The student majoring in composition will study tonal harmony, counterpoint and fugue, tonal composition, twentieth-century compositional techniques, instrumentation, and orchestration. Music literature studied will emphasize the concert music repertoire of the twentieth century, but also will include principal composers and styles from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The student will demonstrate mastery of these skills and concepts as well as the development of an individual compositional personality and voice, by completing a portfolio of scores that will include (but not be limited to) a number of pieces in smaller forms, a tonal four-part fugue, a composition for solo voice or mixed chorus, a sonata in three movements, and a composition for full orchestra.

The study of acknowledged masterpieces from different historical periods will develop in the student an individual aesthetic vision and the critical ability to recognize and discuss music of quality. The student will gain skills by working with performers, rehearsing them, and conducting and/or producing performances.

The composition major will develop sufficient skills and knowledge to function as a composer of concert music and to gain entry to a graduate program in music theory or composition in order to pursue a career as a teacher, scholar, and practitioner of music theory and composition.