Graduate School for Musicology

Hi - I am currently interested in majoring in Musicology for my graduate studies. I plan on pursuing both the Master’s and PhD. I am looking for suggestions as to what schools have well-respected Musicology programs. I am also looking for the ability to still play in the school’s ensembles and take lessons with the applied teacher, as well as other performance opportunities. My gpa is a 3.7, I have studied Spanish and will be studying Italian. I am currently a Music Education major, and I hope that it will help me become a TA at a graduate program.

So first of all, I am assuming that you know that musicology is a field that focuses on the scholarly study of music as an academic discipline - not performance or composition. Of course you can still play your instrument(s) on the side, but it’ll be more or less an extracurricular activity or hobby, not necessarily part of your academic program (unless you find some special program that integrates performance and musicology).

The National Research Council has a ranking of music programs (https://www.chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-Music/124746) but they do not distinguish between musicology and music performance/composition programs. There’s also this helpful guide by the American Musicological Society (http://www.ams-net.org/graduate-study-in-musicology.php). They maintain a user-monitored list of graduate programs in musicology (http://www.ams-net.org/gradprog.php).

From there, you’ll need to narrow down what your academic and scholarly interests are in musicology and pick programs at which you’ll be able to pursue those.