Ethnomusicology

Study mode:On campus Study type:Full-time Languages: English
Local:$ 35.2 k / Year(s) Foreign:$ 35.2 k / Year(s) Deadline: Dec 1, 2024
147 place StudyQA ranking:4564 Duration:2 years

Photos of university / #urochester

The Musicology Department initiated a new Master of Arts degree in Ethnomusicology in the fall of 2005. This degree provides an opportunity for students to enter the field for post-baccalaureate research and study, exposing them to the history and methodology of the discipline, while also preparing them for future study, teaching, and public sector opportunities. The program draws on the combined expertise of faculty in various departments of the Eastman School, as well as from the departments of anthropology, religious studies, visual and cultural studies, and others at the University of Rochester.

Required courses for this degree (36 credits over four semesters) include the Introduction to Ethnomusicology and Introduction to Musicology courses, a newly developed course, called Approaches to Ethnography, participation in one of our World Music Ensembles (gamelan and/or mbira ensemble), and three credits of a theory or other music elective. In addition, students take up to sixteen elective credits. An MA thesis based on original research and/or fieldwork is also required to complete the degree. Students may enter this program from a wide variety of undergraduate majors, including music, anthropology, cultural studies, and religion, among others. Or, students already enrolled in or considering another degree at Eastman can pursue the Ethnomusicology Master’s degree through a double-degree program. Given the strengths of our faculty, students can concentrate on the musics of India, Indonesia, Southern Africa, and the United States. Fieldwork will also be possible in many of these countries and regions.

Essentially an interdisciplinary degree, the Master’s in Ethnomusicology enhances the popular World Music Certificate and Ethnomusicology Programs already established at the School and reflects current emphasis on non-western musics in the performance and recording industries, as well as in public school curricula. Although housed and administered by the Musicology Department, the Ethnomusicology Advisory Committee consists of members from a number of departments at Eastman and the University of Rochester. The Advisory Committee includes Professors Tom Gibson (Anthropology, Southeast Asia); Ernestine McHugh (Anthropology and Religious Studies, South Asia); Martin Scherzinger (Musicology, Africa); Robert Morris (Composition, India); and Ellen Koskoff (Musicology, the United States, Bali, and Gender and Music), Director of Ethnomusicology Programs. Upon entering, each student will be assigned a faculty advisor from this committee who will monitor his/her progress.

Students entering the MA/PhD program can look forward to two years of wide-ranging coursework, reflecting the interests of the diverse faculty.  Recent PhD seminars include “The Motet before 1360,” “Early Music Analysis pre-1600,” “Opera in 17th-Century Venice,” “Bach Cantatas and Organ Chorales,” “Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera: Staging Body, Voice, Society,” “Music and the Cold War,” “Postmodernism,” “Music in the Himalayas,” and “Asian Classical Musics.”  Augmenting these offerings, the faculty also teaches a range of doctoral seminars designed primarily for Eastman’s DMA students but available to PhD students for elective credit.

While prominent internationally, the Musicology Department is also deeply integrated into the wider Eastman School.  Most fundamentally, we develop courses in music history to suit the curricular needs of students in all departments, from undergraduates to DMA candidates.  We have also formed partnerships with natural constituencies throughout the school.  Our “sister” department of Music Theory—a recognized leader in the field—offers a welcome complement to musicological study.  Likewise, our faculty and students regularly collaborate with performers and composers in an environment of interdisciplinarity.  Artists such as the aforementioned Paul O’Dette, Hans Davidsson (organ), and Robert D. Morris (composer) are officially affiliated with the department, while others connect on a more informal basis.  Perhaps uniquely at Eastman, musicology students may enroll in studio lessons (instrumental, vocal, or conducting) as part of their elective credit.

Indeed, at Eastman, musicology is practiced in a highly musical setting, with over seven hundred concerts a year, top-level studio teachers behind every door, and a rich slate of visiting artists and lecturers.  Worthy of special mention is the Early Music Program, with its own graduate degree offerings, brilliant faculty, and rich instrumentarium (including two fortepianos, a pedal clavichord, multiple harpsichords, and a full complement of baroque stringed instruments).  The closely allied Department of Organ and Historical Keyboards is engaged in the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI), a project to assemble and install new and historic organs in Rochester’s churches.  The recently inaugurated instrument in Christ Church, across the street from Eastman, is a widely hailed modern copy of a Bach-style organ from 1776.  For non-Western music, many Eastman students perform in one of the department’s two ensembles: the Gamelan Lila Muni (directed by Ellen Koskoff); or the Zimbabwean mbira ensemble (directed by Glenn West).

Courses at the University of Rochester

Students may also take courses outside of music at the University of Rochester River Campus and may even develop the equivalent of a “minor” in some area such as German literature, American studies, or critical and cultural theory.  We have a particularly close relationship with the History Department, where Celia Applegate and Joan Rubin have both published on musical topics and served on musicology dissertation committees.  The renowned Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies is interdisciplinary and offers cutting-edge courses in critical theory.  Based in Art and Art History, it draws faculty from English, Film Studies, Modern Languages and Cultures, and Anthropology.  The University’s Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies provides another useful resource, offering courses and workshops (and even a graduate certificate) in this field of intense interest.  The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film contains one of the most important archives of moving images in the United States, including silent films.

Requirements

  • Online Application and Application Fee
  • Personal Statement
  • Résumé or Curriculum Vitae
  • Transcripts (must represent all collegiate study)
  • Recommendations (3 required)
  • TOEFL Exam Scores & Non-Native English Essay
  • Audition
  • Pre-screening recording
  • Music Research paper – at least one music history or theory research paper demonstrating advanced analytic, scholarly, and writing abilities.
  • Interview

Scholarships

International students are considered for merit-based financial aid using the same criteria for all undergraduate applicants or graduate applicants.  International applicants who have a U.S. citizen or eligible permanent resident as a co-applicant may apply for a private loan to help bridge the gap between the students’ cost of attendance and their families resources and financial aid package. Applicants who are neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents are not eligible for federal financial aid.

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