Degree Requirements

General 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.

Course Requirements

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.

Innovative Text

 

PHD Requirements