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Quiz Show (Composer Ph.D. Edition)
By Colin Holter

Wednesday, December 02, 2009, 10:27:04 AM

I'm reaching the point in my terminal degree studies where the specter of a preliminary oral examination is beginning to loom. It's still a year or two off, I expect, but I'm already beginning to sweat—spurred, no doubt, by a horror story from one of my colleagues. On a dark and stormy morning not too long ago, my composer friend entered the Chamber of Questions and was struck without warning by this completely unexpected salvo: Name as many pieces as you can in the key of C major.

Go ahead, give it a shot. You can probably name quite a few: After all, you're sitting in front of your computer, drinking a cup of coffee, luxuriating in a gap in your Wednesday schedule and surfing the new music blogosphere. In fact, if I weren't making sure to add this disclaimer, I'm sure some of you would chime in with comments about how many pieces in C major you can cite off the top of your head. I'm sure you can name a whole bunch.

But imagine you're in front of a jury of your superiors, confronted with a question that has almost no relevance whatever to your field of contemporary music, that you must answer or face a setback that will cost you years and quite possibly tens of thousands of dollars to overcome. When my friend busted this gem out on me after his exam, I was tongue-tied—I only named three pieces!—so I shudder to think what would have happened had I been in the hot seat for reals.

Am I the only grad student terrified at being sunk by a question like this? "Name as many pieces as you can from the past ten years"; "Name as many pieces as you can for Pierrot ensemble with or without substitutions"; "Name as many pieces as you can with parametric staves"—these I could deal with. But C major?! Never in a million years would I have expected to be hit with that kind of challenge.

{fluster}
By pgblu

This calls for the godlike calm and mighty intellectual capacity of Jupiter!

Most faculty members have some patience with the jitters. I once had an oral exam situation where I asked the student how long the principal theme of the piece in question was. All I got was silence. Then I asked where the theme begins.

"Measure 1."

And where does it end?

"Measure... 10."

So how long is the first theme?

Silence.

I'm sure you'll do fine, Colin.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009, 12:28:42 PM

Here's How It's Done
By Tom Myron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxoa02CK5NA

Thursday, December 03, 2009, 12:46:25 PM

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