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Music

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Conrad Prebys Music Center
http://musicweb.ucsd.edu

All courses, faculty listings, and curricular and degree requirements described herein are subject to change or deletion without notice.

The Graduate Program

UC San Diego offers the PhD with areas of emphasis in composition, computer music, and integrative studies, and the doctor of musical arts (DMA) in contemporary music performance. All applicants admitted to the graduate program will be officially entering the PhD or DMA program, with the prospect of completing a doctoral degree. Concurrent PhD or PhD and DMA degrees are not allowed. Applicants who have not previously earned a master’s degree in a music-related field from another institution will earn the MA while completing doctoral requirements. Students wishing to pursue a master’s degree only are encouraged to speak with the graduate adviser.

Composition

The Composition Program is committed to nourishing the individual gifts and capacities of student composers in a diverse and active environment, with an emphasis on intensive personal interaction between faculty and student. The faculty mentor considers a student’s particular goals and then attempts to strengthen his or her technical capacity to meet them. The diversity and liveliness of our program itself often challenges students to reevaluate their goals.

An incoming member in the MA or PhD program begins with a yearlong seminar (taught by a different faculty composer each quarter) and continues with individual studies thereafter. At the close of the first-year fall quarter and again after the following spring quarter, the entire composition community gathers for a daylong “jury.” Each seminar member is allotted a block of time during which the composition that has just been completed is performed and recorded in a carefully rehearsed presentation. There is a detailed discussion of each work by the faculty composers, and the student has opportunity to comment, explain, and pose questions. Following the performance and discussions of this day, the composition faculty meets to assess the students’ work collectively and to offer any guidance deemed necessary. This process is at the root of the uniqueness of the UC San Diego program, and manifests the range, seriousness, and vitality with which compositional issues are explored here.

After completing three quarters of seminar and two juries, students come to know something about the ideas and perspectives of each faculty composer; the faculty, in turn, is aware of each student’s objectives and needs. At this point, an individual mentor is agreed upon and this relationship becomes the center of the student’s continuing work as the degree is completed. A Third Year Forum presents, under departmental auspices, a work composed by each third-year PhD composer in the four quarters since his or her second jury. As a part of preparation for this forum, each student composer is expected to have a faculty performer on his or her PhD committee (as a regular member, or as an additional sixth member). The faculty performer is the student’s performance mentor and guide in interfacing with the performance community. There is also a biweekly Focus on Composition Seminar at which faculty, students, and selected visitors present work of interest (compositional, analytical, technological, and even whimsical).

The seminars serve to foster mutual awareness within the student composer group. Collegial relationships develop and lead not only to friendships, but also to further creative outlets in cooperative projects, including the student-run Composers’ Forums, performance collectives, and recital projects. UC San Diego performers—faculty and student—are all committed to the playing of new music, and frequent composer/performer collaborations are a vital aspect of life in the Department of Music.

Computer Music

The Computer Music Program emphasizes research in new techniques for electronic music composition and performance, catalyzed through an active concert program of new works by students, faculty, and visitors. Areas of research may include

  • new audio synthesis techniques
  • audio signal processing
  • music cognition
  • live improvisation with and by computers
  • integrating audio and video
  • electronic spatialization of sounds
  • techniques for live electronic music performance
  • computer music software and HCL design
  • audio analysis and feature detection

The Computer Music Program encourages work that overlaps with the other programs of study: Composition, Performance, and Integrative Studies. Analyzing and performing electronic music repertoire as well as writing new music involving electronics are encouraged.

The first-year computer music curriculum is centered on a yearlong “backbone” course covering the essentials of the computer music field. This material divides naturally into three portions (audio signal processing, compositional algorithms, and musical cognition).

In their second year, students work individually with faculty members to deepen their mastery of their subject areas of concentration. For example, a student wishing to focus on signal processing aspects might study techniques for digital audio analysis and resynthesis, drawing on the current research literature.

After having taken a critical mass of such subjects, PhD students enter a qualifying examination preparation period, and, once successful, they start their dissertation research.

Integrative Studies (IS)

(Formerly Critical Studies/Experimental Practices)

https://music-cms.ucsd.edu/grad/areas-of-study.html

Drawing on a wide range of academic fields, including critical and cultural theory, ethnomusicology, music cognition, new media studies, sound studies, and ecocriticism, among others, the IS program combines an exploration of contemporary music making with an examination of ideas and concepts that are relevant to its nature, creation, production, and reception. Exposure to a range of disciplines and interdisciplinary methods prepares students to pursue innovative scholarship and creative work.

