The graduate program in the scholarly disciplines of musicology (leading toward the M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees) is one of two offered by the Department of Music, within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The other program is in composition (M.A./D.M.A.). Although much of the information contained in this handbook is addressed specifically to students working toward a PhD in musicology, some of it is also useful for students working toward a DMA in musical composition.

The Music Department defines "musicology" broadly to include (but not necessarily to be limited to) ethnomusicology [1], historical musicology [2], music theory [3], music cognition, and music philosophy, of which the first three are designated "areas." Students may concentrate in one of these fields alone or two of them in combination, or do interdisciplinary work relating them to studies outside music.

The graduate program in musicology is strongly committed to providing students with a broadly based knowledge of music, its history, its theory, and its social and cultural contexts. The faculty seeks to foster a wide acquaintance with scholarly literature and to develop the technical skills, critical judgment, and writing and expressive abilities necessary for the pursuit of independent research.

The graduate program normatively occupies five to six years (or four to five years for those students with advanced standing). The first year and a half is spent working toward the M.A., the next two years or so toward the M.Phil., and the last two to two and a half writing a dissertation for the Ph.D.