We are pleased to announce the establishment of the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Music with an emphasis in cross-cultural studies, which admitedt its first students in Fall Quarter 2007. The program's aim is to provide doctoral students with an integrative framework for music scholarship, emphasizing the ways in which musicology and ethnomusicology interact and complement one another.
A series of required courses will encourage students to discover commonalities and distinctions among the world's music cultures through an examination of cross-cutting parameters, including but not limited to: pitch and rhythm systems; the relationship of music to text, dance, religion, gender, and politics; and issues of ethnography. Students will also select from a series of more specialized courses that, while drawing on the specialties of the UCSC music faculty, will involve cross-cultural or interdisciplinary elements. Examples of such courses include Performance Theory and Practice;Pitch, Melody, and Tunings ; Asian Resonances in Twentieth-Century American and European Music;Music and Ideology;Politics and Patronage, and others. An ongoing Current Issues Colloquium features presentations by faculty, students, and guests, providing an opportunity for interaction and discussion of current topics. Since a number of non-music faculty at UCSC examine musical issues in their courses, students will also be strongly encouraged to supplement their coursework with classes from outside the department.
In addition to cultural approaches to world musics, the new program also encourages the integration of scholarly research with musical performance, emphasizing the ways in which performance serves both rhetorical and symbolic ends within various cultural settings. To this end the concept of “performance practice” plays a significant role in this program, given that the concept of historically or culturally informed performances is applicable to music from the earliest times to the present day in all geographical and cultural regions, and can encompass research activities as diverse as fieldwork, historical editing, and recording, as well as publishing of books and articles on compositional and performance traditions.
Specialists on the UCSC faculty include:
Amy C. Beal (twentieth-century American music; experimental music, post-1945)
Linda Burman-Hall (Baroque music, Indonesian music, performance practices, theory)
Benjamin Carson (cognitive musicology; music and identity)
Karlton Hester (spontaneous and premeditated composition of the African diaspora)
Edward Houghton (15th and 16th century polyphony, performance of early music)
Anatole Leikin (nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European music)
Fredric Lieberman (American vernacular traditions)
Tanya Merchant (musics of Central Asia and the former Soviet Union, music and gender, Baroque music; nationalism, globalization, and institutionalization of music)
Leta Miller (20th-century American experimental music, 16th-century chanson, madrigal, and C.P.E. Bach)
Dard Neuman (20th-century Hindustani music: musicians, colonialism, nationalism, technology and pedagogy)
John Schechter (Latin American and American Indian musics, music and discourse)
Nina Treadwell (Italian Renaissance and early Baroque music, gender and music)
Degree Requirements
Students must be in residence for a minimum of six quarters, and take at least two five-unit courses per quarter, plus the two-unit Current Issues Colloquium (Music 252) each quarter in residence (for a total of 72 units of coursework without dissertation).
Upon entering the program at the beginning of fall quarter, students take a diagnostic exam that covers historical, theoretical, and analytical skills. Based on assessment of this exam, some students may be required to complete some undergraduate or master's-level music courses.
Entering students are expected to have current reading knowledge of at least one foreign language, and are required to submit evidence of at least one year of enrollment in that language or to demonstrate advanced reading knowledge of the language. In addition, students admitted to the program will be required to demonstrate upon entrance, or to acquire during their first year, reading knowledge of a second foreign language relevant to their area of interest. Knowledge of a language is demonstrated by placing out of level 3 (equivalent to one year's study) on the UCSC Language Placement Exam (information is available from the Language Program at (831) 459-2054, http://lang2.ucsc.edu/new_lang/). If the language is not offered at UCSC, the Music Graduate Committee will determine another method of testing for the requirement.
Students admitted to the PhD program directly from the bachelor's degree will be required to complete the department's MA degree first (with the exception of the master's recital). Students admitted to the program with a master's degree could hold an MA or MM in instrumental or vocal performance, conducting, musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, or composition.
Students entering the Ph.D. program with a bachelor's degree are required to complete the following courses:
Music 200: Introduction to Research Methods
Music 201: Pre-tonal and Tonal Analysis
Music 202: Tonal and Post-tonal Analysis
Three courses selected from Music 253 (see below)
Three courses selected from Music 254(see below)
Three courses selected from Music 203A-H: Special Topics in Performance Practice
(Music 206D: Music Perception and Cognition, or a course from the Music 254 series, may each substitute for one of the 203 seminars)
Music 252: Current Issues Colloquium (during each quarter of residence)
Music 299: Thesis Research
Students entering the Ph.D. program with a master’s degree are required to complete the following courses:
Three courses selected from Music 253(see below)
Three courses selected from Music 254(see below)
Music 252: Current Issues Colloquium (during each quarter of residence)
Music 299: Thesis Research
In addition, students are required to complete at least 30 additional course units selected from other graduate courses in music, or courses from other departments on campus, suited to their special areas of concentration.