IS graduate students initially enroll in introductory courses taught by core faculty members designed to present intersecting ways of researching sound, music, and culture, and which are designed to generate possibilities for future independent and collaborative research. In subsequent quarters students choose between a variety of focused and revolving topic seminars. Recent seminars have included Sounding Sex, Race, and Gender; Post-Colonial Hermeneutics; Music, Sound, and Biopolitics; Reading Ethnomusicology; Theorizing Radio and Musical Identities; Critical Historiography; Music and Affect; Proseminar in Creative Practice; Scholarly Writing for Publication; and Arts of the Archive. Seminars offered in other departments—for instance, in visual arts, literature, theatre and dance, anthropology, communication, ethnic studies, cognitive science, psychology, or computer science—are encouraged and may fulfill degree requirements, if approved by a student’s faculty adviser.

The integrative studies program embraces multiple ways of knowing and encourages cross-fertilization and hybridity between diverse disciplines and musical forms. Faculty and students in integrative studies produce work that moves fluidly between scholarship, performance, improvisation, sound installation, composition, instrument building, and more. The program teaches students to situate knowledge and practices from local to global communities, and to produce compelling scholarly writing and creative work that recognizes the responsibilities and opportunities associated with living in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world.

Performance

Fostering the creative, intelligent, and passionate performance of contemporary music is the mission of the Performance Program of the Department of Music. As once stated by founding faculty composer Robert Erickson, we at UC San Diego are a “community of musicians.”

Performers act and interact in a communal environment by means of collaboration with faculty and student composers, research in the areas of new performance modalities, music technology, and improvisation, among many other pursuits. The performance of contemporary music is viewed as a creative act that balances expertise and exploration.

Graduate performance students pursue either a master of arts or a doctor of musical arts degree in contemporary music performance. The course of study for both programs involves the completion of required graduate seminars and intensive study with a mentoring faculty member. Students are encouraged to adopt a vigorous, exploratory orientation in their private study. Final degree requirements include a recital, or in the case of the DMA, two recitals and the presentation of personal performance research.

The work of graduate performance students forms an integral component of a rich musical environment, which produces an astonishing quantity and variety of performances. Students may perform in collaborative performances with fellow students and faculty. Ensembles include groups specializing in the interpretation of unconventionally notated scores, the percussion group red fish blue fish and other ensembles. The Performance Forum, a student-initiated concert series, provides an opportunity for students to present a wide variety of repertoire that may include improvised music, world music, and music with technology. A strong, collaborative spirit among the curricular areas of the department (Performance, Composition, Music Technology, and Integrative Studies) also yields many new projects each year. Works by graduate student composers are performed on the annual Spring Festival and other concert series. The sense of musical community engendered by diverse interactions permeates the atmosphere and makes the Department of Music at UC San Diego a uniquely rewarding place to create the newest of music.

Graduate Admissions

Students are admitted to begin in fall quarter only. The deadline for submission of ALL application materials is December 4. Failure to meet this deadline jeopardizes admission and financial support. The admissions procedure is handled through Grad Apply beginning on September 1. The following PDF documents must be submitted to Grad Apply: statement of purpose; three letters of recommendation; a minimum of two papers illustrating writing ability in any area of music scholarship related to your degree goals (Your most recent writing and writing on twentieth- and twenty-first-century musical practices is preferred.); additional documentation of previous work (See below for more information from each area of emphasis.); and unofficial transcripts from all institutions attended (Scanned copies are acceptable. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores are not required for this application. Upon provisional admission to graduate study at UC San Diego, official hardcopy transcripts are required to finalize your admission). For international students: The TOEFL exam (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is required of ALL international students whose country of citizenship does not have English as its primary language, unless you have been enrolled in a full-time program of study for a minimum of one year in a country whose primary language is English. The minimum TOEFL score is 550 (or 213 for the computer-based exam). The minimum IELTS score is 7. The minimum speaking TOEFL score is 25 and 28–30 for IELTS.

