Ph.D. in Music

The Ph.D. in Music is offered in Musicology or Music Theory.

Graduate Admission to the School of Music

Application procedures and program requirements can change. Please visit the School of Music Admissions webpage for current information.

Graduate programs in the School of Music are open to students with acceptable baccalaureate degrees, as specified by the admitting areas, whose academic records indicate that they can do successful work at the graduate level. Regular admission requires a bachelor's degree and a grade-point average of at least a B (3.0 on a 4.0 scale), from KU or from another regionally accredited institution or foreign university with substantially equivalent bachelor's degree requirements.

Doctor of Philosophy Degree Requirements

Foreign Language Requirements

Aspirants to the Ph.D. degree in musicology and music theory are expected to have a reading knowledge of two languages chosen from: German, French, Italian, Spanish, or any other foreign language approved by the department. Reading proficiency in both languages must be demonstrated before scheduling the oral comprehensive examination; for many students, proficiency in one of these languages was perhaps demonstrated during a master's degree. The student also may be advised to develop reading proficiency in another language or languages in order to pursue research for the dissertation.

Course of Study

Specific coursework for each student is arranged individually in consultation with the student’s advisor. The Ph.D. program normally requires 4 years of full-time study beyond the master’s degree, with the first 2 years devoted to coursework. A minimum of 18 credit hours is devoted to the dissertation, an original contribution to knowledge in the student’s research area.

Research Skills and Responsible Scholarship

Doctoral students are required to have training in both responsible scholarship and research skills pertinent to the doctoral level of research in their field of study.

To satisfy both components, Ph.D. students in Musicology and Music Theory must complete MUSC 801 Music Bibliography and Research (or its equivalent) and participate in advanced performance seminars. Students who took the equivalent of MUSC 801 during a master's degree will be excused from the course for the PhD but will need to enroll in those three credits in another area. 

Scholarly Presentation

Each candidate for the Ph.D. degree in musicology and music theory must make a public presentation of no less than 20 minutes on a scholarly topic. This requirement may be fulfilled by reading a paper at a national or regional meeting of a society in the student’s discipline or in a colloquium at KU.

Written and Oral Comprehensive Examinations

Students must take qualifying written examinations in music theory and musicology when most of their coursework has been completed and the research skills/responsible scholarship requirements have been fulfilled. The next exam called the major field qualifying exam, involves one week of research and writing essays on two different topics, questions prepared specifically for the student by the area faculty.

Upon successful completion of all written qualifying examinations, the student is eligible to schedule the oral comprehensive examination administered by the graduate advisory committee. With the satisfactory completion of both written and oral comprehensive examinations, the aspirant is admitted to candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Dissertation Proposal

No later than the end of the semester after the successful completion of the written and oral comprehensive examinations, the candidate, in consultation with the faculty dissertation committee, must submit a dissertation proposal with a preliminary bibliography, outline, and description of the project and research plan.

Final Oral Examination

Following completion of the dissertation, the student is eligible to schedule the final oral examination in which the candidate presents and defends the results of the dissertation research and is expected to respond to questions from the faculty committee. A grade of at least B must be achieved on the dissertation for satisfactory completion of the degree requirements.

Sample degree plans for the Doctor of Philosophy in Music with the following concentrations can be found here: concentration in Musicology, concentration in Music Theory, or by using the left-side navigation.