Innovative
Music Scholars

UCLA’s Department of Musicology is one of the most successful graduate programs in American musicology. Recent alumni of the department teach at the University of Michigan, UT Austin, UC Irvine, Michigan State, Dalhousie University, Bates College, and other schools across the nation and the world. Our intellectual community is strikingly diverse, with U.S. graduate students from all regions of the country, international students from Canada, Mexico, Holland, Bermuda, Guatemala and Korea, and visiting scholars from as far away as China and the Ukraine.

As a training-ground for the next generation of adventurous, inventive music scholars, our Ph.D. program develops students’ creative and critical voices in a wide variety of chosen subfields; provides them with rich opportunities for establishing intellectual and professional networks; and gives them pedagogical training and experience second to none. Our graduate seminars explore topics and theories from musical Nationalism to the history of improvisation, musical camp to Dufay, opéra-comique to hands-on explorations of “public musicology.” Current graduate research interests include (but are by no means limited to!) David Bowie, Soviet music theory pedagogy, early modern anglophone devotional poetry and song, proto-punk musical experimentalism, music as cultural diplomacy during the Pan American era, 17th- and 18th-century operatic adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, music in marginal cinemas (horror, slasher, etc.).

The UCLA Musicology department normally enrolls 4-5 students per year. We accept applications for the Ph.D. only (an M.A. is normally awarded to eligible students after two years). The department is committed to competitive multi-year packages of support, and at the present time can usually guarantee a minimum of one year of fellowship and three plus years of teaching assistantship to incoming students. Students normally graduate 5-6 years after matriculation.

Student Perspectives:<br />
Caitlin Vaughn Carlos
Student Perspectives:
Caitlin Vaughn Carlos

“I’ve always been interested in how people use music of the past – the historical past and their own personal past. At UCLA I got to study nostalgia and uses of the past in rock music of the early 70s, allowing me to think about music that I’ve heard my entire life (for example, “American Pie” or “Led Zeppelin IV”) in a completely new way.” Caitlin Vaughn Carlos Ph.D. ’21 | Musicology

UCLA Musicologist’s New Book Explores the Sublime
Cesar Favila, assistant professor of Musicology, has just published his first book. Immaculate Sounds: The Musical Lives of Nuns in New Spain breaks new ground in its imaginative approach to recovering the lives of women who sang devotional music in Catholic churches. Oxford University Press has published the book in hardback. The UCLA Library has partnered with the
Marylin Winkle Publishes Rare Edition of Eighteenth-Century Cantata
School of Music musicologist Marylin Winkle has just published what promises to be the definitive version of Camilla de Rossi's Fra Dori, e Fileno (c. 1710). Dulcamara Press, a company devoted to producing performance editions of historically underrepresented works, has produced the work with the goal of making it accessible both to student and professional performers.
Stornoway Drops New Album
Dig the Mountain is the new LP by British Indie band Stornoway. Musicologist Thomas Hodgson plays trumpet with the band, which has sold tens of thousands of albums worldwide. The digital download version contains a remix that Hodgson completed at UCLA.

Graduate Opportunities

Distinguished Lecture Series
Ciro Zoppo Research Fellowship
Apr 29 Mon
5:15pm
Free
talks
Distinguished Lecture Series with Teresita Lozano
Specters of Survival and Persecution: Ghost Smuggling Ballads, Hauntology, and the Undocumented Migrant Experience Many ghost stories utilize themes of apparitions and haunting to elicit terror, warning listeners to abide by moral codes. However, since 2007, a phenomenon of Mexican corrido (ballad) composition, which I define as ghost smuggling ballads, shares a collective ghost story
Ostin 110A

Explore Other Degrees

Conducting
Graduate study and training in choral, orchestral, or wind conducting
Ethnomusicology
The study of global musical traditions through performance training, research, and field work
Global Jazz Studies
Jazz performance and musicianship courses are paired with African American Studies
BA
Music Composition
Mentorship in the creation and realization of music for concerts, opera, and visual media
Music Education
Preparation for music educators leading to a B.A. and teaching credential in just four years
BA
Music History & Industry
Combining Musicology and the Music Industry minor for practical hands-on training with the study of music within the context of different societies, cultures, and theories
BA
Music Industry
Industry professionals and UCLA faculty prepare students for music-related careers
Musicology
The scholarly study of the histories, cultures, and critical interpretations of music and music-making
Music Performance
Study and training towards professional performance careers in Western classical music