The Master of Sacred Music (MSM) degree is a two to five-year post-baccalaureate degree that combines academic and musical studies. The closure of graduate programs in organ performance across America has made the MSM increasingly the de facto degree for advanced studies in church music; MSM graduates who wish to continue their studies have the option of academic (PhD or ThD) or applied (DMA) tracks. Most MSM programs are limited to choral conducting and organ performance, as these two applied fields are the primary occupations of church music directors. Piano Performance is usually taught as a subdiscipline or acquired separately.
There are seven Master of Sacred Music programs in the United States. These programs are located at the Boston University School of Theology, College of Jewish Music's H.L. Miller Cantorial School, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion's School of Sacred Music, Emory University, Southern Methodist University, the University of Notre Dame and Yale University's Institute of Sacred Music. Boston University's program is the oldest (BU is also host to the oldest higher education program in music in the United States) and Notre Dame's is the youngest (admitting its first students for Fall 2005). An MSM program at Union Theological Seminary was dissolved when UTS' Institute of Sacred Music was dissolved and moved to Yale.
As of November 14th, 2012, Luther Seminary has ended their MSM program. Current students will be permitted to finish out their studies, but no new applicants will be accepted. This decision was made by President Richard Bliese, against the recommendations of the seminary's Educational Leadership Committee (ELC).
Read more about Master Of Sacred Music: Related Programs
Famous quotes containing the words master of, master, sacred and/or music:
“The right moment has come, which for men is the master of every deed.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)
“Be real and admirable, not as we know, but as you know. Able men do not care in what kind a man is able, so only that he is able. A master likes a master, and does not stipulate whether it be orator, artist, craftsman, or king.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair,
The midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar;
Invades the sacred hour of silent rest
And leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man: wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them! Even music may be intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and Rome, and will destroy England and America.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)