Materials to Submit for Area of Emphasis

  • Composition applicants: Three scores of instrumental works, ideally accompanied by recorded examples of the works being performed. Such evidence may include, but should not be exclusively, electroacoustic works or installation documentation. At least one of the submitted works must be a score involving traditional instrumental writing. A repertory list of works (solo and chamber) performed or composed during the past few years and digital or scanned samples of printed concert programs in which you have participated, either as performer, composer, or collaborator.
  • Computer music applicants: Appropriate documentation of prior work (e.g., papers, performances, intermedia works, computer programs, etc.).
  • Integrative studies applicants: At least one of your writing samples should represent substantial and sustained engagement with a topic of relevance to contemporary music scholarship. If appropriate, documentation of performances, compositions, computer music projects, installations, or intermedia work.
  • Performance applicants: Audio files demonstrating the level of vocal and/or instrumental performance. In-person auditions are desirable when possible, but not required. A repertory list of works (solo and chamber) performed or composed during the past few years and digital/scanned samples of printed concert programs in which you have participated, either as performer, composer, or collaborator.

Core Graduate Curriculum

Methods: All students are required to complete both courses during their first quarter at UC San Diego.

  • MUS 291. Introduction to Research Methods
  • MUS 501. Introduction to Teaching Methods

Performance: All students must complete at least eight units.

  • MUS 200, MUS 201, MUS 202

Depth: All students must complete at least thirty-two units from among these options.

  • MUS 206
  • MUS 207
  • MUS 210
  • MUS 215A-B-C (IS area requirement; see note below)
  • MUS 267
  • MUS 270A-B-C (computer music area requirement; see note below)
  • MUS 271A-B-C
  • MUS 272
  • MUS 170–177 (No more than one course from this series can count toward this requirement.)

Note: Courses may not be used to satisfy both area requirements and methods/depths units unless specifically stated.

All courses in the methods and depth series above must be taken for a letter grade to count toward a student’s degree progress.

Breadth: All students are encouraged to take at least one graduate-level or upper-division undergraduate course outside of the department, which, by petition and on a case-by-case basis, may count toward the depth requirement.

Focus: All students (except for computer music) are required to enroll in the appropriate area focus course (S/U grading option only) every quarter in residence (for PhD students), or until advanced to candidacy (for DMA students).

  • MUS 204, MUS 205, MUS 245

Research: All students must complete at least six units of MUS 299 and are encouraged to pursue independent research on a continuing basis. Doctoral students must complete at least six units of MUS 298 enrolled with members of the student’s doctoral committee in preparation for the qualifying exam.

  • MUS 298, MUS 299

Teaching: Participation in the undergraduate teaching program is required of all graduate students at the equivalent of 25 percent time for three quarters or 33 percent for two quarters (six units total).

  • MUS 500

Engagement: All students are encouraged to explore outreach and service opportunities during their graduate study and to engage in sustained and substantive ways with our diverse local communities as an integral part of their creative and scholarly research.

Note: All courses in the methods and depth series above must be taken for a letter grade to count toward a student’s degree progress.

Area Requirements

In addition to the core graduate and PhD or DMA curriculum, doctoral students (according to their area of emphasis) must complete the following courses prior to the qualifying examination:

Composition

  • MUS 203A-B-C—successful completion of the jury process is necessary to obtain a passing grade in the corresponding seminar.
  • MUS 203D—every quarter in residence with committee chair after successful completion of 203C.
  • MUS 210—must be taken twice (one time can count toward the depth core requirement).
  • MUS 228
  • MUS 229
  • MUS 271A-B—both courses can count toward “depth” requirement.

Courses may not be used to satisfy both area requirements and methods/depths units unless specifically stated.

Computer Music

  • MUS 270A-B-C—must be taken within the first year of the program unless previously taken as a UC San Diego MA student.
  • MUS 270D—required to be taken a total of three times.

Courses may not be used to satisfy both area requirements and methods/depths units unless specifically stated.

Integrative Studies

  • MUS 215A-B-C
  • MUS 215D—must be taken twice after successful completion of MUS 215C, prior to qualification.

Courses may not be used to satisfy both area requirements and methods/depths units unless specifically stated.

Performance

  • MUS 200, 201, or 202—every quarter in residence.
  • MUS 232—every quarter in residence.

Courses may not be used to satisfy both area requirements and methods/depths units unless specifically stated.

Preliminary Examination

Each graduate program has area-specific requirements constituting a “preliminary exam” that takes place during fall of the student’s second year. The purpose of the preliminary examination is to evaluate a student’s potential to succeed in the program and their command of content presented in the first year of course work. If the participating professors unanimously agree that the student has not passed the exam, then the student will be allowed to finish the second year and to submit MA completion requirements but will not be allowed to continue with the doctoral program. The overriding purpose of the exam, however, is constructive rather than punitive. 