Music 253: Interdisciplinary and Cross-Cultural Approaches to Musical Systems
A. Pitch, Melody, and Tunings
B. Rhythm, Time, and Form
C. Music and Discourse
D. Issues in the Ethnography of Music
Music 254: Special Topics in Musicology and Ethnomusicology
A. Transcription
B. Approaches to Musicology/Ethnomusicology
C. Performance Theory and Practice
D. Organology
E. Asian Resonances in Twentieth-Century American and European Music
F. Music and Ideology
G. Politics and Patronage
H. Music Production, Indigeneity, and Transculturation
I. Empirical Approaches to Art Information
Pre-qualifying reviews
At the end of the first year of study, all students accepted into the Ph.D. program will submit a brief report on work completed during that year. This report will inform a consideration by the music faculty of the student’s status in the graduate program. In most cases, faculty will simply offer comments and suggestions to be communicated to the student either directly or through the student’s adviser. However, if progress is minimal, faculty reserve the right to terminate student’s enrollment in the program.
Qualifying Examinations
Advancement to candidacy is contingent upon passing both written and oral examinations. The written qualifying exam will be administered at the conclusion of the student’s second year in residence and will test knowledge absorbed through the two years of coursework as well as material in the student’s field of concentration. The oral examination will focus on the student’s developed expertise in her/his chosen specialization. Students must be registered in the quarter they take their qualifying examination.
The written exam will test the student's knowledge of an array of contextual topics related to her/his dissertation area.
Advancement to candidacy will be granted upon notice of having passed the oral and written examinations, acceptance of the Dissertation Reading Committee form, and satisfactory completion of coursework and foreign language requirements.
Dissertation
To satisfy requirements for the degree, a student must complete a dissertation and present a related formal lecture or lecture-recital. The dissertation must embody substantial and original scholarly work based on a clearly distinguishable contemporary or historical music-cultural tradition, in any music-culture(s) of the world in which the UCSC program offers expertise. The public lecture or performance must demonstrate the student’s grasp of the pertinent music-cultural performance tradition or music-cultural and/or music-historical concepts.
Final Examination
The final examination will be an oral defense of the dissertation open to the university faculty. Successful completion of this exam will be determined by a majority vote of the Dissertation Reading Committee.
Application and Admission
Applicants are expected to have completed a bachelor's degree in music, or an MA or MM in instrumental or vocal performance, conducting, musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, or composition. Students seeking admission to the PhD program in music must demonstrate the potential for both original scholarship and excellence in classroom teaching. Applicants will be evaluated on the basis of: success in undergraduate and/or master's level coursework in music history, ethnomusicology, and theory; skills in verbal communication that suggest promise of a successful publishing career in music, and strong work in the classroom; and the intersection of their subspecialty interest with the expertise of the UCSC faculty.
Applications are limited to programs of study beginning in fall quarter. The deadline for receipt of applications and other required materials is January 15. The application is accessible at the web site https://apply.embark.com/Grad/UCSantaCruz/78/.
Admission to the program is based on assessment of the application and the following required materials:
- Three letters of recommendation
- Transcripts of undergraduate and graduate work
- Scores for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test
- Writing sample:
a. Applicants who have completed a bachelor's degree are required to submit a writing sample (e.g., term paper, senior thesis, or other class paper).
b. Applicants who have completed a master's degree are required to submit a writing sample of substantial length (e.g., an excerpt from a master's thesis or a set of class research papers).
Applicants may also submit optional materials demonstrating musical skills (e.g., compositions, a performance or lecture-recital on CD, DVD, VHS, etc.)
Applicants whose primary language is not English must take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and attain a minimum score of 550 on the paper test, or 220 on the computer test, or 83 on the on-line test.
Videotapes, audiocassettes, CDs, DVDs, scores, and other application materials are nonreturnable.
Material(s) should be submitted to the following address:
UC Santa Cruz
Music Department
Graduate Adviser
Music Center
1156 High St.
Santa Cruz CA 95064
Please contact Yalenda Listmann at yalenda@ucsc.edu or (831) 459-3199 for additional information about the program. |
