Music Theory PhD Statistics?

EarlGr8
Sun, 25 Nov 2012 16:58:06 +0000

TrumpetDad,

I don’t know of any program that offers a “PhD in Jazz Theory” per se. (But of course, I don’t know of any program that offers a “PhD in Classical Theory” per se either.)

The reason being that at the PhD level, “theory” as an academic discipline is a different term than when describing “applied” theory or musicianship skills classes for undergrads. The latter is the most common context that people mean when they colloquially use the term “music theory” but of course, if one is training to be a professional theorist, they are dealing more so with scholarship and theoretical readings of music than they are with applied musicianship. Training as a PhD student in theory wouldn’t entail as much learning about keys/chords/harmony/scales/etc. as it would about how to conduct original readings and interpretations of musical composition.

Therefore, any PhD program in Music Theory would be good for a grad student interested in focusing on jazz music, pending there is faculty in the department with the similar sort of research interests.

If one is simply wanting to learn about jazz theory per se (in the musicianship/skills sense, not as an academic discipline), then a PhD program is probably not the right program anyways. (I could be wrong though, and there might be some PhD programs focusing exactly on jazz theory, but I haven’t researched this and don’t know of any.)