Admission requirements for BA and part time studies - Composition

  

 

1. Main Subject

 

Classical composition exercises:                      

1 minuet

1 baroque rondo  - Couperin

1 Viennese rondo – slow or fast movement at the choice of the candidate

and

Presentation of free composition(s)

 

A) SOLFEGE-MUSIC THEORY

 

a) written part:

 

1. Notation of a two-part baroque – maybe Viennese classical -  piece by ear. The piece will be played 8-10 times. E.g. Back: Kunst der Fuge  - 10-15 measures -, the two outer parts of a Mozart or Haydn piece  - 1-2 periodes.

 

2. Notation of a one-part extract of a 20th century piece. The piece will be played 8-10 times; 6-16 measures depending on the music.

E.g.: Stravinsky: Soldier’s Tale, Oedipus rex, Bartók: Cantata profana, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Schönberg: Pierrot lunaire, Shostakovich: extract from a symphony, string quartet, etc.

 

3. Notation of an extract by ear by the following composers: Romantic – e.g. Wagner, R. Strauss – or early 20th Century – e.g. Debussy, Ravel – maybe Viennese classicist  - e.g. Mozart or Beethoven quartet. The excerpt will be played 8-10 times.

Minimal requirement: the two outer parts. Also, identification of harmonies and possibly the exact notation of the notes  - 4-12 measures, depending on the character of the music.

 

4. Notation of two harmonies of Viennese classicist style by dictation – identification of four-part chords with Roman Numerals  and notation of each note included. 8-15 measures

 

5. Choral harmonisation in Bach’s style based on a given choral melody.

 

6. Two-part – binary form – counterpoint exercise in Palestrina’s style, on the basis of Jeppesen.

 

7. Identification of instruments, keys, key signatures on three score pages of different styles

e.g.:         a) A Beethoven or Mozart symphony extract,

b) A Liszt, R. Strauss, or Wagner orchestral extract

c) A Bartók, Debussy, Schönberg, or Stravinsky orchestral piece extract

 

b) Oral part:

 

1. Sight reading of a two- or three-part baroque or renaissance piece – singing with piano – possibly by using different keys – e.g. Bach: Kunst der Fuge, Musikalisches Opfer or a piece of similar difficulty. Materials allowed to use: ”Nagy Olivér: Partitúraolvasás”. 10-15 measures

 

2. Sight reading of a one-part piece from the 20th century – e.g. Schönberg: Pierrot lunaire, a voice or instrumental part of Bartók: Cantata profana, an extract of a Berg or Webern lied; approx. 6-16 measures

 

3. Continuo sight reading – e.g. one passage of  a Bach aria – with continuo as the obligatory instrument; 20-40 beats – or performance of a piano arrangement of an opera extract on piano and voice – e.g. Wagner: Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde; Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle; Debussy: Pelléas et Melisande; Britten Opera, etc. 10-30 measures depending on the music’s character.

 

4. Clapping of a complex rhythm exercise by sight reading – following the model of Messiaen, Bartók, Stockhausen and Boulez. 10-15 measures

 

5. Harmony dictation on piano – the candidate is playing

 

6. Playing modulations on piano

 

7. Sight reading – piano; string quartet and a movement from a symphony for a smaller orchestra  - e.g. Haydn or Mozart string quartet; Haydn symphony, Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana  – intermezzo)

 

 

        B. PIANO AS COMPULSORY SUBJECT

 

 

Bach: Two pieces from the Three-part inventions or a prelude and fugue from the Woltemperiertes Klavier.

A full sonata by Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven.

Two performance pieces – one should be by Bartók or his contemporaries.

 

(Same as the admission criteria for classical instruments – organ  -, Musicology and Orchestral and Choral Conducting.)

 

        C. FOLK MUSIC

 

Informal conversation about the folk music of the candidate's country.

 
  • Admission requirements
Bartók presented an austere, forbidding front to the world and even in those years, when he was still in his mid-forties, his reputation was daunting. Although he had received little official recognition and was widely regarded as a raving radical, we music students knew exactly how important he was, and we revered him. We were fully aware that there was an authentic genious teaching at our Academy. (Sir Georg Solti)