MMus Composition

To support success in graduate studies, all incoming graduate students are required to complete the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS) Academic Integrity Module in order to progress beyond the first term of their degree. Eligible students can access the module in the Graduate Student Web Services Portal

This module is designed to provide you with the necessary knowledge and resources to abide by academic principles during your graduate career and to help combat scholastic offenses. After reviewing the material and finishing the readings, students are required to complete both a multiple-choice assessment and a series of short case studies to evaluate their knowledge of academic integrity. Students have unlimited opportunities to pass the module. Students who do not complete the module will not be able to progress beyond the first term of their degree.

By the end of the second term students should identify a thesis supervisor.

During the third term, students should work with the thesis supervisor to identify the genre, instrumental media, organization, and length of the thesis composition and work toward preparing the thesis proposal.

By the end of the fourth term, following approval by the thesis supervisor and second reader, the thesis proposal should be submitted to the Graduate Committee through the Associate Dean (Graduate Studies) for final approval.

• MMus Thesis Proposal Guidelines

The thesis for the MMus in Composition is an original composition, usually 10-15 minutes in duration. The duration of the composition may vary depending on several factors including the instrumentation and complexity of the work and must be approved by the thesis supervisor. 

By the end of the fifth term the thesis should be submitted and successfully defended.

All procedures and formatting found in the School of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies' (SGPS) Thesis Regulation Guide must be followed in the preparation of a thesis.

Please note the deadlines set by SGPS for thesis submission and scheduling of the defense.

Note about recordings: A recording of the thesis composition is not required. However, many students arrange to have a recorded reading of their composition, and the reading or performance often takes place later than the deadline for thesis submission set by SGPS. Be sure to understand that you must submit your thesis by the SGPS deadline, regardless of whether you have a recording of your composition. You may provide a digital recording at the time of submission, and if a live recording is made after the submission, you may make that available to the thesis examiners. (Any recording must be submitted to the Graduate Program Assistant.)