The Department of Music at Berkeley is one of the oldest and most prominent in the country, bringing together a renowned group of composers, scholars, and performers. The graduate program is ranked among the top in the nation. The department offers the MA/PhD and the PhD degrees (for those who have previously completed the master’s degree) in composition and scholarship, the latter with options in musicology and in ethnomusicology. The Music Department does not offer a terminal MA degree. The program provides graduate students with a solid mastery of their discipline while cultivating a sense of intellectual and creative independence. Students are free to explore related fields of study both within the music program itself and in the larger university. Graduates of the Music Department play prominent roles in distinguished musical institutions across the nation and abroad.
Students are supported by both fellowships and teaching opportunities. A typical funding package consists of tuition plus an income of at least $34,000 per year guaranteed for five years (MA/PhD) or four years (PhD). A final year of financial support at similar levels is available through the Doctoral Completion Fellowship offered through the Graduate Division. Additional support for research travel is available by application.
Concentration Areas
Composition
Students in composition are encouraged to create music that is personal both in style and content while building a firm technical foundation. Composition is taught through seminars and independent studies by all composers on the faculty. Opportunities exist for public performances of student compositions, including chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Facilities are available for work in electronic and computer music.
Ethnomusicology
Students in ethnomusicology prepare for ethnographic research, through the study of cultural theory and methodology from various disciplines. Each student’s program is individually designed in consultation with an adviser, including opportunities for drawing on Berkeley’s considerable resources in related disciplines and area studies.
Musicology
Students in the musicology program gain skills for historical research while developing a sense of critical inquiry and intellectual independence. The MA program introduces students to musicological methods and techniques and at the same time seeks to broaden their horizons through a variety of courses, including analysis and ethnomusicology. The PhD involves more detailed work in research seminars and special studies. Dissertation topics at Berkeley have run the gamut of scholarly approaches and subjects, from source studies to theoretical or critical works, and from early medieval chant to the music of the present day.
The Master of Arts Degree
The period of study in all areas of specialization is from three to (more typically) four semesters ending with the MA comprehensive examination. The general course requirement for the MA is 24 units, at least 12 of which must be in the graduate series in music.
The Doctor of Philosophy Degree
Since the PhD degree is awarded for original, creative achievement, not for the mere completion of a course of study, course and unit requirements are not rigidly prescribed. There is an academic residence requirement of two years. The amount of time needed to complete the PhD varies considerably from one student to another, but students are encouraged to proceed as fast as they can and as the nature of their doctoral project allows. It is expected that the typical student (having obtained an MA degree) will have pursued sufficient course work, fulfilled all the supplementary requirements, and taken the qualifying examination, advanced to candidacy, and completed a prospectus for the doctoral project by the end of two years. After this time the only requirement is that the student satisfactorily completes the doctoral project.
Thank you for considering UC Berkeley for graduate study! UC Berkeley offers more than 120 graduate programs representing the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary scholarship. The Graduate Division hosts a complete list of graduate academic programs, departments, degrees offered, and application deadlines can be found on the Graduate Division website.
Prospective students must submit an online application to be considered for admission, in addition to any supplemental materials specific to the program for which they are applying. The online application and steps to take to apply can be found on the Graduate Division website.
Admission Requirements
The minimum graduate admission requirements are:
A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;
A satisfactory scholastic average, usually a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B) on a 4.0 scale; and
Enough undergraduate training to do graduate work in your chosen field.
For a list of requirements to complete your graduate application, please see the Graduate Division’s Admissions Requirements page. It is also important to check with the program or department of interest, as they may have additional requirements specific to their program of study and degree. Department contact information can be found here.
Applicants for the combined MA/PhD or PhD programs are required to specify the concentration they wish to apply: Composition, Ethnomusicology, or Musicology. Applicants are encouraged to name at least two faculty with whom they wish to work as part of their application.
All applicants are required to submit supplemental materials as part of their application to our program. Applicants in Ethnomusicology or Musicology will submit examples of scholarship, and Composition applicants will submit scores and recordings of their compositions as part of their respective applications.
Doctoral Degree Requirements
Normative Time Requirements
Normative Time to Advancement
Normative to advancement for all concentrations is eight semesters.
Normative Time in Candidacy
Normative time in candidacy for the Composition and Musicology concentrations is four semesters. Normative time in candidacy for the Ethnomusicology concentration is six semesters.
Total Normative Time
Total normative time for the Composition and Musicology concentrations is twelve semesters. Total normative time for the Ethnomusicology concentration is fourteen semesters.
Time to Advancement
Curriculum
Composition Concentration
Students are generally expected to take a minimum of two graduate-level seminars in the department per semester until the MA degree has been completed (end of fourth semester).
Professional Preparation for Teaching Assistants in Music
2
Ethnomusicology Concentration
Students are expected to take a minimum of one graduate-level seminar in the department each semester until the MA degree has been completed. In addition, they are expected to attend events in the colloquium series and to participate actively in the discussion.
