PhD in Humanities Academia - Music Theory/Musicology

Graduate School
1

<p>I am soon to be embarking on my final year of undergraduate work at an elite LAC and I was wondering how and where to start thinking about doctoral work in my field, that being music theory (or possibly historical musicology). Research based musical scholarship is the consuming passion of my life now, aspiration #1 is to become a professor. </p>

<p>I understand that research in the humanities is different beast altogether from research in the sciences (having done both in my past). But with respect to graduate school admission, what does it really mean? On the one hand, it is not uncommon at all for undergraduates in the physical and life sciences to be published in journals, the nature of research is collaborative, and research is performed (generally) as a lab -- a team of researchers, almost always under the authority of a senior researcher, postdoc, doctoral student etc. I myself got my name on a poster presented at a national conference while I was in high school. </p>

<p>But research in the humanities is a solo effort, usually. So is it normative for incoming PhD applicants for top doctoral programs in fields such as literature, history, comparative religion (or music) have research under their belts beyond their honors theses? Should I, must I, be aiming to present some findings from the thesis I will being before I apply to graduate programs? The top programs in these fields are at some of the ivies (Yale, Harvard, Princeton) as well as research universities with substantial schools of music (ie. Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Rochester, UChicago). My family will not financially support this dream of mine, so it is essential that I go straight from college to a gap year to a doctoral candidacy with full fellowship.</p>

<p>What sorts of planning should I have on my radar? I have already identified mentors from whom I will be soliciting recommendations, teachers who are enthusiastic about me and with whom I have good relationships, who furthermore understand that I have substantial competencies in musical performance. Which is another complicating factor. I am wondering if musical performance activity and work experience and teaching (TA) experience in performance will give my any ground with graduate school admissions that are first and foremost programs in scholarship. I am the only undergraduate in a musical historiography graduate seminar taught by one of my principal mentors, and one of my classmates who is finishing up her masters this year just got into all the Ivy league programs she applied to! congratulations. I will be up against people like her who have already completed a first masters in their field in admissions, will I be viewed in comparison to these kind of people, or will the potential I display help make up ground in the rather smaller amount of upper level coursework I have done, the fact that unlike many of the other applicants I may not have very extensive publication/conference presentation credentials? I don't have the option of pursuing a first masters before applying to graduate schools. Or do I? Are there opportunities to at least recieve tuition waivers as a masters student in the humanities?</p>

<p>What to do? What to do?</p>

2

<p>I’m assuming that since you have aspirations towards music theory and since you are writing an honors thesis, that you have a professor or professors that are supporting you (at least you need a thesis advisor). You say you have teachers that are enthusiastic about you. Why not ask them? They will be quite familiar with the process and will be able to advise you on what humanities PhD applicants look like in your field.</p>

<p>I’m in the social sciences, so take my advice with a grain of salt. But I do think that many PhD applicants in the humanities tend to have scholarship other than the thesis under their belt before applying, although it’s not necessarily published in a professional journal or book or something.</p>

<p>You will be viewed in comparison to all other applicants. Graduate degrees are partially about potential, but one of the ways that professors evaluate potential is by past work. They may look at a pool of applicants and decide that they prefer the ones with master’s work in the field because they are a known quantity as far as completing graduate work goes. Maybe not. It depends on the program. You DO have the option of pursuing a first master’s before applying; it’s just that you would have to fund it with loans and I don’t think you should do that, either. Unless you’re finding it’s impossible to gain admission without it.</p>

<p>Humanities master’s students rarely receive tuition waivers, but there’s a possibility that if you serve as a TA (either for history or performance classes, it doesn’t matter) that you can get a waiver that way. I know that in English and history TAs are in high demand because intro classes are usually quite large, but I’m not sure about that with music.</p>

