Graduate studies in music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison provide students with a supportive environment within which to pursue imaginative research. Our degree programs in music history, ethnomusicology, and music theory are small and flexible, offering rigorous and comprehensive instruction in each of the three musicologies grounded on a close interaction and cooperation among graduate students and their faculty colleagues. At the same time, interconnections between the three graduate programs introduce students to a broad range of musical practices and different methodologies. Our commitment to interdisciplinary research encourages students to develop original approaches to music drawing on recent musicological and theoretical initiatives. The curriculum is innovative and wide-ranging, with course offerings in archival and source studies, notation, the construction of music theories, genre, influence and reception, performance practice, race and gender, music criticism, music as intellectual history, and music as social practice. Graduate students may also complement their music studies with courses in a wide range of related disciplines that—at the doctoral level—constitute the minor. Within the School of Music possible minors include performance, composition, and music education. Other possible minors include anthropology, area studies, international studies, women's studies, Afro-American Studies, artificial intelligence and computer science, cognitive psychology, linguistics, curriculum and instruction, philosophy, comparative literature, critical and cultural studies (through the Havens Center for Social Research), history, art history, history of science, and theater and drama. In all cases, our graduate programs seek both to deepen and widen the domain of musical discourse and to encourage students to follow their own intellectual inclinations and to discover their own musical voices. Students are encouraged to become active in their chosen fields at the regional and national level.


Course work at the master's level explores the major themes of ethnomusicological investigation and presents tools necessary for scholarly research. Students also pursue studies in related musical and cultural disciplines and are encouraged to gain practical experience in the program's two musical ensembles—Javanese gamelan and Kiganda (East African) xylophone. A master's thesis and reading knowledge of one foreign language are required.

Degree Requirements

• Ethnomusicology seminars and lecture courses (for example 660-915: Seminar in Ethnomusicology; or approved substitutions), 12 cr.
• Cultural Theory, 3 cr.
• Master's Thesis (660-990), 3 cr.
• Bibliography or research methods course (660-619 or 660-720), 3 cr.
• Music History of Music Theory, 3 cr.
• Language: one language at intermediate level (reading knowledge of German or French; or field language)
• Electives, 6 cr.
• Colloquium (660-900), 0 cr. (required each semester)