[For Prospective Students]

Undergraduate Transfer Examination in Music Theory

All transfer students who wish to receive credit for music theory courses taken at other institutions are required to take a placement examination. The examination, which is given one or two days before the beginning of each term, includes but is not limited to the following.

• Melody harmonization in chorale style
• Diatonic and chromatic harmony and part-writing
• Roman numeral/figured bass analysis
• Figured bass realization
• Analysis of form

Special emphasis is placed on the music of the common-practice era.

Students take one of two examinations, depending upon the number of course hours they wish to transfer. One test draws upon materials covered in the first two semesters of the core music theory sequence at the University of Alabama and consists of portions of the final examinations from those semesters; the other draws upon materials covered in the third and fourth semesters of that sequence and consists of portions of the final examinations from those semesters.

In preparation for the examination students may wish to review one or more standard undergraduate textbooks. We recommend the following.

Part-writing and Analysis

Harmony and Voice-Leading, Edward Aldwell & Carl Schachter. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1989. This is the textbook used in the first four semesters of the core music theory sequence at the University of Alabama, and is the one we most strongly recommend. The table below lists the chapters covered in each semester of that sequence.

Semester 1 (MUS115): chapters 1-10; 20, 21
Semester 2 (MUS117): chapters 11-19; 23, 25, 26
Semester 3 (MUS215): chapters 22, 24, 27, 28, 29
Semester 4 (MUS217): chapters 30-32

Other texts that cover essentially the same material include Allen Forte's Tonal Harmony in Theory and Practice and Robert Gauldin's Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music.

For those who feel the need to review the rudiments of music we recommend Scales, Intervals, Keys, Triads, Rhythm and Meter, a programmed text by John Clough, Joyce Conley, and Claire Boge, published by Norton.

Form

Form in Tonal Music, Douglas Green
Form in Music, Wallace Berry