3

<p>I’m a current graduate student in music theory, and I’ll share a bit of advice. An honors thesis from a LAC, as well as good letters of recommendation, will put you in an excellent position. Teaching experience as an undergraduate helps as well. Performance experience in general isn’t much of a factor, unless you’re a pianist. Piano skills will be enormously beneficial, and at some schools (Indiana, Eastman, Oregon, Cincinnati) they will be required just to get in. If your application is exceptionally strong, you’ll be able to enter a major PhD program straight from undergrad. These will typically pay a full fellowship for about 5 years. In my experience there are many students who enter these programs straight from undergrad. However, many of their applicants will also be like your classmate, and will have a master’s degree in hand, so competition will be stiff.</p>

<p>That said, it’s actually very common to receive an assistantship as a master’s degree student in music theory, so take heart. You’ll find these mostly at the big state schools that have large numbers of undergraduate majors (such as Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Texas, Ohio State, Florida State, etc.), and they usually entail leading ear training sections for freshman and sophomore music majors. They will come with a tuition waver and a modest salary ($10-12k/yr). Doing one of these two year degrees will dramatically improve your chances of landing in a top program. I’m living proof: coming out of undergrad, I was accepted to only 1 of the 8 schools to which I applied, a master’s degree at a state university, with funding. After the master’s, I’ve been accepted to 6 out of 9 (some of the same schools from round 1), and in the fall, I will begin a Ph.D. program at an Ivy. So do aim high, but make sure to include a few master’s programs on your list as well.</p>

<p>Your writing samples are probably the most important part of your application, so make sure they are highly polished; it’s not too early to begin working on them now. Showing that you’re conversant in music-theoretical writing style (David Lewin is a GREAT model, check out his “Studies in Music With Text”) will strengthen your application. As will language skills: German (mainly) and French are the ones commonly required by Theory PhD programs, so if you have time during your senior year to squeeze in a semester or two of one of those languages, you will help yourself out a lot, both in getting in and in getting through the program quickly. Most simply require you to pass a translation test, so if you can knock one out when you arrive on campus your first year, you’ll be ahead of the game.</p>

<p>One last piece of advice: theory faculties are generally small, so be sure to apply to those where professors share your research interests (tonal? atonal? music cognition? Neo-Riemannian theory? history of theory? philosophy of music?), in order to maximize your chances of getting in. Ask your mentor for help with this; theory is a small field, and they should be able to identify the schools that tend to attract students with certain research interests, or produce certain kinds of graduates.</p>

4

<p>Ah, many thanks to the above two for insightful and incisive comments. To further elaborate, I am quite a fluent pianist and I have performed in festival settings and will be employed on the collaborative piano staff of a festival this summer. As far as interests go, I’ve begun a thesis project applying neo-Riemannian and related transformational chordal theories to late-Renaissance tertian repertoires. One of the things about this sub-field of harmonic/voice-leading analysis is that it loves its formalisms. I am wondering to what extent fluency (beyond certain minimal levels) with some very abstruse analytical frameworks is a must. But from the above comments, it appears that this consideration (if it exists at all) is trumped by the ability to display facility with musico-analytic writing and rhetoric.</p>

5

<p>It’s worth noting that not every “elite” school has a top program in theory/musicology. Also, some schools do not do both (Cal Berkley for instance does not have theory).</p>

<p>Yale is great for either both and especially if you are interested in neo-Riemannian theory (see Rick Cohn). The other top “theory” schools among the ivy league are Princeton and Harvard. It is possible to do theory at Columbia and Upenn but those are much more highly regarded for musicology than theory. But then again your list already suggested you knew this. In fact your list is quite good (the 3 ivies, Michigan, Eastman, Indiana, Chicago) are definitely considered the top schools for theory (or a joint theory/history program). To that list, you might add CUNY which is a good place to go for Schenker, Post-tonal theory, and studies of modern music.</p>

<p>Finally, I would agree with the other posters that an MA can certainly be valuable and will give you a leg up on the competition. Theory PhD programs take VERY few students-Yale takes about 3 people, Michigan 2, Eastman 3 usually- Harvard in fact only takes 1 theorist a year. You can check the websites for proof. Most schools admit more musicologists (but there are generally more applicants). Based on your interests, I think you might consider a musicology-based theory program (Harvard, Uchicago) over one such as Eastman. These schools require no interview (no keyboard, aural skills for instance) but will pay close attention to your writing sample. Best of luck!</p>