Composition and Music Theory

The composition faculty teach individual composition lessons at two levels: 025:179 Composition, primarily for undergraduate composition students working toward the Bachelor of Music degree; and 025:223 Advanced Composition, for graduate composers in the M.A. and Ph.D. programs. The area also offers 025:155 Composition, a composition class open to music undergraduates.

Professor Lawrence Fritts directs the Electronic Music Studios, and teaches a two-course sequence in composition with electronic media (25:250 & 251). All composition students participate in a weekly composition seminar (25:156), a forum for occasional guest speakers and for student presentations.

Both the student-run Composers Workshop and the Electronic Music Studios present concerts of works by composition students in Clapp Recital Hall. Composition students and faculty also participate in the Midwest Composers Symposium, which meets annually at one of several member institutions for two days of concerts of music by student composers.

The Center for New Music, directed by Professor David Gompper, presents a number of concerts of contemporary music each semester, often including thesis compositions by student composers. See the Center’s webpage for program information.

The Henry and Parker Pelzer Prize in Composition is awarded annually to a graduate student in composition who demonstrates substantial creative achievement.

In addition to the undergraduate musicianship core courses, the theory faculty involve graduate students in cutting-edge research on the history of music theory, transformational theory, and modal theory. We also offer a theory pedagogy minor that prepares students for teaching college-level music theory.  A weekly colloquium lecture series, presented in collaboration with the musicology area, provides a forum for distinguished guest speakers as well as our own faculty and students to share their recent research. (See the schedule for the current term here).

Composition and Theory Faculty

Admissions and Degree Requirements

Catalog and Course Listings

Contact Information

For more information on the theory and composition area at The University of Iowa, please contact David Gompper at (319) 335-1626, or david-gompper@uiowa.edu.

Last updated 7-nov-07