Music


Faculty Honors Advisors

Catherine Saucier
Michael Compitello

About this opportunity

The ASU School of Music, Dance, and Theatre (SoMDT) ranks as one of the top schools in the United States and the Music area offers undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees in music. Barrett Honors College (BHC) students can choose among several degrees: BA in Music, BA in Music (Music and Culture), BA in Popular Music, BM in Performance with concentrations in solo performance (instrumental, keyboard, or voice), collaborative piano, jazz, music theatre, BM in Music Education, BM in Music Therapy, or BM in Theory and Composition (with concentrations in theory or composition) (for more details please visit: 
https://musicdancetheatre.asu.edu/degree-programs/music/undergraduate
 

Benefits of enrollment in both the SoMDT and the BHC include:

  • Priority registration for classes
  • SoMDT Honors Events
Meetings and other activities to offer BHC students an opportunity to meet SoMDT Faculty and fellow honors students.
  • Honors Enrichment Contracts offer BHC students the opportunity to go beyond given course requirements and conduct an in-depth research project involving more contact with the course instructor. BHC students should approach the course instructor about an Honors Contract at the beginning of the semester to discuss possible projects, topics and specific requirements. BHC students may also receive advice on Honors Contracts from the SoMDT Music Honors Advisor. For more information on honors contracts, visit: https://students.barretthonors.asu.edu/academics/honors-enrichment-contracts
  • Honors Enrichment Contracts are available in most music courses in the SoMDT. Examples of projects and formats include:
  • Musicology—Group or individual written or performative projects, e.g., extended research paper on a focused topic such as marginalized composers (e.g., BIPOC, female, LGBTQ+)
  • Music Theory—Extended analysis, score preparation
  • Ensembles and Individual Performance—Research paper on concert repertoire, community engagement activity around work completed in courses, audio/video recording of repertoire, pedagogical materials designed in collaboration with faculty
  • Music Therapy—Literature review, data collection method at an arts center festival

With special permission from the professor, BHC students who have completed at least 60 hours may be allowed to enroll in selected graduate courses, e.g., Music, Nature and Sustainability; Music and Film; Recycled Music; Music in Renaissance Cities; Music in New Orleans; Sound Studies; Music and Gender. For more courses, check the course catalog or consult one of the SoMDT Music Honors Advisors.

Note: It is not possible to do an honors enrichment contract in courses taught by teaching assistants, only in courses taught by regularly appointed faculty members or distinguished visitors. Further, the SoMDT does not offer honors contracts in MUS courses.

 

 

 

Thesis

The honors thesis or creative project is the capstone of a BHC student majoring in music and the student must comply with the requirements of both the SoMDT and BHC. The successful completion of an honors thesis makes students more competitive when applying to graduate programs.

BHC students must complete a BHC sanctioned thesis preparation workshop before they can register for thesis credit (492). Thesis Workshops are offered by BHC either in-person, via live-zoom and through ASU Canvas. For more information about this requirement, please visit: https://barretthonors.asu.edu/academics/thesis-and-creative-project. BHC students must register for 492: Honors Directed Study (3 credits) followed by 493: Honors Thesis (3 credits). Please choose the appropriate prefix (MHL, MTC, MUE or MUP). 

BHC students should meet with the Music Honors Advisor and SoMDT mentor to discuss their honors thesis projects and establish an Honors thesis committee. Honors thesis committees include two members and should be chaired by a regularly appointed faculty member. The second reader may be faculty or non-faculty, depending on the decision of the director of the thesis or the academic unit director.

The thesis must address music, but may intersect with other disciplines including the Visual Arts, Theater, History, Architecture, Gender and LGBTQIA Studies, and Religious Studies. The student develops their own thesis topic which should entail original scholarship. The thesis can be a written project in the style of a master's thesis, but smaller in scope. Alternatively, the thesis might be documented in a way other than writing, such as a video recording of a composition, performance, or a community outreach program shared on social media. The honors thesis or creative project cannot be simply a short extension of a paper or performance required by a class. It should be based on in-depth research.

Note: Brief program notes to accompany a senior recital is not acceptable as an Honors thesis.

A Sampling of recent Barrett Honors Theses involving Music Faculty

Carly Bates, French Vanilla: An Exploration of Biracial Identity Through Narrative Performance

Katie Sample, Stravinsky for Guitar Quartet

Tamir Mark Shargal, A Most Creative Project: Producing a Sample-Based Record

Cecilia Chou, From Harmony of the Spheres to Acoustic Ecology: Intersections of Music and Science in the Works of David Dunn and Andrea Polli

Bethany Carolyn Brown, Spectralism's Synthesis of Past Musical Traditions: New Musical Discourse and Compositional Technique

Sean Wesley McDaniel, Chronos: An Arrangement for Jazz Sextet

Lauren Sanders, Musical Guidance towards Immortality by the Greek Muses by Inspiring Awareness of Being-in-the-World as Understood through the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger

Shelbe Erin Olson, Therapeutic Clarinet Playing for the Treatment of Asthma

Alicia Raquel Villareal, Jamaican Folk Music: In the General Music Classroom

Remi Tuijl-Goode, Material Study and Preservation of Musical Scores and Ephemera in the John A. Bavicchi Archive

 

 

Academic Preparation

BHC students must complete a BHC sanctioned thesis preparation workshop before they can register for thesis credit (492). Thesis Workshops are offered by BHC either in-person, via live-zoom and through ASU Canvas. For more information about this requirement, please visit: https://barretthonors.asu.edu/academics/thesis-and-creative-project. BHC students must register for 492: Honors Directed Study (3 credits) followed by 493: Honors Thesis (3 credits). Please choose the appropriate prefix (MHL, MTC, MUE or MUP). 

BHC students should meet with the Music Honors Advisor and SoMDT mentor to discuss their honors thesis projects and establish an Honors thesis committee. 

For more information, see the specifics under "Thesis/Creative projects"

 

Recommended Timeline

The recommended timeline is two semesters.

Other Honors Opportunities

Join the research team of the Acoustic Ecology Lab http://acousticecologylab.org/

College

Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts

Campus

Multiple

Academic Unit

Music, Dance, and Theatre