Bachelor of Music (B.M., B.Mus., Mus.B. or Mus. Bac.) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a proficiency performing an instrument. Such a program lasts three to four and a half years.
The degree of Bachelor of Music may be awarded for music performance, music education, composition, music theory, musicology / music history, music technology, music therapy, music ministry, music business, music entertainment, music production or jazz studies. Recently, some universities have begun offering degrees in Music Composition with Technology, which encompasses traditional theory and musicology coursework, but also adds the element of engineering in a studio, and becoming proficient at full-scale studio production.
In the United Kingdom, the degree of Bachelor of Music — often referred to in speech as a B.Mus. /ˌbiː ˈmʌz/ — is generally a first degree lasting three years (or four years in Scotland) and consisting of a wide range of areas of study (normally including music performance, composition, music theory, musicology / music history), but at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge it is a one-year postgraduate degree which can only be read if a student is a graduate in music with honours at those universities; the undergraduate course is in the Faculty of Arts and leads to the degree of Bachelor of Arts (and subsequently to the degree of Master of Arts).
Famous quotes containing the words bachelor of, bachelor and/or music:
“A Bachelor of Arts is one who makes love to a lot of women, and yet has the art to remain a bachelor.”
—Helen Rowland (1875–1950)
“James Bond in his Sean Connery days ... was the first well-known bachelor on the American scene who was not a drifter or a degenerate and did not eat out of cans.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“During the cattle drives, Texas cowboy music came into national significance. Its practical purpose is well known—it was used primarily to keep the herds quiet at night, for often a ballad sung loudly and continuously enough might prevent a stampede. However, the cowboy also sang because he liked to sing.... In this music of the range and trail is “the grayness of the prairies, the mournful minor note of a Texas norther, and a rhythm that fits the gait of the cowboy’s pony.””
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)