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The Senior Project is the culmination of your undergraduate music training at ESU. It should represent your highest aspirations, showing your readiness to pursue music at subsequently higher levels (e.g., graduate school study, professional, etc.).
The Senior Project is expected to entail a field in which you have experienced significant gains during your undergraduate study. It is NOT a time to explore completely new venues, but rather to pursue on a new, higher level those pursuits of which you are already quite proficient. The project should emphasize specialization more than broad versatility.
Listed below are different approaches to the Senior Project for music majors:
Performance Recital
The performance recital should consist of a live concert on campus in which you are the featured performer on your applied instrument or voice. The music in which you are the featured performer should be no less than 30 minutes in length (this does not include pauses between sets or intermission), and should consist mostly of music not performed in previous semesters by you. You are required to provide detailed printed program notes about each work and composer (in addition, singers will provide printed translations for all songs in foreign languages). You must have been taking applied lessons with a faculty member (or an instructor approved by the dept. chair) for at least four consecutive semesters at ESU, including the semester of the recital, and have the express approval of your applied instructor. A performance recital is the required Senior Project for all music majors with a performance emphasis.
Lecture Presentation
The lecture presentation features you as the speaker and presenter of a public lecture on campus of an advanced music research topic approved by the music faculty. In the presentation you will be expected to augment your spoken lecture through the use of recordings, live performances (by you or others), and visual aids. The presentation should be at least 60 minutes in length, of which no less than 30 minutes shall consist of your spoken portion. After the lecture presentation, you will submit your lecture notes to the faculty in Microsoft Word or RTF format via e-mail attachment.
Conducting
You will rehearse and conduct a major work (or several short works) with the ESU Concert Band, Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, Woodwind Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, Concert Choir or A Cappella Ensemble at one of their regular concerts on campus. You are required to provide detailed printed program notes about each work and composer (in addition, printed translations will be included for all choral works in foreign languages). You will also be required to submit a detailed journal of your preparation/rehearsal experiences (submitted to the faculty in Microsoft Word or RTF format via e-mail attachment). This project is done in consultation with the ensemble's Director, and with his/her express approval. You must have successfully completed a college-level course in conducting prior to undertaking this project.
Research Paper
The research paper will cover an advanced music topic approved by the music faculty. The paper will reflect in-depth scholarly research, and should be no less than 60 single-side typed pages (not including the mandatory cover page, table of contents, and bibliography). The pages will consist of size-12 Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins on all four sides. The bibliography may not include more than 25% internet sources, none of which may be from Wikipedia. In addition to the printed hard copy, you will submit your paper to the faculty in Microsoft Word or RTF format via e-mail attachment.
Composition
As ESU does not offer courses in music composition, projects centered around new, original pieces by the student will not be considered.
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