Timeline for Lecture-recital and Supporting Document (DMA)

Selection of the Final Project Advisor

The selection of a dissertation/document/lecture-recital advisor is one of the most important decisions of your graduate career. The advisor most likely serves as your primary mentor during the progress of your degree and oftentimes throughout your professional career. For students in performance degrees the advisor is the primary teacher with whom you study.
• You should select your advisor no later than the end of your first year of study.
• The Area Chair will guide your selection of your advisor.
• Consult the following document for guidelines and appropriate expectations you can have of your faculty advisor: Guidelines for Graduate Student Advising and Mentoring Relationships
• Consult with your advisor to develop a proposal and for information about the format and scope of your dissertation, document, and/or lecture-recital proposal research.
• Your advisor will coordinate your dissertation/document/lecture-recital efforts and give you regular feedback on your progress toward a successful conclusion.
• Consult with the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies if it becomes necessary to change your primary advisor.

1-2 YEARS PRIOR TO THE DEFENSE

It is to your advantage (though certainly not required) to develop some general ideas about your lecture-recital/document topic early in your DMA studies. Prior to registering for your third semester of study you are required to schedule a meeting with your guidance committee to determine your specific curriculum (Guidance Committee Report).

During those meetings it is helpful to discuss possible topics so that your required coursework can provide “support” for those topics. It is particularly helpful to have some ideas about possible topics prior to taking MUS 830, because you will actually research and write a proposal during this class.

The major professor, as chair of the guidance committee, has primary responsibility to oversee work on the lecture-recitals and scholarly paper. History and theory representatives also play an active role in the development of the proposal and in shaping the focus and content of the lecture-recital. Overseeing the supporting scholarly paper is the responsibility of the major professor, who will determine its scope and content.

As you formulate a topic, you should discuss it with your major professor and with members of your guidance committee to garner their support and gain their insights AND to see if there are strenuous objections to it.

9-12 MONTHS PRIOR TO DEFENSE

Once the members of your guidance committee have agreed to the topic, you should commence work on the proposal itself. In consultation with your major professor, you should determine one person on your committee who will advise you in writing the proposal. This can be your major professor or the music history or music theory representative on your guidance committee. (This is not something the history or theory faculty are required to do automatically. You should consult with your major professor and then, if appropriate, speak to the history or theory faculty member in person, not via email.) It is also most appropriate to seek guidance from other committee members at this point, but you should avoid having multiple advisors, each of whom is looking at drafts of your proposal. A helpful guide to writing the proposal can be found at https://music.msu.edu/resource/mm-dma-documents-and-lecture-recitals/.

It will likely be necessary for you to produce several (3-5) drafts of your proposal before it is ready to be sent to the full guidance committee. When you submit a draft of your proposal to your advisor, you should anticipate at least a two-week “turn-around time.” Particularly after the mid-point of spring semester, your advisor may inform you that it will take significantly longer to return the proposal. It is your responsibility to build this turn-around time into your timetable.

7-8 MONTHS PRIOR TO DEFENSE

Once your proposal advisor has determined that the proposal is ready to be sent to the committee, you should seek the “OK” of your major professor if they are not acting as the advisor. You should then email the final version of the proposal to all committee members and request their approval. This email should contain a brief reminder about when you hope to defend your lecture-recital and document. Ask each committee member to REPLY ALL and either approve the proposal as is or provide suggestions for improvement. Once you have your completed Proposal Acceptance Form, turn it in to the Graduate Office, #207 MPB.

This form can be signed electronically or in-person. E-mail approvals are no longer acceptable. Again, you should anticipate at least a two-week “turn-around time.” Remember that it is possible that one or more members of your committee will require you to make changes and this could add as much as a month, so be sure to build this into your timetable.

6-7 MONTHS PRIOR TO DEFENSE

The guidance committee must approve the proposal at least six months in advance of the defense, but you should seek to gain the approval of all committee members well in advance of that deadline.

