Ethnomusicology

<p>Does anyone know of any schools (small preferred) that have a good reputation for music history/ musicology/ ethnomusicology (nnnnnnnooooooottttttttt performance)?
Or know of any colleges with both a respected music and history program with opportunity for interdisciplinary studies or things of that nature?</p>

<p>The best of its kind used to be Wesleyan (which also has a graduate program in same).</p>

<p>Most liberal arts colleges have a single professor in ethno. The Five-Colleges Consortium (Amherst, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Hampshire, UMass) expands the range of offerings available.</p>

<p>Awesome- Thank you mini.</p>

<p>oh. Look for schools that offer Dance Performance as a major. They offer subdisciplines in the fields exactly as you mentioned above. For specific schools though, I don't know. :)</p>

<p>I second Wesleyan. It's exactly what you're looking for. If you're willing to consider a big school, look into UCLA. Its ethnomusicology department is preeminent.</p>

<p>It's another larger school, but Penn's music department is also preeminent in the areas you listed--e.g., it was ranked in the top 10 in the country in the highly regarded National Research Council (NRC) rankings.</p>

<p>And in terms of interdisciplinary studies, the opportunities at Penn are unparalleled. Penn's vaunted "One University" policy strongly encourages undergrads to take courses in more than one of the four undergrad schools (College of Arts and Sciences, Wharton, Engineering, and Nursing), AND in most of the graduate/professional schools (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Law School, Annenberg School for Communication, School of Design, Graduate School of Education, School of Social Policy and Practice, etc.), without the need for any special dispensation. Also, Penn offers an amazing array of interdisciplinary programs for undergrads (e.g., Africana Studies; Asian American Studies; Biological Basis of Behavior; Cognitive Science; Gender, Culture, and Society; Health and Societies; Philosophy, Politics, and Economics; Science, Technology, and Society; and Visual Studies--just to name a few :) ).</p>

<p>I know someone who turned down Oberlin to go to Wesleyan and major in ethnomusicology.</p>

<p>The larger programs (apart from Stanford, which has no ethno) are more likely to have good ethno departments.
Chicago is excellent (Philip Bohlman); Harvard, Columbia, UCLA, UC Berkeley.</p>

<p>collegeboard lists the following schools offering that major:
bennington
brown
cal state-san bernardino
college of santa fe
columbia
northwestern
texas a&m
tufts
u. british columbia (vancouver)
ucla
u denver
u kansas
u washington</p>

<p>This page on the web site of the Society for Ethnomusicology might be helpful:</p>

<p>SEM</a> - Guide to Programs</p>

<p>You guys are unbelievably helpful. :) Now to decide if I should drop "quality" of department vs small class sizes...</p>

<p>Even in the biggest schools, most ethno classes will not be all that big. There aren't that many music majors. Moreover, in most colleges, the undergraduate major is a general music major, that includes history, ethno, theory, musicianship, performance (including gamelan). UCLA is one exception to that general set-up, with its ethno + jazz performance in a separate department and school from music history and classical performance.
As to the smaller schools: If you are interested in jazz, Oberlin is expanding the program, building a new facility for its jazz program, with an extensive library; it also has a jazz performance program.
For world music, Wesleyan has an impressive-looking program.</p>

<p>The moment I saw the thread I thought of Wesleyan since I just visited it. But yeah. That was touched upon =P</p>

<p>I love that gong at Wesleyan from our campus tour. When someone asks about Ethnomusicology, I think first of Wesleyan. </p>

<p>Have you looked at Oberlin College, not for performance at the Conservatory, but simply as an LAC? You can be a Music Major and get a B.A. from Oberlin College without being a conservatory student. Also you could do a college double-major, for example with East Asian Studies, or add a minor in something like Anthropology, Latin American studies, or Religion.</p>

<p>In terms of great listening, note that the Oberlin Conservatory is the first to offer Jazz Studies at the conservatory level. They've brought in faculty from among the jazz greats in the 20th century to teach.</p>