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 historical musicology, 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.

In the Ph.D. program, doctoral students immerse themselves within the various critical methodologies of the discipline, choose an area of research specialization, and pursue intensive studies in a related minor area. Recent seminars have addressed issues related to music and censorship, Isaac's Choralis Constantinus, music at the court of Frederick the Great, language models and classical music, approaches to Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, social dance in the 20th century, and music and the Harlem Renaissance. After two years of coursework, doctoral students write the preliminary examination, demonstrating detailed knowledge of a 200-year period of music history and scholarship surrounding the student's area of specialization. A reading knowledge of German and one other foreign language is required for the Ph.D. degree.

We regard teaching experience as a vital part of graduate training, and many of our students serve as Teaching Assistants at some point during their studies.

Degree Requirements

• Musicology Seminars (660-911 required each semeater; 660-821/822, 660-799), 21 cr.
• Colloquium (660-900), 0 cr. (required each semester)
• Music Research Methods and Materials (660-619), 3 cr.
• Seminar in Notation (660-923), 3 cr.
• Ethnomusicology seminar or course, 3 cr.
• Minor, 10-12 cr.
• Language: Two languages at intermediate level (credits and method of completion varies)

The purpose of the doctoral minor is to add breadth and depth to the D.M.A or Ph.D degree. To insure coherence a minor program must be approved by the appropriate department, a student's advisor, or the Director of Graduate Studies, and must include courses at the 300-level or above. Typically, a minor requires 12 credits of work.

Students have a variety of options, including completing an internal minor within the School of Music (e.g., a D.M.A. conducting student who minors in ethnomusicology or a Ph.D. in music theory who minors in clarinet performance), completing a minor in a department outside the School of Music (e.g., a D.M.A. in horn performance who minors in Women's Studies or a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology who minors in East Asian studies). Students may, in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, devise a distributed minor that brings together courses from a variety of departments around a particular topic or area of interest. For example, a D.M.A. student in voice devises a minor in vocal health that includes courses in communicative disorders, or a Ph.D. student in musicology devises a minor in Medieval History that includes courses in art history, history, and languages.