The Music Minor
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Overview
For those non-majors across the University whose involvement with the Department of Music forms an essential aspect of their undergraduate career, the undergraduate minor in Music gives both formal recognition and structural coherence to their musical studies. The minor requires students to engage with musical theories, materials, and techniques, the study of music in history and culture, and performance. At the same time, it provides students with the flexibility to emphasize areas that interest him or her most. All courses must be completed with a grade of C- or better. If a course is offered S/U, a grade of S is acceptable.
Admission to the minor must be declared no later than the second semester of the junior year; after the start of the seventh semester, admission is by petition only. Such students should attach a statement outlining their credentials and reasons for wishing to pursue a minor in Music.
All students must submit an exit statement to the advisor and the DUS articulating the intellectual interests that were developed by work done for the minor and how his or her program of musical studies reflects a coherent learning agenda.
Those enrolled in the Music minor are considered members of the Music department and are encouraged to participate in all program activities.
Application Procedure
- Submit the online Music Minor Application Form
- Please submit the application by the end of the Junior year.
- Based on your interests, select and obtain the agreement of a faculty member who is willing to serve as the minor advisor.
Core Requirements
Students minoring in music are responsible for tracking and completing the required courses:
Music Theory, Materials, and Techniques (3-5 credits)
- At least one three to five credit course in the category of Theory, Materials, and Techniques.
Music History and Culture (3-4 credits)
- At least one three to four credit course in the category of History and Culture.
Performance (3 credits)
- At least three credits of courses in the category of Collaborative Performance and/or Individual Instruction. At least two credits must come from Collaborative Performance courses. Students may earn the remaining credit from a course in either category.
Electives (8 credits)
- Eight credits from any other Theory, Materials, and Techniques, History and Culture, or Collaborative Performance courses. A maximum of five of these credits may be earned from Collaborative Performance courses.
Music Courses
Courses Fulfilling the Materials and Techniques Requirement (Please Note: Not every course listed is offered every year. Click here for current course listings. Click here for course descriptions.)
MUSIC 1100 - Elements of Musical Notation
MUSIC 1101 - Elements of Music
MUSIC 1105 - Introduction to Music Theory
MUSIC 1466 - Physics of Musical Sound (crosslisted)
MUSIC 2101 - Theory, Materials & Techniques I (taught annually in Fall only)
MUSIC 2102 - Theory, Materials & Techniques II (taught annually in Spring only)
MUSIC 2111 - Songwriting
MUSIC 2112 - Collaborative Songwriting
MUSIC 2421 - Computers in Music Performance
MUSIC 3111 - Jazz Theory and Improvisation I
MUSIC 3112 - Jazz Theory and Improvisation II
MUSIC 3121 - Choral Conducting
MUSIC 3122 - Conducting
MUSIC 3160 - Analyzing World Music
MUSIC 3431 - Sound Design (crosslisted)
MUSIC 4112 - Composition
MUSIC 4121 - Advanced Conducting
MUSIC 4181 - Psychology of Music (crosslisted)
MUSIC 4340 - Fieldwork Methods in Ethnomusicology
MUSIC 4360 - The Art of Field Recording: Philosophy, History, Practice
Courses Fulfilling the History and Culture Requirement (Please Note: Not every course listed is offered every year. Click here for current course listings. Click here for course descriptions.)
