In addition to providing history instruction to all music students, the music history division offers an MA in musicology.
This program prepares students to be teachers and scholars who will promote musical understanding and appreciation for the arts. Students are expected to add to the body of research that has increased understanding of the history, practice, sociology, and aesthetics of the cultural heritage of Western (and to a lesser degree non-Western) music. This effort should also increase awareness of cultural and historical diversity represented in concert programs and recordings.
Faculty specialties include jazz studies (Brian Harker), ethnomusicology (Jeremy Grimshaw), Romantic music (Steven Johnson and David Day), twentieth-century music (Steven Johnson and Jeremy Grimshaw), the intersection of classical music in popular culture (Luke Howard), and library research (David Day).
Past graduate students have gone on to doctoral work at Brandeis, Florida State, and other schools.
The Graduate Program in Music offers both MA and PhD degrees in broadly defined research areas that include composition, ethnomusicology,...
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Learn MoreThe PhD in Music offers exemplary academic training in music studies. Our doctoral program is extremely diverse, welcoming students from...
Learn MoreThe Master of Arts in Music, Music History and Literature permits a breadth of advanced study and an area of...
Learn MoreEncompassing much more than music history, the Musicology Program at Northwestern approaches music as a social activity shaped by aesthetic...
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