Department of Composition

THE COMPOSITION PROGRAM
The Oberlin Composition and TIMARA curricula are the most comprehensive in the United States, providing musical training that permits students to develop their own compositional voices while gaining a thorough grasp of technical issues in composition and hands-on experience with cutting edge hard- and software. Various degree options are available, including B.Mus., in either department, a double major, executable in four years, in both departments, and the Composition or TIMARA minor. Many majors also have another major either within the Conservatory or in the College (the Double Degree program).

GENERAL
Production, performance, and critique are primary instructional vehicles of the program. In each Composition and TIMARA course, the focus is always on compositional productivity, new compositions being the primary course output, with works being performed and critiqued by both faculty and fellow students. Opportunities for performances and readings abound; performance of student works and projects over the past two years averaged thirty concerts per semester. Many student performers request works to premiere on their junior and senior recitals. When added to the six Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble concerts per year, faculty composers concerts each semester, concerts of works by visiting composers, and the frequent appearance of new music on other recitals by faculty, students, and large performing groups, Oberlin Conservatory is clearly one of the richest and most diverse new music environments in the country.

CURRICULUM
Introductory courses, divided into half semester modules covering technical matters in Composition, during the first year , provide intensive technical work in composition and principles of technology while also exposing students to the multiplicity of contemporary compositional styles. These courses have a variety of instructional components, including seminar-style classroom instruction, frequent performance/critique sessions involving performances drawn from within and from outside the class, and supplementary private lessons.

For the second, third, and fourth years for Composition majors, students receive private instruction in composition with the professor of their choice, culminating in the composition of two large-scale works by the end of the senior year, one for a large ensemble such as orchestra or wind ensemble and the second an extended and continuous piece of about 10 minutes in duration for a smaller instrumentation. The orchestral piece is either read and recorded or rehearsed, performed, and recorded publicly; the extended piece is invariably performed and recorded.

In addition to these core courses and requirements, the Composition department offers classes that give additional scope in important areas of composition and address areas of considerable significance. Two classes in orchestration provide a thorough grounding in instrumental basics through sophisticated ensemble writing and orchestral composition. The New Music Workshop, open to juniors and seniors in composition and performance provides an opportunity for exploring the outer limits of new sound possibilities in chamber music in a laboratory setting.

The Composition Seminar, open to majors in all years, provides students with a variety of activities in analysis, styles and procedures. In this course, students analyze works and other writings by composers who will be visiting the campus, attend score-reading sessions and open rehearsal-discussions of works being prepared for performance, and do readings in criticism and aesthetics.

MORE ON PERFORMANCE
Performance of student's works is a high priority, and virtually all student's pieces are performed and recorded on tape for further study. A biannual Oberlin CD project has been instituted that showcases selected student works in a professionally recorded, edited, and disseminated product.

Composition and TIMARA majors are encouraged to collaborate with other artists on campus and take part in dance and theater productions. Many students are also involved in film, video, new media productions and in live performance on the internet. Students write for the several dance productions evolved by a very active Dance Department as well as writing music for a variety of dramatic productions including music theatre. This curriculum is partly defined and ensconced within Oberlin's extensive and varied concert life, which in a typical year includes experimental, jazz, improvisation, rock technological traditional, theater, avant-garde, minimalist, and composer-as-performer, among other forms of musical expression. Variety of styles and genres is fundamental to our program. Also contributing to the environment are the many visiting composers and other creative artists who come to Oberlin each year. Virtually every major composer in the world has been in residence for a period of time. Recent guest composers include Olga Neuwirth (with our production of the US premiere of her opera Lost Highway taking place in Oberlin and New York), Morton Subotnik, John Adams, Luciano Berio, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, David Del Tredici, Lee Hyla, Halim El-Dabh, Tania Leon, Donald Erb, Olly Wilson, Lukas Foss, Edwin London, Kaffe Matthews, James Mobberley, Steve Reich, Tan Dun, James Tenney, Kevin Volans, Joan Tower, James Dillon, George Lewis, and Helmut Lachenmann. Earlier, there were residencies by Igor Stravinsky, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xennakis, Aaron Copland and Jacob Druckman.

AFTER OBERLIN
Oberlin student composers frequently take top honors in such prestigious competitions as the annual BMI and ASCAP competitions, and they have received Fulbright, Watson, Mellon, Guggenheim, and other fellowships. Two Oberlin graduates have won Pulitzer Prizes in music. George Walker (OC'41) won the award in 1996 for his composition Lilacs, a work for soprano voice and orchestra commissioned and premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Christopher Rouse (OC'71) won the award in 1993 for his Trombone Concerto, a three-movement work commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic

Composition and TIMARA students are prepared for graduate study or professional work in music composition. The majority of students who continue their education are accepted at leading graduate schools of music (including the Juilliard School, the Eastman School, Harvard University, etc.), where they are usually awarded graduate assistantships and fellowships. Many of these students go on to very successful careers in teaching at major U.S. colleges and universities. Graduates also pursue professional careers as composers of electronic and computer music, jazz, rock, concert music, and music for theater, dance, and film. Some work in the recording industry, while others conduct orchestras and new music ensembles or are resident composers with major orchestras. A degree from Oberlin Conservatory is a recognized gateway to the top echelon of careers that involve the creation of music.