For More Information
Graduate Program Chair in Composition and Theory,
Eric Chasalow
Graduate Program Chair in Musicology, Allan R. Keiler
Joint MA Advisor in Music & Women's and Gender Studies, Allan R. Keiler
For more information about admissions, financial aid, and student services, please visit the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
About The Graduate Program
The department offers graduate programs in two areas: composition and theory, and musicology. The department also offers, in conjunction with the program in women's and gender studies, a joint MA in music & women's and gender studies.
Composition and Theory
The department offers three degree programs in composition and theory: M.A. (normally one year), M.F.A. (normally two years), and Ph.D (normally two or more years following the completion of M.F.A. requirements). The programs are designed to help students develop a command of the craft of composition. That objective is supported by studies in theory and analysis and in electro-acoustic music.
Musicology
The department offers three degree programs in musicology: M.A. (normally one year), M.F.A. (normally two years), and Ph.D (normally two or more years following the completion of M.F.A. requirements). The programs offer an integrated approach to the understanding of the nature, structural basis, and historical development of music. Students may elect to emphasize or concentrate in music history, or in theory and analysis. In the music history program, a variety of techniques and methodologies, including source studies, style development, and historiography, are applied to different repertories and historical problems. The theory and analysis program features work in the history of theory as well as analytic work in the context of theory construction involving the evaluation of pretonal, tonal, and contemporary analytic models. Courses consist of proseminars and seminars: proseminars survey an array of topics illustrating the representative avenues of research and methodological approaches and seminars typically concentrate on a single topic.
Music & Women's and Gender Studies
The department offers an interdisciplinary program with women's and gender studies, leading to a joint M.A. in music & women's and gender studies. Topics include feminist theory, gender studies, cultural history, and the investigation of work by and about women.