Music Theory

A high degree of interaction

By design, our music theory graduate program is small, matriculating at most two or three masters and doctoral students each year. Our small numbers make for a high degree of interaction between faculty and graduate students, who also work with us as teaching assistants in the undergraduate curriculum.

The course requirements for both the MA and Ph.D are flexible and loosely drawn, allowing graduate students to tailor the degree to their own musical and intellectual interests.

Degrees offered

Please note that the Theory program is not currently accepting applications.

Although there is a core curriculum for both degrees—two semesters of the history of music theory, one semester of Schenker, and one semester of post-tonal music theory—students are encouraged to take seminars and classes with our ethno/musicological colleagues, and in other departments, in effect giving them leave to construct their own curricula. Our seminars are determined by the interests of both faculty and students, and in recent years have included such topics as the role of diagrams in music theory, Debussy and Bergson, recent developments in electroacoustic and computer music, the string quartets of Bartok, and the writings of David Lewin. We also offer instruction on a collaborative basis, allowing students to focus even more intensively on their own musical and music-theoretical interests.

Master of Arts (M.A.)

The M.A. degree program in Music Theory is currently under review and, for the time being, no applications are being considered.

Degree Requirements

The M.A. in music theory is a two-year program that culminates in a thesis on a topic of the student’s choosing.

See M.A. Music Theory degree worksheet for details. This is the document your advisor will use to keep track of your degree progress.
For detailed information on exams, recitals, etc., please visit the Graduate Advising KnowledgeBase. Be sure to check out the School of Music Graduate Student Handbook.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

The Ph.D. degree program in Music Theory is currently under review and, for the time being, no applications are being considered.

Degree Requirements

Course requirements for the Ph.D. in music theory include seven seminars and a four-course minor in a cognate discipline related to the dissertation. In addition to the dissertation, doctoral students in music theory must demonstrate proficiency in two foreign languages, write comprehensive examinations on completion of the coursework, and present a public lecture on their dissertation research.

See Ph.D. Music Theory degree worksheet for details. This is the document your advisor will use to keep track of your degree progress.
For detailed information on exams, recitals, etc., please visit the Graduate Advising KnowledgeBase. Be sure to check out the School of Music Graduate Student Handbook.

Doctoral Minor – Required for all Doctoral programs

The purpose of the doctoral minor is to add breadth and depth to the D.M.A or Ph.D degree. To insure coherence a minor program must be approved by the appropriate department, a student’s advisor, or the Director of Graduate Studies, and must include courses at the 300-level or above. Typically, a minor requires 12 credits of work.

Students have a variety of options, including completing an internal minor within the School of Music (e.g., a D.M.A. conducting student who minors in ethnomusicology or a Ph.D. in music theory who minors in clarinet performance), completing a minor in a department outside the School of Music (e.g., a D.M.A. in horn performance who minors in Women’s Studies or a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology who minors in East Asian studies).

Students may, in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, devise a distributed minor that brings together courses from a variety of departments around a particular topic or area of interest. For example, a D.M.A. student in voice devises a minor in vocal health that includes courses in communicative disorders, or a Ph.D. student in musicology devises a minor in Medieval History that includes courses in art history, history, and languages.

Music theory faculty

Music theory faculty is focused on helping our graduate students develop as writers. In the masters program, the emphasis is on writing papers students will submit in support of applications to Ph.D programs, either here or elsewhere. In the Ph.D program, the emphasis is on nurturing the skills needed to research and write a dissertation. In both curricula, however, the principal question is the same: What does it mean to write creatively and engagingly about music?

Michael Weinstein-Reiman

Assistant Professor of Music Theory

Mead Witter School of Music

A high degree of interaction

Degrees offered

Music theory faculty

Michael Weinstein-Reiman

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