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.

Diversity of approach and breadth of expertise in the study of European and American music distinguish the graduate programs in musicology at the UW-Madison.

The M.A. program in musicology encourages graduate students to gain a broad background in musical repertories and musicological methods. Beyond a full complement of courses surveying particular periods of European music history, we offer courses in American music, popular musics, African-American music, gender studies, and performance practice. Students at the master's level are also encouraged to broaden their backgrounds in ethnomusicology and music theory, and to participate in at least two musicology seminars. The two-year program culminates in a thesis, usually an expansion of work begun as a seminar paper, as well as a comprehensive examination covering all periods of music history. A reading knowledge of German is required for the M.A. degree.

Degree Requirements

• Seminars (660-411 through 660-419, 821, 822, 660-900 level), 15 cr.
• Colloquium (660-900), 0 cr.
• Music Research Methods and Materials (660-619), 3 cr.
• Ethnomusicology (660-400 through 403 or 660-515), 3 cr.
• Masters Thesis (660-990), 2 cr.
• Graduate-level Music Theory, 3 cr.
• Electives, 7 cr.
• Language: German at intermediate level (credits and method of completion varies)