Doctor of Philosophy in Music - Musicology

University of Memphis

Our Ph.D. curriculum in historical musicology is a traditionally conceived program that prepares students for historical research in music at the highest level. It incorporates a minor in a humane field outside music and culminates with a doctoral dissertation. The musicology faculty members have specialized strengths and interests in renaissance music particularly renaissance Spain eighteenth century music particularly in the German speaking lands convent music music of nineteenth century America organology and performance practice of all periods. Recent seminars have explored the Las Huelgas codex Cristóbal de Morales music and daily life in eighteenth century Vienna music and rhetoric in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the operas of W.A. Mozart. We also offer a Ph.D. in musicology with a focus on Southern Regional Studies this unique program combines historical and ethnomusicological elements and is intended for students whose interests revolve especially around the vernacular musics of the southern United States. Recent dissertations have dealt with session musicians in the Memphis recording studios blues cover songs the Blackwell Brothers the fiddler Melvin Wine and the structure of rhythm and blues music.