| Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in Ethnomusicology | | Print | |
Undergraduate ProgramThe undergraduate major in Ethnomusicology provides students with a wide-ranging liberal arts education in music. At its core, this includes (1) comprehensive knowledge of music cultures of the world, (2) understanding of the interrelationship of music, society, and culture, (3) grounding in the basics of Western music theory and musicianship, and (4) the experience of playing in one or several musical ensembles from various traditions around the world. The major is offered with two concentrations: one in jazz studies with emphases in composition and performance, and one in world music with emphases in general world music, performance and/or composition, public ethnomusicology, and scholarly research. Ethnomusicology majors are also eligible to fulfill a Music Industry minor or a Visual and Performing Arts Education minor. Graduate ProgramAt the graduate level, the department offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in ethnomusicology with a specialization in systematic musicology. A graduate degree in jazz performance (M.M.) is offered through the Department of Music. Instruction in ethnomusicology tries to achieve a balance between understanding the important intellectual issues in ethnomusicology and depth of specialization in one or more of the world's music-culture areas including Africa, Europe, the Americas, west, east, south, and southeast Asia. The sounds and structure of music and musical performance are central features of faculty research and teaching, along with interpretations of the complexities of musical sound in social and cultural terms. Underlying the curriculum is a commitment to the theoretical and analytical study of music as well as to the performance of the music and involvement in its cultural context.In systematic musicology, laboratory research in acoustics, psychoacoustics, and psychology of music has focused on musical communication and expression; music, film, and animation; natural and synthetic instrument timbres; gamelan acoustics and tuning; music perception and cognition, and computer applications in music research. Philosophical work in the program is applying the insights of continental philosophers such as Hans-Georg Gadamer, Martin Heidegger, and Paul Ricoeur to music and to concepts of musical culture and tradition. |