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Languages for Music Major?


Susan in TN
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When I was in college, music performance majors had to have 8 credits of either German, French, or Italian. I was able to CLEP all my credits in German, thankfully.

 

Just wondering if these are (still?) the typical languages prefered for music degrees? Ds will have to pick a modern language soon, and take at the local community college if possible.

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As a voice major, I had to have (for college graduation) 2 yrs of either/or French, Italian or German (2 of one or 1 each of 2.) Since operas are written in those languages, it's a logical requirement. If your ds is going for a voice degree, I'd choose one of them for hs. Italian would probably be 1st choice for any music major as so much of the notation is in Italian.

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Are you talking about voice? (If so, I don't know the answer :D)

 

At my dd's college, where she is earning a bachelor of music rather than a bachelor of arts degree, the non-voice majors do not have to take any foreign language.

 

I should have clarified - probably NOT voice - more likely composition or instrumental performance.

 

Italian would be particularly nice, since he's had Latin. I'll have to look around and see if it's offered. We may have to settle for French (Oh, now I've just insulted a bunch of people. I think French is beautiful, really!)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm a musicologist, and the most valuable languages (in European music) for that field are Latin, German, and Italian. While a lot of musical terminology is in Italian, a lot of the writings about music are in Latin or German. I took French in high school as well as Latin, because it was what was recommended for a music major that my school offered, and really haven't found it useful except that between French and Latin, I could get to a reading proficiency in Italian pretty easily.

Edited by dmmetler
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I'm not in the US so I have no idea what colleges there will require but I found German most useful. Latin, French and Italian are all useful too but as Pp's have,pointed out, it's easy to gain reading proficiency in the others if you have studied one. If he has studied Latin already I would suggest he add German.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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