Graduate Entrance Examination in Music History and Literature

All new graduate students entering the IU School of Music take the Graduate Entrance Examination in Music History & Literature (GEE:MH&L) and the Music Theory Graduate Proficiency Examination at the start of their first term of residence. The exam evaluates a student's preparation for graduate-level course work at IU.

The GEE:MH&L reflects the course requirements of the basic one-year undergraduate survey of music history and literature at IU (namely, M401-02 [4-4 cr.]). Entering graduate students should take note of the fact that this basic undergraduate survey is preceded by a 15 credit-hour prerequisite in music literature and structure, which means that the IU undergraduate takes the survey during his/her junior and/or senior years. Given the 15 credit-hour prerequisite, the course at IU is probably taught at a higher level than that of similar courses taught at other schools during a student's freshman and/or sophomore years.

The survey at IU strives for balance throughout the span of Western music history, a fact reflected in the structure of the GEE:MH&L. An entering graduate student who scores below 54 points (C) on either part of the GEE:MH&L will be required to pass graduate review courses in music history and literature before being permitted to register for graduate music history and literature courses specified by his/her graduate degree curriculum.

The GEE:MH&L is divided into two parts that correspond to the traditional two-semester division of undergraduate music history courses, Part 1 covering Antiquity to the death of J.S. Bach and Part 2 covering the Pre-Classic period to the 1980s. The examination consists of multiple-choice questions about music history, literature, and style, and it includes both recorded and score examples of music from the full chronological range of Western music. The answers to the multiple-choice questions are recorded on machine-gradable sheets.

Review for the GEE:MH&L might best be accomplished by reviewing class notes, text books, and anthologies of scores and audio recordings studied in undergraduate music history and literature courses. The required text for these courses at IU has generally been Grout's A History of Western Music (latest ed.), along with the scores and recordings of the Norton Anthology of Western Music, the latter supplemented by various additional scores and recordings as specified by individual instructors. It is advisable to keep scores and recordings of representative works at the center of one's reviewing, since the GEE:MH&L places great store by a student's ability to relate the facts of music history and literature to specific examples of music.