  1. Composition—The student’s second jury piece will be evaluated.
  2. Computer Music—Students submit one research paper for evaluation.
  3. Integrative Studies—Students complete an exam consisting of written responses to questions provided by the professors who taught in the core MUS 215A-B-C sequence.
  4. Performance—Students are asked to give a presentation showcasing and/or discussing portions of the material planned for their first recital.

Master’s Degree Completion Requirements

If a student opts for the terminal MA or wishes to earn an MA along the way to the doctorate, they would fulfill these completion requirements. However, students are not required to complete the MA en route to the doctorate.

  1. Successful completion of the core curriculum to the MA level and all curricular requirements of the student’s area of emphasis.
  2. Formation of a master’s committee (see UC San Diego policy on appointment of the master’s committee).
  3. Submission of a substantive and polished research paper (which may have originated as a graduate seminar paper) to the student’s MA committee for approval.
  4. Students emphasizing composition must submit a folio of three chamber compositions (supplemented by audio or audio-visual recordings for at least two).
  5. Students emphasizing computer music must submit a second substantive and polished research paper along with either a thesis demonstrating original research, or a lecture-performance in which the scientific, technological, and musical aspects of an original computer music composition are documented, played, and discussed.
  6. Students emphasizing integrative studies must complete a thesis of roughly sixty pages demonstrating original research and critical insight, which may also include documentation of their creative practice.
  7. Students emphasizing performance must present a major recital that merits approval by the student’s committee chair and submit either two additional creative projects with accompanying documentation or one creative project plus a second research paper.

All of the above master’s requirements must have final approval from all members of a student’s committee.

Qualifying Examination/Advancement to Candidacy

All students are expected to advance to candidacy (i.e., qualify) by the end of the student’s third year of graduate study.

Requirements prior to taking the qualifying examination:

  • Successful completion of the core curriculum and all curricular requirements of the student’s area of emphasis for the PhD or DMA degree, including at least six units of MUS 298. Students should enroll in MUS 298 with the committee members who will be providing qualifying questions for the exam.
  • Appointment of the doctoral committee per UC San Diego Senate regulations.
  • All PhD students must submit one research paper (not previously submitted for any other degree) that is judged by the student’s committee to be of publishable quality. The topic and scope of the publishable paper will be developed with, and approved by, the student’s PhD committee chair.
  • Composition students must submit a folio of not fewer than three compositions.
  • DMA students must give at least one recital.

The qualifying examination for all doctoral students will consist of the following:

  • A written and oral defense of three questions provided by the doctoral committee pertaining to appropriate areas of specialization. Qualifying exams must be well supported with appropriate and proper citations and are most often in the range of twenty-five pages of written text for each question. Students have a twelve-day period in which to write the qualifying exam and must deliver copies of their responses to each committee member and to the graduate staff adviser within that twelve-day period. Final deliveries must be made on a regular UC San Diego workday, followed by a normative period of at least five workdays before the exam defense can be held, so please schedule accordingly. Students are advised to schedule an agreeable date and time for the exam with their committee members and then work backwards to arrive at an acceptable date for receiving their questions. For integrative studies students, one question will involve a defense of the student’s dissertation prospectus. This prospectus is a document that presents the research topic of the dissertation, places it in the context of relevant literature and/or in the context of recent artistic developments, discusses its significance, specifies and justifies the research methods, theoretical orientation and/or artistic approach, and indicates the anticipated steps leading to completion.
  • Students are expected to advance to doctoral candidacy within their first three years. If final approval is not obtained, students will either not be allowed to continue in the program or will be placed in a one-quarter probationary period and asked to redo aspects of the qualifying process. If a student fails to gain final approval during this period, they will not be allowed to continue in the program and will receive no further funding or support.
  • Successful completion of the qualifying exam marks the student’s advancement to doctoral candidacy.

PhD and DMA Completion Requirements

After successful completion of the qualifying examination, all students must remain in residence for at least three quarters, during which time they must enroll in twelve units of MUS 299 every quarter with their committee chair or other committee members. Students must provide a full copy of the doctoral research they wish to defend to the student’s doctoral committee members four weeks prior to the doctoral defense. Materials previously submitted for other degrees are not acceptable, and in all cases a final public defense of the student’s doctoral work is required. It is understood that the edition of the dissertation given to committee members will not be the final form, and that committee members may request changes or revisions be made to the text after the defense. In extreme cases, another public defense may be merited.