Although courses in musicology at the graduate level will constitute the core of any program of study at the MA level, students may supplement those courses with a graduate course in another department that might be relevant to eventual dissertation work, with language courses (graduate or undergraduate), or with undergraduate courses in music that help to meet the proficiencies required for the entrance exam’s various subjects (harmony, counterpoint, sight singing, score reading, and dictation). In general, courses at the graduate level are more appropriate for music graduate students to enroll in than undergraduate courses. It is expected that students take a minimum of two seminars in the department each semester until the MA is completed. Students should take courses with as many professors in the Musicology program as possible. Students are also expected to attend the events in the colloquium series regularly, and to participate as respondents to papers and ask questions.
Students entering at MA level: At least five courses numbered between MUSIC 210-220, before entering PhD program
Students entering at PhD level: Four courses numbered between MUSIC 210-220
Courses
Music
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Principles and methods of scholarly research in Western art music, especially history and criticism of music; use of documents, and design of projects. Presentation of results in written and oral forms. Introduction to Music Scholarship II: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023
Broad overview of the methods, theories, topics, people, and historical forces that have informed ethnomusicology from both the humanities and social sciences perspectives. Students will learn to situate their own research in relation to the preceding scholarly debates, and to broaden and deepen their intellectual horizons. Intellectual History of Ethnomusicology: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
Overview of the field of computer music and its application to music composition. Practices, procedures, and aesthetics related to the application of newer technologies to music composition will be covered in tandem with contemporary research topics in computer music. Recent computer music repertoire with its related technologies will be examined. Students in this proseminar must have advanced musical training and knowledge of the history and repertoire of electro-acoustic music. Proseminar in Computer Music: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 4 hours of laboratory per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
A study of relevant problems and compositional techniques of contemporary music. Original compositions required of students. Group discussion and criticism. Seminar in Composition: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Limited to advanced students of composition
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Spring 2022
The application of analytical principles to a group of compositions and the intensive study of at least one major work. Studies in Musical Analysis: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Designed for graduate students in music composition, but open to graduate students in related disciplines who can demonstrate thorough knowledge of the history of electro-acoustic music as well as significant experience with computer music practice and research. All projects are subject to approval of the instructor. Advanced Projects in Computer Music: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
Technical and musical issues in the design and development of computer-based music systems including digital signal processing for the analysis and synthesis of sound, scheduling of multiple musical control processes, perceptual and cognitive models, user-interface design, reactive real-time control, and the analysis and representation of musical structure. Advanced Topics in Computer Music: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2023, Spring 2019
This course will provide a weekly forum for the exploration of strategies for composing for improvisers and improvising for composers, culminating in the presentation of new work. A number of approaches including gaming strategies, graphic and alternative notation systems, conduction, and other topics of interest to the students will be explored through performance, listening, analysis, and discussion. Graduate Seminar: Composers and Improvisers Workshop: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Admission by instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of workshop per week
Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018
This course provides direction to graduate students in the latter phase of their PhD degrees. It is devised to provide productive structure to the dissertation writing process, and to help students write and learn skills important to their professional development. Students will have the opportunity to work through their dissertation ideas and present their work orally in a supportive academic environment. Professional Development Colloquium: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of colloquium per week
Terms offered: Fall 1995
Music can be a form of weapon or torture; a mediating force in conflict resolution; a force complicit with violence; storehouse of memory or process of healing for survivors of violence; a mode of resistance against a violent regime; and a creative process of alliance-building, among others. This seminar explores the various intersections of music and violence, and the emerging body of scholarship within ethnomusicology over the last decade dedicated to the subject. We will investigate the role of expressive culture in generating, mediating, contesting, or sustaining political and other social violence, and ask how music enables us to think creatively through the relationship between critical attention, compassion, and commitment. Music and Violence: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Spring 1996
This seminar explores the techniques of imaginative processes through which humans design alternative narratives, histories, futures, and subjectivities. Focusing on the musical and sonic, we examine how the musical imagination relates to other social and cultural processes by which we imagine culture into being. After a brief investigation of the anthropology of the imagination, we turn to the process of imagining the historical past; urban nostalgias and immigrant cultures; transnational and diasporic imaginaries; and the dystopian imagination in music. We consider how and why music participates in the social life of romanticism and fantasy, and how these roles inform conceptions of music’s importance to and place in society. Music and the Imagination: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for MUSIC 232 after completing MUSIC 232. A deficient grade in MUSIC 232 may be removed by taking MUSIC 232.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Fall 1996
This seminar queries the relation between sound, technology, and power. Taking these three keywords/concepts as broad starting points, we will engage with theoretical approaches and case studies that span the emergence of recording technologies at the turn of the 19th century to algorithmic and robotic systems in the present. We will consider the avenues through which difference is represented, constructed, unsettled, and disturbed in music, films, archives, engineering, and software, among others. We will approach these matters from a variety of perspectives (e.g. Latin American, Chicanx, feminist, and Black radical intellectual genealogies) and academic disciplines (science, ethnic, media, cultural, border, and indigenous studies). Sound, Technology, and Power: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Not yet offered