Discuss with your advisor, how s/he would like to handle the various drafts of the document. Do they want to read each chapter as it is completed? Do they want to wait until the entire document is finished? Etc. You should anticipate at least a 2-3 week “turn-around time” with each submission, more if it is a particularly busy time of the year for your advisor. It is likely that your document will need to undergo several revisions before it is ready to be sent to the entire committee. Build each of these factors into your planning. It is generally not a good idea to share preliminary drafts of your document with committee members other than your advisor. This can sometimes lead to confusion.

1 MONTH PRIOR TO DEFENSE

Once your advisor has approved the final draft of your document, you should submit it to all guidance committee members. This must be done no later than one month prior to your defense.

At the same time, you should schedule a defense. (It might be a good idea to begin scheduling the defense IN ADVANCE of submitting your document to the committee, particularly if you are defending during the last part of spring semester.) This is your responsibility. Plan on 90 minutes for a lecture-recital/document defense. You should consider your own schedule and room availability in the College to determine a large number of potential times for your defense. Then send an email to the committee asking for their availability during those times. You must understand that faculty have complicated schedules and that successfully scheduling your defense may take a number of emails back and forth. Once all have agreed on a date and time, you should send a confirmation email to each committee member.

1 WEEK PRIOR TO DEFENSE

You should send each committee member an email reminder with date, time, and location of the defense. You should also send them a second reminder one or two days prior to the defense.

THE DEFENSE

The format of the defense begins with a presentation to the guidance committee of the lecture-recital itself. The student should communicate meaningfully about the music to the audience by both speaking and playing. The student may speak from an outline, note cards, or Powerpoint (strongly encouraged) but should not read the lecture. The musical performance need not be memorized. The lecture-recital should be approximately 60 minutes in length, more or less evenly divided between the lecture and the music. The musical performance may follow the lecture or may be interspersed throughout. The student must be prepared to perform all of the music, but may, at the discretion of the committee, be asked to perform only representative excerpts. Following the lecture-recital presentation the committee will likely have questions and suggestions both about the content and the presentation. They will likely also have comments and suggestions about the document. The student should be prepared to respond to questions in a coherent, thoughtful, and organized manner.

The student should provide a copy of the appropriate Defense form to the committee. It is the responsibility of the student to return one signed form to the Graduate Office. This may be in paper format or sent through e-mail to musgrad@msu.edu.

AFTER THE DEFENSE

If the lecture-recital is approved at the defense, the student may then proceed to the public performance of the lecture-recital. This may be done on or off campus; members of the guidance committee are not required to attend. As with other degree recitals, the front office will produce a program if requested. The student is responsible for ensuring that an audio recording of the performance is made and submitted to the Graduate Office. The front office will provide a copy of the program to the Graduate Studies Office. Student must upload their recording(s) using FileDepot. Directions are on our website. If the lecture-recital is not approved at the defense, the chair of the committee will instruct the student as to next steps.

At the defense, the committee will either approve the document as is, approve the document subject to changes to be made and approved by the advisor, or ask to see a revised copy of the document. Consult with your advisor after the defense as to the status of your document.

Once the document has been approved by all committee members, you must submit one pdf copy of the final version to the College of Music Graduate Office. You do NOT need to submit a copy to the Graduate School. As a courtesy, you should also provide a copy to your advisor and any other committee member who requests a copy.

Alternatives to the ‘Lecture-Recital’ option

Beginning Fall 2022, the College will pilot a program that implements an expanded definition of ‘lecture recital’. This will allow students to substitute alternatives such as a pedagogical presentation, a series of pedagogical or stylistic videos, development of a website that has scholarly and performance components, a professional level recording with a scholarly component, etc. In all cases the presentation must contain both a scholarly and a performance component.

For the purpose of implementing this pilot program, the following language will apply.

i. A presentation supported by a scholarly paper. The presentation may take the form of a traditional lecture-recital or an alternative format appropriate to the individual discipline and approved by the student’s guidance committee. The presentation must be given first to the guidance committee as part of an oral examination, which will be a defense of the presentation and the paper. Following a successful oral examination, the presentation must be given to the public.
ii. Two presentations on discrete topics. Each presentation may take the form of a traditional lecture-recital or an alternative format appropriate to the individual discipline and approved by the student’s guidance committee. Each presentation must be given first to the student’s guidance committee as part of an oral examination. Following a successful oral examination, each presentation must be given to the public.