  • For composition students, completion of a major composition project.
  • For computer music students, completion of an acceptable dissertation.
  • For integrative studies students, completion of a book-length dissertation demonstrating original research and critical insight, or presentation of a major creative work and a substantive written defense of that work.
  • For DMA students, completion of two more recitals, or one recital plus one of the following: (a) a thesis or research project; (b) a concert or lecture recital that is innovative in design and/or content and which is supported by appropriate documentation as determined by the committee; or (c) two approved chamber music concerts, with appropriate documentation as determined by the committee.
  • All of the above doctoral completion requirements must have final approval from all members of a student’s committee. Acceptance of the dissertation by the university librarian represents the final step in completion of all requirements for the PhD.

Materials previously submitted for degrees at other institutions are not acceptable for submission at UC San Diego.

Specialization in Critical Gender Studies

Students in the doctoral (PhD) program in music may apply for a specialization in critical gender studies to complement their course work and research in music.

The Critical Gender Studies Program is built on the intellectual foundations of intersectional feminist thought and queer studies, and incorporates the interdisciplinary methodologies, intersectional frameworks, and transformational epistemologies central to contemporary gender and sexuality studies. The graduate specialization in critical gender studies provides specialized training in gender and sexuality for students currently enrolled in a UC San Diego doctoral (PhD) program. Through advanced course work in critical gender studies and its affiliated departments, graduate students in the specialization develop an understanding of gender as necessarily linked to other social formations, including sexuality, race, nation, religion, (dis)ability, and structures of capital. At the same time, doctoral (PhD) students engaging gender and sexuality studies have the opportunity to develop their work among peers who take up similar questions in their scholarship.

Admitted students are required to complete five courses in addition to their home department’s core requirements, consisting of two core courses and three electives. The core courses are Advanced Studies in Critical Gender Studies (CGS 200), to be taken shortly after admission to the specialization, and Practicum in Critical Gender Studies (CGS 299), to be taken in the student’s final two years of dissertation writing. Electives may be chosen from a list of preapproved seminars in participating departments (students may petition other courses with significant gender/sexuality studies content) and may be taken at any time during the student’s tenure at UC San Diego. Admitted students must also include at least one member of their dissertation committee from the list of CGS core or affiliate faculty.

For more information about the graduate specialization in critical gender studies, please visit http://cgs.ucsd.edu.

Normative Support, Residency, and Time to Degree Policy

California Residency Expectation

Nonresident US students are expected to gain California residency after their first year. Continuing financial support is dependent on meeting this expectation.

Departmental Support Policy

All admitted graduate students are guaranteed support for up to fifteen quarters (five academic years). Financial support is contingent upon full-time registration (twelve units or more per quarter), making satisfactory progress toward degree completion, and being in good academic and employment standing. A typical funding package consists of tuition, health insurance, and student fees, plus a combination of student employment and/or stipend that equates to the salary of a 50 percent TA or GSR position over nine months. Students may apply for research travel support and summer teaching opportunities (especially after passing the qualifying exam). Employment during summer session does not count toward quarter limits, but employment for the colleges or elsewhere on campus during the academic year does count toward the above department support limits.

Time to Degree Policy

  1. All applicants admitted to the graduate program will be officially entering the PhD or DMA program with the prospect of completing a doctoral degree.
  2. Each graduate program has area-specific requirements constituting a “preliminary exam” that takes place during fall of the student’s second year. The purpose of the preliminary examination is to evaluate a student’s potential to succeed in the program and their command of content presented in the first year of course work. If the participating professors unanimously agree that the student has not passed the exam, then the student will be allowed to finish the second year and to submit MA completion requirements but will not be allowed to continue with the doctoral program.
  3. All students are expected to advance to candidacy (i.e., qualify) by the end of their third year of graduate study.
  4. Departmental funding is dependent on meeting all of the above expectations. Students who do not comply with the above policy may be ineligible for their final three quarters of support.
  5. If final approval from all members of a student’s qualifying or dissertation committee is not obtained, students will either not be allowed to continue in the program or will be placed in a one-quarter probationary period and asked to redo aspects of the completion requirements. If a student fails to gain final approval during this probationary period, they will not be allowed to continue in the program and will receive no further funding or support.

UC San Diego Time to Doctorate Policy

The normal period in which doctoral students, under usual circumstances, are expected to complete the requirements for the degree is five years. In addition, the Department of Music Time to Doctorate policy includes maximum registered time in which a student must advance to doctoral candidacy (four years), maximum time during which a doctoral student is eligible for support (six years), and maximum registered time in which a student must complete all doctoral requirements (six years).

Advising Office

Graduate Adviser
Ali Cresap
Room 197, Conrad Prebys Music Center
(858) 534-3279
Email: mus-grad@ucsd.edu