This seminar will explore the trajectories and creative possibilities within sound studies through close reading of groundbreaking and recent ethnographic monographs. Each monograph is paired with theoretical texts from various fields that have informed the analytical and methodological approaches taken by the author. Students will consider the new possibilities and limitations that sound offers us, not only as a scholarly subject but also a medium of creative expression and social critique. Many authors will visit as guests—this will also provide an opportunity to inquire into the process of writing monographs; to learn how to generate generative and generous questions; and to ask how to participate in and create a scholarly community. Ethnographies of Sound Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for MUSIC 234 after completing MUSIC 234. A deficient grade in MUSIC 234 may be removed by taking MUSIC 234.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2021
Exploration of the conceptual and practical issues around research methods used in ethnomusicology, including onsite and digital fieldwork, transcription, interview techniques, recording, audio/visual documentary production, and ethnographic writing. Focus on skills to conduct original research in ethnomusicology through short-term local ethnographic projects during the semester. Research Methods in Ethnomusicology: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2019
Instruction in designing a doctoral research project, writing a dissertation prospectus, and formulating a grant proposal. The course will also explore possibilities of mobilizing scholarship beyond traditional academic avenues. Students will normally take this course one semester prior to presenting the prospectus for their doctoral dissertation. Research Design and Praxis in Ethnomusicology: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 244A or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Fall 2000, Fall 1997
This course introduces ethno/musicological approaches to the study of sexuality and gender. We will study scholarly works that consider how music informs and reflects cultural constructions of femininity, masculinity, and non-binary genders, and consider questions of sexuality within and apart from these frameworks. Taking wide-ranging examples that include popular music, folk and indigenous musics, and European art music, we will investigate how gendered and sexualized subjectivities are negotiated through musical practices such as composition, performance, audition, and consumption. Class readings will include ethnomusicological, musicological, anthropological, feminist, Marxist, and queer theory approaches. Music, Sexuality, and Gender: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2016, Fall 2012
Critical survey of the major issues raised and methodologies used in the study of popular music. Selected readings from a wide range of disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, musicology, ethnomusicology, communication, history, political science, economics, and music journalism. Theory and Method in Popular Music Studies: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2022, Fall 2021
A highly specialized course in ethnomusicology. The topic will change each time the course is offered. Topics in Ethnomusicology: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Spring 2019
Readings on interpretive theories dealing with current issues from the multiple disciplines informing the study of music. The selection of theoretical writings will change each time the course is offered. Course may be repeated for credit. Current Critical Theories of Sound, Music, and Performance: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Explores the intersection of music and computers using a combination of scientific, technological, and artistic methodologies. Musical concerns within a computational frame are addressed through the acquisition of basic programming skills for the creation and control of digital sound. Will learn core concepts and techniques of computer-based music composition using the Cycling74/MaxMSP programming environment in combination with associated software tools and programming approaches created by the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies. Included will be exposure to the essentials of digital audio signal processing, musical acoustics and psychoacoustics, sound analysis and synthesis. The course is hands-on & taught from the computer lab. Sound and Music Computing with CNMAT Technologies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Limited to graduate students in Music
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2019
The practice and theory of contextual instrument design for use in musical expression is explored. Students create new instruments and performance environments using a variety of physical interaction paradigms, programming practices, and musical processes emerging from the UC Berkeley Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT). Building on the methodologies established in Music 258A, the course develops aesthetic, analytic and technical skills through discussion, empirical study, and collaborative engagement. With a balance of artistic and technical concerns, participants deepen understanding of the creative process, demonstrating the results through class installation and public performance. Situated Instrument Design for Musical Expression: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Music 258A or consent of instructor; limited to graduate students in Music
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 7.5 hours of laboratory per week
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Meetings for the presentation of original work by faculty, visiting lecturers, and advanced graduate students. Assigned readings. In rotation members of the class will be appointed as respondents for the papers. Colloquium: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of colloquium per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Music/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Open to qualified students who have been advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. and are directly engaged upon the doctoral dissertation. Directed Dissertation Research - Music: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-12 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 2.5-20 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 1.5-15 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Music/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022
Open to qualified students for research or creative work on a particular topic. Not to serve in lieu of regular courses of instruction. Group Special Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-8 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 1-8 hours of independent study per week
Terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022
Open to properly qualified graduate students for research or creative work, including work on the doctoral dissertation. Such work shall not serve in lieu of regular courses of instruction. Special Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-12 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 1.5-22.5 hours of independent study per week
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2022
Study in consultation with the major field adviser, intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare themselves for the various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D. Individual Study for Doctoral Students: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: For candidates for doctoral degree
Credit Restrictions: Course does not satisfy unit or residence requirements for doctoral degree.
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
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