Graduate Study in Music Theory
Columbia's graduate theory program strives to expose students to the wide range of current and past scholarship, including but not limited to analysis of Western music from all periods, Schenkerian theory, set theory, generative theory, rhythm and meter theory, music cognition and perception, structuralism and poststructuralism, philosophy of music, history of theory, transformational theories, and postmodernism.
These and other areas of study are presented in a series of proseminars and seminars, during which students write papers, some of which are held to publishable standards (and, indeed, several seminar papers have been reshaped to appear in leading journals). Students are expected to read current periodicals and books and hence to become well-rounded theorists, able to speak and write coherently and in an informed manner about ideas in all these areas (not only those covered in course work). Students are also trained to think logically, read critically and in a penetrating fashion, and think for themselves. A pass/fail grading system is only one way in which originality of thought is encouraged. Students are expected to be (or become) sophisticated musicians, with acute powers to hear music intelligently.
Unique among its peer institutions, Columbia has cultivated the composer-theorist. Professors Dubiel, and Lerdahl are active and productive composers; other members of the composition faculty, including Professors Edwards, Garton, and Murail, are deeply interested in theoretical issues and have done theoretical research and publication. Columbia does not simply perpetuate the pre-1970s' form of the composition-theory interface, however. To a considerable degree the composer-theorist tradition was established in support of a single kind of composition, seeking to extend twelve-tone practice and the attendant theory. But the Columbia faculty sees this moment in the discipline's history as the beginning of a movement outward rather than as the beginning of an establishment, and as an exploration of the questions that arose when many putative musical truths were discovered to have been assumptions. And so the aesthetic presuppositions of Columbia composer-theorists are generally not those that might have been expected of composer-theorists a generation ago. The Music Department is proud of this aesthetic and intellectual diversity and of the non-ideological nature of compositional and theoretical activities and instruction at Columbia.
Not all music theory at Columbia is compositionally oriented. Columbia has a strong identity in several other theoretical areas, many of which are interdisciplinary.
1. Philosophy of music.
Professor Lydia Goehr of the Philosophy Department has made major contributions to musical aesthetics. And Professor Dubiel's work in music theory is deeply philosophical. Traditionally, the philosophy of music has been identified with music aesthetics: the nature of music and of the musical artwork, beauty, and problems of meaning or significance and their determinants. Looked at in terms of cognition, however, music gives rise to many interesting, though relatively unexplored, philosophical questions about the semantics of mental representation, the relation between perception and cognition, the nature of concepts and their role in music cognition, and the kind of knowledge a music analyst has of his or her own hearing. In these connections, the philosophy of music breaks new ground in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and epistemology, and sheds new light on traditional questions they have posed. And it contributes to music theory's understanding of its own methodology and goals.
2. Musical rhythm and time.
Two of the major books in this field were authored by Columbia faculty (Professors Lerdahl and Kramer), and Professor Dubiel has also published in this area.
3. Music cognition.
There is significiant research ongoing at the Columbia Computer Music Center that is of direct relevance to music cognition. This work carried on by Professors Lerdahl, Garton, and Murail involves, among other projects, computer modelling of theories of cognition. In addition, the research of Professor Dubiel is concerned with music cognition approached more from a philosophical than from a psychological viewpoint.
4. Postmodernism.
Various faculty members have offered seminars in postmodernism in recent years. In addition, Professor Dubiel has expertise in this area, and Professor Edwards has published in this area. Several music departments, however, are witnessing the advent of postmodern thinking, not in their theory programs but in their musicology programs. One of the tenets of the "new musicology" is the rejection of close analysis of musical texts, an activity central to music theory. Understandably, many music theorists are suspicious of this work, and thus there has been relatively little theoretical work on postmodernism in music. But Columbia seeks to forge a postmodern musical scholarship that builds on, rather than rejects, music theory and analysis.
5. Methodology of music theory.
What might be labelled the "analysis of theory" (in contrast to the more common "theory of analysis") is the major interest of Professor Dubiel, and Professor Lerdahl is deeply involved in metatheoretical questions as well.
6. History of theory.
Regularly offered seminars in the history of theory in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries are central to our graduate program. In addition, our post- M.A. graduate students take advantage of the New York educational consortium to enroll in seminars in the history of theory (and other topics) at the City University of New York Graduate Center and at New York University.
Curriculum
Degree requirements and a full list of courses can be found in the GSAS Bulletin.
Students normally take the Proseminar in Music Theory in the fall semester of each of their first two years of graduate study. The proseminar is an overview and sampling of current concerns in the field. Students also take the Proseminars in Ethnomusicology and/or Historical Musicology. Further coursework (chosen in consultation with the advisor) involves seminars in music theory, analysis, computer music, historical musicology, philosophy of music, music cognition, composition, and/or ethnomusicology, depending on the student's interests and needs. Many graduate students take courses in other departments, such as Psychology, Computer Science, Art History, and Philosophy. For complete course listings see the Bulletin of the Graduate School for Arts and Sciences.
Topics of recent theory seminars include: postmodernism, generative theories, computer modelling of music cognition, rhythm and meter theory, compositional theory, and interdisciplinary approaches to music theory, among others. Topics of recent analysis seminars include music since 1945, music of the early twentieth century, tonal and pretonal music, The Rite of Spring, string quartets of Beethoven, string quartets of Bartok, and music that challenges traditional analytic methods, among others.
In second semester of the third year of graduate study (or the second year, if the student has arrived with a Master's Degree and been granted Advanced Standing), a student will normally work with a faculty member in an MPhil Seminar, essentially a tutorial in which a dissertation topic is developed through guided reading and weekly discussions. At the end of the Seminar a dissertation prospectus is prepared and then orally examined by a faculty committee of at least three.
The Ph.D.
The PhD dissertation is a document representing original research and thought. Most dissertations in music theory take about two years to complete. The dissertation process is supervised by the faculty sponsor (normally the faculty member with whom the student has taken the MPhil Seminar). In addition to the sponsor, two other faculty members from the Department serve as readers. When the dissertation is deemed ready for defense, two additional readers from outside the Department are appointed (for a total of five).
Please refer to the complete listing of all dissertations successfully defended in Music Theory at Columbia since 1986.
