Department of Music

Chair

Scott G. Burnham

Director of Graduate Studies

Paul Lansky, Composition

Simon A. Morrison, Musicology

Professor

Scott G. Burnham

Peter G. Jeffery

Paul Lansky

Steven Mackey

Associate Professor

Wendy Heller

Simon A. Morrison

Rob Wegman

Barbara White

Assistant Professor

Daniel Trueman

Dmitri Tymoczko

Senior Lecturer

Anthony D. J. Branker, University Jazz Ensembles

Michael Pratt, University Orchestra, University Opera Theatre, and Composers’ Ensemble

Richard Tang Yuk, University Glee Club, Chamber Choir

Lecturer

Martin R. Scherzinger, also Council of the Humanities

Associated Faculty

Perry R. Cook, Computer Science

 

Faculty and students in the Department of Music focus their work in either composition or musicology; departmental courses, seminars, and degree requirements are specified below for the respective programs. Music theory, as a subject for advanced study at Princeton, is concerned with systematic explanations, formal and/or empirical, of musical phenomena. This often includes investigating relationships between theory and practice in non-Western as well as Western musical cultures under the rubric of comparative musicology. Though the department does not offer separate programs in theory or ethnomusicology, students with strong interests in either of these areas are encouraged to pursue them in connection with one of the two focal programs (such students should indicate on their application under which of the programs they would expect their studies primarily to fall). Students in all fields are encouraged to participate in courses or seminars in whichever program may be relevant to their particular interests. Occasionally a student with a strong focus and demonstrated competence in theory or comparative musicology may be given a specially designed general examination.

Applicants in musicology should submit samples of previous work. Applicants in composition should submit representative compositions, in replaceable copies, with corresponding recordings of performance if possible. Applicants in either focal area who are specifically interested in theory or comparative musicology should also submit samples of their work in those fields.

Teaching and Library Facilities

The Woolworth Center for Musical Studies, completed in 1963 and renovated in 1997, contains classrooms, a rehearsal room, practice rooms, and computer and electronic-music facilities (see below). The music collections of Princeton University were brought together for the first time with the 1997 opening of the Mendel Music Library in the Woolworth Center for Musical Studies. Its book collection provides important tools for students, faculty, and music scholars from around the world. The materials relating to dance are also shelved in the Music Library. In addition, the Music Library houses listening facilities, a reading room, a graduate seminar room, video, DVD and microformat viewing stations, and reserve readings, as well as carrel space for departmental graduate students in musicology. The library’s current holdings include approximately 65,000 monographs, 60,000 printed musical scores, 94,000 sound recordings in various formats, 2,600 DVDs and video recordings, 18,000 microfilm titles, 780 periodical titles, and a wide range of electronic resources.

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Firestone Library complements the Music Library, for it holds important parts of Princeton’s Music Collection. Foremost among its resources is the Hall Handel Collection, a collection of first and early editions of the works of George Frideric Handel, which is the largest collection in the United States. In an adjacent room visitors will find William Scheide’s private library. Although it is not primarily a music collection, the Scheide Library includes some extraordinary musical treasures, such as the fair copy of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, and a Beethoven sketchbook, as well as autograph manuscripts of works by Mozart and Bach.

Technical, Electroacoustic, and Computer Facilities

The music department is equipped with complete facilities for recording, editing, creating, and processing sound. Studio facilities include a central studio equipped with a Digidesign Control 24 Mixing Surface, a Macintosh G5 computer, a ProTools TDM system with a large supply of plug-ins, a Kurzweil K2500 synthesizer, ADAT and Tascam multitrack tape recorders, Max/MSP, most standard software packages, and surround-sound capabilities; two other studios have similar setups (including G5 computers), but with RTAS hardware, specialized video editing equipment and software, and other specialized software for audio/visual or post-production work. There is a room dedicated to hardware construction (complete with a soldering station and substantial electronics kit), and a room with both PC and MAC mixing and notation capabilities. Additionally, there is a computer/keyboard workstation in a studio dedicated to composition and score production. Other studies include video editing and processing hardware and software, computer-assisted instruction, score-production software, and various sound processing and production packages.

Graduate students also have access to the Princeton Sound Lab (soundlab.cs.princeton.edu) and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk, plork.cs.princeton.edu).

Performing Groups

The Princeton University Chapel Choir, Orchestra, Glee Club, Jazz Ensembles, and Wind Ensemble provide opportunities for performance, and the Friends of Music at Princeton University help sponsor recitals on campus by qualified performers.

The Princeton University Early Music Ensemble invites graduate student participation. Concert programs reflect the interests of the participants, and feature small ensembles of both vocalists and instrumentalists. The department owns a collection of Renaissance recorders and other early winds, a chest of viols, an organetto, and a harpsichord.

