A Canadian university scraps music degree
NewsMcMaster University, a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, has abolished its music degrees.
The degree course began in 1965. The university administration underfunded Music programmes for 40 years, closing its MA program in 2006, according to Paul Rapoport, who taught there from 1977 to 2005 and was Chairman of the Music Department in 1994–95. Now the bachelor degree has also been abolished.
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Here’s the official version:
Effective immediately, the Music I program will be suspending admissions for the September 2024 intake as the program undergoes a redesign.
Prospective applicants with an interest in pursuing a degree in Music are encouraged to apply to Humanities I. Interested applicants can take relevant courses within this program to work towards obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Music. Please note, auditions are not required for this program.
As may be seen from the above, there may remain a watered-down bachelor’s degree with some music in it, which will not attract musicians. This closing is the second in recent months, after the same city’s community college ended its music programme.
Doesn’t leave those who for whatever reason would prefer to study in Hamilton many options.
Has there been much public reaction? I am well ware of McMaster’s great strengths in many areas but, in fairness, it comes as news to me that it even offered a music degree.
Liszt scholar Alan Walker has taught there for many years.
From 1971 to 1995, yes.
I presume a move like this follows the observation that the program wasn’t drawing many students anyway. Not enough to justify the faculty such a program requires.
It sounds like this was a performance or performance-adjacent degree. There are more of those than the market can bear and a student interested in one still has numerous places to turn to.
Bachelor’s degree without audition sounds like a German musicology degree.
One might justify no audition if there were no performing in the degree and there were a nearby conservatory for performance with which the university cooperated. Neither is true. The new, diluted program is not for musicians, nor for musicologists, theorists, etc.
The lack of audition comes simply from the political position that ability, talent, and skill are Elitist and undesirable.