Musicology
Duke University is strongly committed to an interdisciplinary approach to both research and education. This approach is reflected in its musicology program, in which music is studied not in isolation, but as part of the historical and cultural fabric of society. Students frequently take courses outside the Music Department and can pursue research in other disciplines related to their interests. They may also build interdisciplinary curricula (e.g., with Cultural Anthropology, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Film and Video, Women's Studies, African-American Studies, German Studies, or Latin-American Studies).
The departmental course offerings cover a wide spectrum, including historical periods of Western music, historical performance studies, African and African-American music, and theory and analysis. Recent courses have included: Music during the Lifetime of Josquin Desprez; Topics, Genres, and Styles in 17th- Century Music; Music of the Mendelssohns and Schumanns; The Tone Poems of Richard Strauss; Introduction to Ethnomusicology: Music and Language; Jazz and African-American Culture: The Birth of Bebop. Qualified students can also take courses in composition and do independent studies in performance practice and interpretation with members of the performance faculty.
A Guest Lecture Series in Musicology is presented annually. Recent guest lecturers have included Paul Berliner, Scott Burnham, Steven Feld, Robert Kendrick, Patrick McCreless, Lydia Goehr, Dolores Pesce, Guthrie Ramsey, Rose Subotnik and Leo Treitler, and Susan Youens. In addition, the department sponsors special symposia, including on Josquin, Bach. Mendelssohn, and Brahms. Graduate students have organized a Symposium on "Music and {con}Text: Art Song in the Twentieth Century," with Ned Rorem as featured speaker, and have organized sessions for interdisciplinary graduate conferences in Women's Studies.