at Buffalo

Apr 09, 2025

WORKING 2025-2026 Graduate Catalog

The Department of Music has-for decades-enjoyed a reputation as one of a handful of departments in North America dedicated to contemporary musical creation at the highest level. Composition at the University at Buffalo flourishes today, by providing a wide range of stimulating musical and intellectual experiences, within a program that allows students the space to develop and mature. In an atmosphere that encourages musical and technological experiment, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and the development of authentic creative character, graduate composers at UB take advantage of a number of resources and opportunities.

Required Core (36 credits)

Composition (12 credits)

The following will be taken for a total of four semesters:

MUS 628TUT - Composition Credits: 3-4

Practice Based Seminars and Tutorials (8 credits)

Select from the following:

MUS 628SEM - Composition Seminar Credits: 2 *Minimum one semester required
MUS 555LAB - Composer and Performer Lab Credits: 2
MUS 600TUT - Tutorial Credits: 1 - 12
MUS 612LEC - Computer Music Credits: 4
MUS 619LEC - Advanced Orchestration Credits: 4
MUS 559-598, MUS 635 - Applied Instrument/Vocal/Conducitng Lessons (based on student’s interest) Credits: 3

Didactic Seminars (16 credits)

Music History (4-8 credits)

Select 1 or 2 from the following:

MUS 515SEM - Music and Queer Studies Credits: 4
MUS 517SEM - Music, Gender, and Sexuality Credits: 4
MUS 525SEM - Popular Music Studies Credits: 4
MUS 527SEM - Music and Modernity Credits: 4
MUS 528SEM - Media, Memory, and Notation Credits: 4
MUS 529LEC - Studies in US Music Credits: 4
MUS 530LEC - Experimental Music Credits: 4
MUS 615SEM - Discourses in Musicology Credits: 4

Music Theory (4-8 credits)

Select 1 or 2 from the following:

MUS 613SEM - Analyzing Popular Music Credits: 4
MUS 614SEM - Discourses in Music Theory Credits: 4
MUS 621SEM - Topics in Tonal Theory and Analysis Credits: 4
MUS 629SEM - Post-Tonal Theory Credits: 4

Colloquium (4 credits)

One semester required

MUS 500SEM - Colloquium Credits: 4

Culminating Experience (0 credits)

Portfolio of three representative works

Total Credit Hours: 36

3.0 Degree GPA required

Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)

1) To become professionally proficient in original musical composition through the creation of a portfolio and a thesis composition by composing, coaching, and presenting these new works in score, performance, and recording through individual tutorials in composition, the weekly composition seminar, and required courses in orchestration, analysis, and music technological applications.

2) Students will develop increased competence at being articulate in both the public verbal and written modes about the historical, cultural, and philosophical aspects of music.

3) Understand methodologies useful in the analysis of musical experience and communicate this understanding within the modes of discourse common to music theory and analysis.

In Person (100 percent of courses offered in person)

SED Statement

This program is officially registered with the New York State Education Department (SED).