Graduate Program in Musicology

Musicology embraces the study of the history, theory, and practice of music from many points of view. Graduate study in musicology may cover approaches such as historical and ethnographic investigation as well as music theory, hermeneutics, and criticism. Students are expected to become familiar with a wide range of areas, including methods, philosophies, and techniques of historical research methods for the analysis of music and ethnomusicological research.

Plan of Study. Entering students are normally expected to spend at least two years in full-time residence, regardless of prior graduate work, and all are subject to the same program, department, and Graduate School requirements.

There is no formal core curriculum for musicology at Princeton. Courses and seminars offered by the musicology faculty deal mostly with fields in which faculty members are actively engaged and do not attempt to survey all areas or periods. At least one seminar dealing with some historical and/or analytical aspect of music during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries is offered every year. The MUS 503, 504 course sequence, Medieval Musical Style and Notation, is offered every other year; in alternate years MUS 511 Problems in Early Christian Music and/or MUS 512 Topics in Medieval Music are offered. The selection of other courses and seminars is made each year, with the particular interests of the musicology faculty and students of that year kept in mind.

In addition to active participation in courses or seminars, students are expected to familiarize themselves with the current state of musicological research and thinking through independent study as well as in consultation with faculty members. Students are also expected to take an active part in the working musicological community at large, through participation in regional, national, and international meetings and concomitant informal contacts with students and faculty at other institutions. Musicology graduate students organize and participate in a Colloquim Series each year. Graduate students and faculty also have the opportunity to present their work to the community in the Work-in-Progress Series. Graduate students from Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania collaborate to offer a student-sponsored conference every year.

Language Requirement. A reading knowledge of German and one other language of scholarship (normally Italian or French) is required. The language requirement is normally satisfied by examinations administered by the musicology faculty. Both requirements must have been passed before a student can be admitted to the general examination. Students are urged to satisfy at least one of the language requirements during the first year of graduate study.

Examinations. Early in the second term of the first year, each student submits to the musicology faculty a written paper based on work done in one of the fall term courses or seminars. During the second term, students are also given an examination to evaluate their control of music theory, consisting of an orally presented analysis of an assigned work from the late 18th to the early 20th century, with a week or two provided for preparation. Toward the end of the spring term, decisions about readmission to the second year of study are made on the basis of all of the student’s work to date as well as continuing promise.

The general examination for students of musicology (whether concentrating in history, theory, or ethnomusicology), normally taken in May of the second year, is in six general fields, chosen during the first three terms in consultation with and with the approval of the faculty. Fields are chosen to present a broad range chronologically, methodologically, and theoretically; it is expected that some fields will expand and complement work done in seminars, while others will cover areas studied independently. A student whose general record and performance on the general examination are satisfactory is admitted to candidacy for the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).

The requirements for a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree are the successful completion for all required course work (with no incompletes), the first-year paper, and the language requirements, as well as passing at least half of the general examination.

Dissertation and Final Public Oral Examination. Students should begin considering possible doctoral dissertation subjects as soon as possible after admission to the program. Dissertation proposals should be submitted by the beginning of the spring term of the third year of study. Reenrollment for the fourth year of study may be contingent upon approval of the dissertation proposal.

Ideally, the doctoral dissertation is written during the student’s official last year in residence to ensure full and frequent consultation with the supervisor and other faculty members. When the dissertation has been completed, reviewed by two readers, seen by the entire department, and accepted, a final public oral examination is scheduled; upon its successful conclusion the student is recommended for the Ph.D.

Graduate Program in Composition

The field of composition today is complex. The graduate program in composition at Princeton offers a course of study designed to enable each of its students to understand the field and to contribute to it in a productive, resourceful, and individual way.

Plan of Study. At the core of the program is the student’s own creative work, carried out in regular consultation with members of the composition faculty. Arranged around this core are 13 courses, three or four of which are given each term, as chosen by students and faculty on the basis of current interests and needs. There are no specific requirements, but all students are expected to pursue a variety of interests during the first two years. These courses have three principal aims: (1) to develop and sharpen those skills each student needs to realize his or her compositional intentions; (2) to expand each student’s conception of what is possible in construing and creating music through theoretical and compositional speculation and experimentation; and (3) to develop a larger and sharper sense of the context in which the student’s own work exists, and on which it depends, by continued study of a variety of existing music and by writing about music. Although the number of students enrolled in the program is small (three to five are enrolled each year), the diversity in their backgrounds and interests can be enormous. The lively exchange of ideas among composers of markedly different approaches is an essential feature of the program.

