Related Field in Music History

Entrance requirements
Doctoral students wishing to select music history as related field must submit a formal application. Applications will be reviewed during long semesters only and will consist of three items:

* a cover letter including contact information

* a paper that the student wrote for a past music history class

* a personal statement (300-500 words) addressing the student’s musicological interests and goals

These materials must be sent to the coordinator of music history (Margaret.Notley@unt.edu). Area faculty will then evaluate the application and issue a formal decision of acceptance or rejection. A student has not been admitted to the related field program until this decision is officially communicated to him or her.

Course Work
Required course: MUMH 5020 (3 hours). Please note: this course is offered only once per year, in the spring.

The student will choose nine additional hours, six of which must be at the 6000 level. Three of the nine hours must be from a class devoted to a topic from before 1750 (MUMH 5331, MUMH 5332, MUMH 5333, MUMH 6020, MUMH 6030, or MUMH 6740). Another three hours must be from a class devoted to a topic from after 1750 (MUMH 5341, MUMH 5342, MUMH 5343, MUMH 6750, MUMH 6760, or MUMH 6770).

The remaining three hours may be chosen from any of the following regular courses: MUMH 5110, MUMH 5331, MUMH 5332, MUMH 5333, MUMH 5341, MUMH 5342, MUMH 5343, MUMH 5430, MUMH 5440, MUMH 5771, MUMH 6020, MUMH 6030, MUMH 6080, MUMH 6160, MUMH 6740, MUMH 6750, MUMH 6760, or MUMH 6770.

With the permission of the area coordinator, the final three hours may also be covered by Teaching Music History, a Special Problem course (MUMH 6900) taught by the instructors of MUMH 3500 or 3510 during certain semesters. Students interested in this class must contact the music history area coordinator (margaret.notley@unt.edu) at registration time.

Classes used to fulfill the music history component of the D.M.A. degree may not be duplicated in the related field if musicology is the related field of choice.

Exam
Well in advance of the exam the student must ask one musicology professor to serve as the related-field adviser and another to serve as a second adviser. One of the advisers will focus on pre-1750 music, while the other one will deal with post-1750 music.

The exam will require students to write three one-hour essays. The related-field and second advisers will write the questions, grade the written exam, and conduct the oral portion of the exam.

Approximately six weeks before the exam the student will receive two possible topics for each essay. Two days before the exam the related-field adviser will communicate to the student which of each pair of possibilities will appear on the exam and provide the student with specific prompts for each essay. The student may bring scores to the exam. The exam is to be handwritten, but the student does not have to write in blue books.

1. The first essay will be on a topic that concerns methodology. The topic will most likely be taken from MUMH 5020, which is required for the related field. It may also be taken from another course, subject to area approval.

2. The second part of the exam will require the student to write two essays that focus on central repertory. The student's advisers will assign two pieces from before 1750 and two from after 1750, but, as stated above, the student will write on only one of each pair. Questions for this part of the exam will not necessarily be related to the classes that the student took for related-field credit.

Students will prepare for this part of the exam by acquiring a thorough knowledge of the assigned pieces and the English-language literature on them. The related-field and second advisers will be careful to assign pieces on which there is a significant amount of published English-language research.

This written test will be graded on a pass or fail basis by both of the advisers. After passing this test, the student must take an oral exam in which he or she will have the opportunity to defend or clarify answers. If the student's program does not include an oral stage as part of the qualifying examinations, an oral follow-up dealing solely with the musicology part of the test will be scheduled.

These examinations may be taken no more than three times. All components of the qualifying examinations must be completed within 14 months.

(Updated 19 April 2016)