Writing - Cycle Supérieur
Information
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Name
Writing
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Cycle
Higher cycle
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Course's number of years
5 years
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ECTS
300
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Delivered diploma
Diplôme de cycle supérieur d'Écriture conferring the grade of Master
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Course objectives and content
The purpose of learning to write is to train the ear, acquire knowledge of styles and master the various techniques of musical rhetoric.
The main discipline of harmony is compulsory in order to obtain the Higher Cycle Diploma in composition. It must be supplemented by at least two other main disciplines chosen from among :
- Counterpoint
- Fugue and forms
- XVth-XVIIth century polyphony
- Twentieth- and twenty-first-century writing
Each core discipline is designed more specifically to develop the student's autonomy in the conception and realisation of a personal project.
The Higher Cycle Diploma in Writing, conferring the grade of Master (mention Très Bien, Bien or Assez Bien), is awarded to the student when he or she has obtained all of the following awards :
ECTS - The Harmony Prize 79 - A prize in two other disciplines chosen from among :
- Counterpoint
- Fugue and forms
- XVth-XVIIth century polyphony
- Twentieth- and twenty-first-century writing
78+78 - A certificate or attestation in each of the following compulsory complementary disciplines:
- Analysis B or Theoretical and applied analysis
- Introduction to orchestration
- Modern language
- Practical aspects of the profession 1 and 2
8
20
5
1
- A certificate or attestation in each of the following specific disciplines:
- Research methodology (after completing Analysis B and no later than4th year)
- Personal study work (after completing Research Methodology)
- Practical aspects of the profession 3 (after completing Practical aspects of the profession 2)
- Practical aspects of the profession 4
- Introduction to teaching methods
- Work placement
3
9
2
1
4
6- A certificate or attestation in an optional complementary discipline from among* :
- Arrangement
- Medieval counterpoint
- Keyboard harmony (A or B)
- History of music, chronological and synthetic study
- Introduction to orchestral conducting (A or B)
- Jazz (Introductory)
- Music for images (introductory)
- Complementary piano (Writing) *
- Improvised polyphony
- Sound (Introductory)
6
*Students on the keyboard improvisation programme are exempt from this additional discipline.
The2nd cycle Advanced Diploma in Writing confers a Master's degree: Cumulative honours for each of the three writing prizes correspond to points: Assez Bien = 1 point, Bien = 3 points, Très Bien = 4 points.
In the event that one of the 3 writing prizes included in the composition of the Master's-level 2nd cycle writing diploma has been obtained in June 2020, the scale for awarding the diploma mention is modified as follows: 7 or 8 points = mention Very Good; from 4 to 6 points = mention Good; less than 4 points = mention Fair.
This results in the following scale:
- Diplôme de2e cycle supérieur mention Très Bien : 10 à 12 points
- Diplôme de2e cycle supérieur mention Bien : 6 à 9 points
-2nd cycle higher diploma with distinction Assez Bien: 3 to 5 points
UNIVERSITY DEGREE
A partnership between the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris and Sorbonne University enables students from the Conservatoire who so wish, and who have been admitted to the advanced writing cycle, to obtain, together with the advanced cycle diploma from the Conservatoire and subject to fulfilling the conditions for enrolment at the university, the licence de Musique et Musicologie from Sorbonne-Université, comprising :
- Obtaining the following awards from the Paris Conservatoire:
- Two prizes in the main writing disciplines
- Certificate of Analysis B or certificate of initiation to orchestration
- Modern language certificate
- APM2 certificate
- Certificate in a complementary discipline
- Validation at the University of four 26-hour courses, spread over four semesters, chosen from the "Musicological fields" teaching units.
Registration and payment of fees at the University are required in order to follow the courses.
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French language certificate
B1
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Number of complementary disciplines to validate
0
Disciplines
Entrance exam
Writing (higher cycle)
Opening date for registration : 06 January 2025
Closing date for registration : 24 February 2025
Exam dates : 11 et 18 mai 2025
The entrance examination is common to all writing classes: Harmony, Counterpoint, Fugue and Forms, 15th - 17th century Polyphony, 20th- 21st century Writing.
Subject to the availability of places, it is possible to take several classes at the same time.
The introductory B writing exam is the same as the entrance exam for the advanced writing cycle. Passing this examination with distinction enables entry to the advanced writing cycle.
1) Mise en loge n°1 of 8 hours: given song (string quartet) in classical or romantic style;
2) Mise en loge n°2 of 12 hours
- choral (for 4 mixed voices, in the old keys), in the style of Bach ;
- and bass fugue (for 4 mixed voices, in the old keys) in the Baroque style.
Judging at the end of May, beginning of June.
Reminder: Candidates who are successful in the competition for entry to the higher cycle and who are not nationals of French-speaking countries must present, before 30 June preceding their first enrolment at the Conservatoire, a certificate issued by a body approved by the French government attesting to a level of French at least equal to B1 on the Council of Europe's scale of common reference levels.
Maximum age : 27