First-Year Requirement. By the end of the first year of study, the composition student is expected to complete a composition and a paper that engage musical concerns central to the student’s development. At the end of the spring term, each first-year student also completes a conference with the faculty in which he or she presents an analysis of a musical work. In response to this work, goals and strategies for the second-year composition and paper are discussed with each student by the whole composition faculty, and the specific areas of emphasis for the general examination are established by faculty and the student in consultation. In both years, compositions are normally written with currently available instrumental and electronic resources in view. Students are encouraged (in fact, before taking the general examination, are required) to help prepare sonic realizations of at least some of their work.

Language Requirement. Each student is asked to demonstrate, before taking the general examination, a relevant foreign language, or, alternatively, a working knowledge of some ancillary discipline relevant to his or her concerns as a composer, a relevant computer language, or some other discipline that the case may suggest.

General Examination. The general examination, normally taken at the end of the second year of study, is designed to establish the candidate’s readiness to undertake a Ph.D. dissertation. The examination has two parts: part one focuses on the candidate’s original second-year work (a composition and a paper), including a recording of the composition, and any related matters; part two explores the larger issues and contexts of this work by establishing the candidate’s command of music and musical discourse within several substantial musics, agreed upon the year before. In a given year, for example, part two might emphasize a particular mid-20th-century work, Beethoven’s late chamber music, and post-World War II European semi-improvisatory music; in another, the emphasis might be on Impressionist orchestral music and the American “experimental” tradition. In addition, a question is posed to frame a discourse about a body of music or a way of thinking about music.

The requirements for an M.A. would be the successful completion for all required course work (with no incompletes), the first-year paper and composition(s), and the language requirement, as well as passing at least half of the general examination.

Dissertation and Final Public Oral Examination. After successful completion of the general examination, the student may also be qualified to begin the process of consultation with faculty members that leads to the candidate’s formulation of a Ph.D. dissertation proposal and selection of an appropriate faculty adviser. This proposal, completed during the third year of study, should describe in detail the goals and strategies of a twofold dissertation project in composition and prose—a unified project clearly expressive of the candidate’s central concerns in the field of contemporary music. During the two post-generals years of study, Ph.D. candidates remain eligible to enroll in graduate courses. The dissertation, followed by a final public oral defense, completes the requirements for the Ph.D.

Performance and Performers in the Composition Program. Hearing a new composition realized is a critical part of a composer’s education. The performing ensembles and the electronic and computer music facilities at Princeton are designed to meet this need.

The Composers’ Ensemble at Princeton utilizes outstanding performers, chosen not only for their technical mastery but also for their qualities as sympathetic and resourceful collaborators with composers. Typically, 10 or more diverse concerts are presented per year, and it is expected that each graduate student working in instrumental and vocal music will have at least one composition prepared by the ensemble each year. In addition, composers have ample opportunity to consult with ensemble members prior to or in the course of actual composition. Other possibilities for composition and performance include ffmup and PLOrk as well as readings by the Princeton University Orchestra. See the music department Web site for details on all these ensembles. Students are encouraged to present additional concerts on their own and to participate in all University and music department performing ensembles. Instruction in conducting is also available.

Musicology Courses

MUS 503, 504 Medieval Musical Style and Notation

Peter G. Jeffery

Style-critical problems, readings from the theorists, and practical exercises in transcription from the musical notations of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries are studied.

MUS 505, 506 Studies in Comparative Musicology

Peter G. Jeffery

An introduction to the study of traditional music through a close examination of the theory and practice of one or more Asian regions of the world.

MUS 507 Transcription and Analysis

Staff

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with various sound structures through intense listening, transcribing, and analysis of selected pieces from Western and non-Western music cultures. Visual representation of musical sounds is dealt with as it appears in Western and non-Western musical tradition as well as in current scholarly works. The assignments involve transcription of various musical styles, and the classes focus on discussing the validity and the problems of transcription in each case. Through transcription, analysis, and discussions, the course also aims to develop skill in listening and the appreciation of unusual melodic and rhythmic structures, providing an introduction to the folk music of several ethnic groups.

MUS 511 Problems in Early Christian Music

Peter G. Jeffery

Historical, paleographic, and stylistic studies in the liturgical chants of the Christian East and West are studied.

MUS 512 Topics in Medieval Music

Peter G. Jeffery

Source-critical, historical, and stylistic studies of one of the late medieval polyphonic repertories are studied.

MUS 513, 514 Topics in 19th- and Early 20th-Century Music

Simon A. Morrison

Text-critical and analytic studies in the works of one or several of the major figures are studied.

MUS 515, 516 Topics in the History of Opera

Wendy Heller, Simon A. Morrison

Critical, historical, and analytic studies of music, language, and drama in the European operatic tradition are studied.

