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Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
77
Visit the Department of Music
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If you are considering studying Music at Trinity College
but want to be sure, you are most welcome to attend
lectures at the department at any time during teaching
terms. You will also be invited to discuss your options
with a member of the teaching staff. Contact us by
e-mail or phone (see below).
Course content
The Freshman years
The Junior Freshman (first) year is designed to ensure that
you are fully competent in basic musical skills and provides
an introduction to historical and analytical musicology,
compositional techniques and music technology.
Subjects include:
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Aural training
– using moveable Doh (Solfège or Solfa).
The course will improve your basic musical skills in areas
such as musical dictation, sight-reading, and score-reading.
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Keyboard skills
– (taught in conjunction with aural training)
will enable you to create harmony over a given figured bass,
to play four-part harmony, and to transpose up or down a
tone or semitone.
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Introduction to harmony
– an introduction to the writing
of four-part harmony.
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History of music
– an introduction to the music of Baroque
and early Classical periods in a broad cultural context (this
forms part of a four-year programme of general music
history), plus an introduction to research methodologies,
and to presentation and style in writing essays.
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Introduction to music analysis
– includes re-assessment
of the elements of a musical text and the ways in which
they come together to form increasingly large units.
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Music technology
– includes computer orientation,
and introduction to MIDI protocol, audio signals and
computer-based notation and sequencing.
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Introduction to counterpoint
– the conventions of music
notation and rudiments, leading to the study of Fuxian
species counterpoint, which will enable you to acquire
a command of basic polyphonic composition.
In the Senior Freshman (second) year you will continue with
the above subjects from the first year while beginning to explore
your specialist area – either composition, musicology, or music
technology. Single Honor students will also select a Broad
Curriculum course (see page 13), and TSM students have a
wider range of options that includes Broad Curriculum.
The Sophister years
In the Sophister (third and fourth) years study becomes more
concentrated on your chosen specialisation. It is always possible
to take options from other specialisations.
Students who specialise in composition will receive a thorough
grounding in compositional techniques; they present a portfolio
of their compositions as their final-year project. If you specialise
in music technology you will produce a major project in the final
year. Specialisation in musicology involves a range of courses
relating to historical and analytical subjects, and culminates in a
dissertation in the fourth year.
All students may opt to present a recital for up to approximately
10% of their degree. In each year, Sophister students are also
offered an option in either aural training or in the playing of
figured bass (using either piano or harpsichord). In recent years,
other options have included:
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Film music
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Counterpoint and Fugue in Three Parts
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The German Lied in the 19th century
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Music and language
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Byrd and the politics of polyphony
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Sonata structures
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Experimental theatre music and contemporary opera
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Web design
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Handel and the English oratorio
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Elgar, Newman and The Dream of Gerontius
Assessment
Most subjects are assessed by a combination of examination
(at the end of the year) and continuous assessment.
Career opportunities
The employment record for Trinity College’s graduates in Music
is excellent. Recent graduates have established successful
careers as composers, as music producers for television, radio,
or recording companies, as performers, administrators and
teachers, as academics in internationally recognised institutions
worldwide, and as conductors. Within the last few years several
recent graduates have been commissioned by front-rank
organisations such as RTÉ to write new works. Graduates
are working in this country and in countries as diverse as the
USA, Canada, Germany, Australia, China and England. Music
graduates have an outstanding record of obtaining scholarships
for further study abroad, from international institutions, as well
as from the Arts Council of Ireland. A smaller number have used
the analytical and intellectual skills that these courses offer to
build successful careers outside music: recent examples include
medicine, law, financial investment, and public relations.
Further information
Anyone considering studying Music is welcome to visit the
department, in order to sit in on lectures, to speak to members of
staff, and to speak to current students. To make an appointment,
contact the Music Executive Officer: +353 1 896 1120;
musicsec@tcd.ie
(office hours: 1000-1630, Mondays to Fridays).
Full details of the courses in Music, of the staff and of the
curriculum can be accessed via the Music Department’s
website:
www.tcd.ie/Music
Tel: +353 1 896 1120