The Doctor of Philosophy in Music
The PhD in Music degree program provides 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 encourages 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 draw on the specialties of UCSC music faculty and also 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 colloquia series, Music 252~Current Issues Colloquium, features presentations by faculty, students, and guests, providing an opportunity for interaction and discussion of current topics in research. Since a number of UCSC faculty in other disciplines examine musical issues in their courses, students are encouraged to supplement their studies with interdisciplinary courses.
In addition to cultural approaches to world musics, the 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
20th-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
Anatole Leikin
19th- and early 20th-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
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-credit 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 or http://language.ucsc.edu/). If the language is not offered at UCSC, the Music Graduate Committee will determine another method of testing for the requirement.
Students entering the PhD 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 PhD 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 Tuning Systems
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 and Acoustics
E. Asian Resonances in 20th-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
J. Jazz Historiography
K. Music, Gender, and Sexuality
L. John Cage: Innovation, Collaboration and Performance Technologies
Pre-qualifying reviews
At the end of the first year of study, all students accepted into the PhD 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 may prevent the student from continuing in the program.
Fourth-Quarter Research Paper
By the beginning of the fourth quarter in residence, PhD students who entered the program with a bachelor's degree, as of fall 2009 and thereafter, are required to submit a research paper of approximately 50 pages to their faculty adviser. The student will revise the paper under the supervision of the faculty adviser, and it will be evaluated at the end of the fourth quarter by the adviser and an additional member of the PhD faculty to be selected by the student and adviser. If the faculty evaluators find the paper to be unsatisfactory, the student will not be allowed to continue in the PhD program, but may apply for a terminal MA in Music degree.
Qualifying Examinations
Advancement to candidacy is contingent upon passing both written and oral examinations. The written exam will test the student's knowledge of an array of contextual topics related to her/his dissertation area. The oral examination will focus on the student’s developed expertise in her/his chosen specialization.
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
Each student completes a dissertation and presents 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. 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 5. The application is accessible at the web site http://graddiv.ucsc.edu/admissions/.
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.
Recordings 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
Additional information is available from Laura McShane, Graduate Program Coordinator, at gradmusic@ucsc.edu or (831) 459-3199. |