MUS 517 Topics in the History of Musical Theory to 1725

Staff

Explores advanced problems in the development of earlier musical theory in the West.

MUS 518 Musical Theory from the 18th Century to the Present

Scott G. Burnham

Studies in the history of tonal-harmonic and rhythmic-formal theory and of changing concepts of music theory in the West are explored.

MUS 519, 520 Topics in Music from 1600 to 1800

Wendy Heller

MUS 525, 526 Topics in Music from 1400 to 1600

Rob Wegman

Studies in one or more of the major vocal or instrumental repertories of the 15th and 16th centuries are explored.

MUS 527, 528 Seminar in Musicology

Staff

Original work in areas of current musicological significance are presented to and reviewed by the seminar as the occasion arises. Emphasis is given to student projects, but work in progress by any member of the seminar may be discussed or a topic of particular controversy examined.

Composition Courses

MUS 531, 532 Composition

Staff

Emphasis is on the individual student’s original work and the study and discussion of pieces pertinent to that work.

MUS 533 Seminar in Analysis

Staff

The compositional particulars of one large-scale work, usually from the 20th century, are studied, with occasional reference to ancillary and related compositions.

MUS 534 Ends and Means: Issues in Composition

Perry R. Cook, Steven Mackey

A consideration of the more elusive but fundamental aspects of composition: continuity; change—goal-directed, circular, sudden; tempo and texture; rhythms of harmony, contrapuntal interaction, succession of ideas, and surface attack; the “extra-musical”; contextual logic and ad-hoc systems; and sonic image, form, and idea.

MUS 536 Serial Music

Steven Mackey

A critical examination, primarily of 12-tone serialism. Particular emphasis is on the relations embodied in the 12-tone set and its transformations, associated invariants, combinatoriality, derivation, and aggregate structure, with reference to representative compositional realizations. The dimensions and levels of structure that do not necessarily manifest set relations are also examined.

MUS 537 Points of Focus in 20th-Century Music

Paul Lansky, Steven Mackey, Dmitri Tymoczko, Barbara White

Selected areas in 20th-century music are chosen for detailed examination and study. Representative works are subjected to critical scrutiny, and an attempt may be made to draw conclusions regarding larger theoretical, analytical, and social issues.

538 Computer Music: Compositional Applications

Paul Lansky, Daniel Trueman

The use and design of computer-based synthetic instruments and compositional software is studied. Emphasis is on the construction of computer-musical environments for the realization of sound as well as for compositional assistance.

MUS 539 Acoustics and Compositional Resources

Paul Lansky

Issues in the applications of signal-processing techniques to compositional adaptations, focusing on understanding the acoustic properties of musical and nonmusical sounds as well as the study of the application of current computer technology.

MUS 540 Composing Opera

Staff

An introduction to some of the compositional problems pertinent to opera. Musical potentials of language and dramatic structure as well as theatrical potentials of music are explored through experiments in text setting and libretto construction.

MUS 542 Instrumentation and Performance

Steven Mackey, Barbara White

A study of the characteristics of individual instruments, including extended contemporary techniques and writing arrangements for chamber ensemble and for orchestra. Special attention is given to problems of combining voice and instruments. The arrangements written for class are performed by the Composers’ Ensemble at Princeton and the Princeton University Orchestra, and problems of performance involving notation, rehearsal, and conducting are dealt with.

MUS 544 Improvisation

Steven Mackey, Daniel Trueman

Improvisation with conventional, unconventional, and electronic instruments, in groups of various sizes, with and without other mediums, in various physical and social contexts, both structured and unstructured is explored. The emphasis is on collaboration and interaction.

MUS 545 Contexts of Composition

Paul Lansky, Steven Mackey, Daniel Trueman, Barbara White

An examination of the proliferating variety of relations between composers and composition, in film, theater, and dance; technologically based systems and collaborative situations. Extended meanings of composition, including new applications made possible by technology and recording and the exploration of musical extensibility of subjects such as meditation, games, ritual, social action, and cognitive science.

MUS 548 Contexts of Music Theory

Staff

This seminar scrutinizes musical values and formulational cogency in various approaches to musical description, explanation, speculation, and polemic.

MUS 549 Topics in Tonal Theory

Kofi Agawu, Scott G. Burnham, Steven Mackey, Dmitri Tymoczko

Topics such as theoretical models, analytical procedures, and the relationship of each to theories of composition and performance may be covered.

MUS 550 Current Topics in Theory and Analysis

Kofi Agawu, Scott G. Burnham, Dmitri Tymoczko, Barbara White

The presentation and examination of an important work of current interest in theory and analysis and original research of faculty members and graduate students are explored.