MUSIC 1201 - European Music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque
MUSIC 1202 - European and American Art Music from 1750
MUSIC 1212 - Music on the Brain (crosslisted)
MUSIC 1312 - History of Rock Music (crosslisted)
MUSIC 1313 - A Survey of Jazz (crosslisted)
MUSIC 1320 - Music of Latin America (crosslisted)
MUSIC 1321 - Music of Mexico and the Mexican Diaspora (crosslisted)
MUSIC 1330 - African Music (crosslisted)
MUSIC 1350 - Music of the Arab World (crosslisted)
MUSIC 2006 - Punk Culture: The Aesthetics and Politics of Refusal (crosslisted)
MUSIC 2201 - Introduction to Music Studies (taught annually in Spring only)
MUSIC 2207 - History of Western Music I
MUSIC 2208 - History of Western Music II
MUSIC 2209 - History of Western Music III
MUSIC 2221 - Bach and Handel
MUSIC 2224 - Mozart in History, History in Mozart
MUSIC 2241 - Music as Drama: An Introduction to Opera (crosslisted)
MUISC 2244 - The Music, Art and Technology of the Organ
MUSIC 2260 - Music of the 1960s
MUSIC 2270 - Thinking with Music
MUSIC 2311 - The Art and Craft of Music Journalism
MUSIC 2320 - Latino Music in the U.S.(crosslisted)
MUSIC 2330 - Music in and of East Asia (crosslisted)
MUSIC 2340 - The Beatles (crosslisted)
MUSIC 2341 - Gamelan in Indonesian History and Cultures (crosslisted)
MUSIC 2350 - Music of the African Diaspora (crosslisted)
MUSIC 2360 - Music and Islam
MUSIC 2380 - Performing Hip Hop
MUSIC 2642 - The Art of Math: Mathematical Traditions of Symmetry and Harmony (crosslisted)
MUSIC 2701 - Music and Digital Gameplay (crosslisted
MUSIC 2703 - Thinking Media (crosslisted)
MUSIC 3205 - Cultural Studies of Music
MUSIC 3211 - Seminar in advanced Music Studies
MUSIC 3304 - Remixing Hi-Hop History
MUSIC 3314 - Resistance, Reform, and Revolt: Sound and Music in Early Modern England
MUSIC 3480 - Brazilian Culture through Its Music (crosslisted)
MUSIC 3490 - Hip Hop in Global Perspective
MUSIC 4222 - Music and Monstrous Imaginings
MUSIC 4224 - Mozart in Context
MUSIC 4250 - The Album
MUSIC 4304 - Imaging Music, Imagining Culture in Medieval Persia (crosslisted)
MUSIC 4306 - Historical Performance Practice
MUSIC 4312 - Synthesizing Pop: Electronics and the Musical Imagination (crosslisted)
MUSIC 4333 - U.S. Pop Music & Racial Common Sense (crosslisted)
MUSIC 4345 - Sound, Silence and the Sacred (crosslisted)
MUSIC 4352 - Medieval Cosmologies: Text, Image, and Music (crosslisted)
MUSIC 4454 - Writing on Tape in the 1970s (crosslisted)
Courses Fulfilling the Performance Requirement (Please Note: Not every course listed is offered every year. Click here for current course listings. Click here for course descriptions.)
MUSIC 3511-3514, 4501 Individual Instruction in Applied Music
MUSIC 3602 - Chorus
MUSIC 3603 - Glee Club
MUSIC 3604 - Chorale
MUSIC 3609 - Brazilian Ensemble-Deixa Sambar (crosslisted)
MUSIC 3610 - Gamelan Ensemble
MUSIC 3612 - Pan-African Drum and Dance Ensemble (crosslisted)
MUSIC 3613 - Cornell Steel Band (crosslisted)
MUSIC 3615 - Jazz Repartory Ensemble
MUSIC 3616 - Cornell Hip-Hop Collective
MUSIC 3621 - Symphony Orchestra
MUSIC 3631 - Wind Symphony
MUSIC 3634 - Cornell Percussion Group
MUSIC 3660 - Music Improvisation Ensemble
MUSIC 3701 - The Performance of Chamber Wind Music
MUSIC 3703 - Engaged Performance
MUSIC 4601 - Chamber Singers
MUSIC 4615 - Jazz Band
MUSIC 4616 - Jazz Combos
MUSIC 4621 - Chamber Orchestra
MUSIC 4631 - Chamber Flute Ensemble
MUSIC 4641 - Advanced Instruction in Gamelan
MUSIC 4651 - Chamber Music Ensembles
Submit Exit Statement