The Graduate Instrumental Arts Program curriculum is divided into three core components: Performance Studies, Academic Studies, and Practical Studies. Through coursework in music theory and music history, performance experience in chamber music and orchestra, and a unique seminar focusing on career building and recital program development program, graduates of the Instrumental Arts Program are equipped with the skills needed to pursue a life in music in the 21st century.
Curriculum Structure
Performance Studies
The curriculum of the Instrumental Arts Program is anchored in performance. All students receive weekly private instruction from the Conservatory’s world-class faculty, participate in Bard Conservatory’s robust chamber music program, which includes a weekly coaching and end of semester performance, and the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, which rehearses and performs in the Fisher Center at Bard.
Academic Studies
In a four-semester academic track combining Music History and Music Theory, this sequence of courses helps students understand the connections between the internal theoretical structure of the music—i.e. how the piece is put together to create internal coherence—and the broader influences from music history, political and cultural history, philosophy and esthetics.
Practical Studies
This weekly practicum, unique to Bard Conservatory, develops students’ performance and career building skills. Primarily performance focused, this class also includes training in program design and creation, program-note writing, personal marketing, personal website creation, and public speaking and presentation skills.
Course Descriptions
Graduate Music History I: Classical and Romantic Music Literature: History, Repertoire, and Style
Graduate Music History II: Research, Writing, Criticism, and Curating
Graduate Music Theory 1: Musical Form and Analysis
Graduate Music Theory II: Analysis of 20th- Century Modernism
Students enroll in 12-15 credits per semester and need to obtain a minimum of 48 credits to graduate.
Semester I Studio Instruction (CNSV 512, 3 credits) Instrumental Chamber Music (CNSV 511, 3 credits) Orchestra (as applicable) (CNSV 562, 3 credits) Music Theory I (CNSV 5xx, 3 credits) Performance Studies Seminar (CNSV 5xx, 3 credits)
Semester II Studio Instruction (CNSV 512, 3 credits) Instrumental Chamber Music (CNSV 511, 3 credits) Orchestra (as applicable) (CNSV 562, 3 credits) Music History I (CNSV 5xx, 3 credits) Performance Studies Seminar (CNSV 5xx, 3 credits)
Semester III Studio Instruction (CNSV 512, 3 credits) Instrumental Chamber Music (CNSV 511, 3 credits) Orchestra (as applicable) (CNSV 562, 3 credits) Music Theory II (CNSV 5xx, 3 credits) Performance Studies Seminar (CNSV 5xx, 3 credits)
Semester IV Studio Instruction (CNSV 512, 3 credits) Instrumental Chamber Music (CNSV 511, 3 credits) Orchestra (as applicable) (CNSV 562, 3 credits) Music History II (CNSV 5xx, 3 credits) Performance Studies Seminar (CNSV 5xx, 3 credits)
Graduate Music History I: Classical and Romantic Music Literature: History, Repertoire, and Style
This course will focus on a selection of works from the late 18th and 19th centuries. Each week we will concentrate on a particular composer and piece(s). We will place the compositions within a larger musical, historical, biographical, and cultural context. To facilitate this study, many of the works chosen for consideration have an accompanying musical handbook published by Cambridge University Press, as well as other supplementary materials.
Graduate Music History II: Research, Writing, Criticism, and Curating
This seminar addresses two related areas: 1) the development of research and writing skills; 2) the exploration of issues of music criticism and thematic programming for concerts and festivals. This course will examine the programs of various presenting organizations with a particular emphasis on the American Symphony Orchestra and the Bard Music Festival. The seminar further considers broader issues in the classical musical culture of our time, including the so-called Death of Classical Music.
Graduate Music Theory 1: Musical Form and Analysis
This course examines common-practice Western art music from the Baroque and Classical eras from two perspectives: formal analysis, which explores the way each piece of music is constructed and divided into sections, and structural analysis, which examines its harmonic and contrapuntal organization. Presented in three parts, this course begins with the rise of instrumental music in the Baroque era through close examination of five sonata-form movements.
Graduate Music Theory II: Analysis of 20th- Century Modernism
In this course students analyze some of the formative works of 20th-century musical modernism, and learn techniques for analyzing 20th-century music in general. Unlike 18th- and 19th-century music, 20th-century music is highly contextual, and no particular method of analysis will apply to every example; techniques learned for earlier music, particularly Roman Numeral analysis, will rarely be of much use here. In each case, students will deduce what kind of analysis is appropriate by looking for both small- and large-scale patterns.
Graduate Performance Studies Seminar
The Graduate Performance Studies Seminar meets for two hours each week in the Conservatory Performance Space. In this class students prepare on and off-campus recitals through regular performances, with feedback from faculty and student colleagues. In this course, students also develop skills in recital program design and creation, program-note writing, personal marketing, personal website creation, and public speaking and presentation skills.
Performance StudiesThe curriculum of the Instrumental Arts Program is anchored in performance. All students receive weekly private instruction from the Conservatory’s world-class faculty, participate in Bard Conservatory’s robust chamber music program, which includes a weekly coaching and end of semester performance, and the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, which rehearses and performs in the Fisher Center at Bard.
Academic StudiesIn a four-semester academic track combining Music History and Music Theory, this sequence of courses helps students understand the connections between the internal theoretical structure of the music—i.e. how the piece is put together to create internal coherence—and the broader influences from music history, political and cultural history, philosophy and esthetics.
Practical StudiesThis weekly practicum, unique to Bard Conservatory, develops students’ performance and career building skills. Primarily performance focused, this class also includes training in program design and creation, program-note writing, personal marketing, personal website creation, and public speaking and presentation skills.
