Music Department

The goal of the music major at Amherst College is to provide you with a solid grounding in music theory and the fundamentals of composition, to teach you to think and write critically about music, and to help you achieve a level of sophisticated command in at least one of the following areas: performance; composition; music scholarship (music history, theory, ethnomusicology, and jazz and popular music studies), and music drama and opera studies. By graduation a major will have the following: 1) knowledge of and appreciation for the craft involved in creating and performing tonal music; 2) knowledge of one or more major time periods in Western music history; 3) the ability to think and write critically about music; and 4) a high level of achievement in at least one major area of musical study (performance; scholarship on a Western or non-Western topic; or composition), knowledge of at least two specialized areas, or knowledge of one specialized area combined with a broad base of knowledge. We strive as a department to support the widest possible range of musical styles in our course offerings and performance activities. We encourage all students interested in making music a part of their lives and their liberal arts education to acquire a strong mastery of the fundamentals of musicianship.