Research and Recent Dissertations

The Eastman theory faculty pursues a broad range of research interests, including Schenkerian theory, studies in the theory and analysis of 20th-century music, history of music theory, musical perception and cognition, computing and music, and jazz and other popular music. An annual lecture series serves to expand research horizons still further. Guest lecturers have included David Huron, Philip Ewell, Joseph Straus, Mark Spicer, Ellie Hisama, Robert Hatten, Jocelyn Neal, Daniel Harrison, Yayoi Uno Everett, Michael Klein, Danny Jenkins, and John Roeder. Student-organized theory symposia provide opportunities for students to present papers and share research in progress. Graduate students present their work at regional and national conferences, as active contributors to the discipline. They also edit and publish, with the assistance of an editorial board of prominent music theorists, a juried music theory journal entitled Intégral.

Technological support for theoretical research is provided by the Music Research and Music Cognition Lab, which gives students the chance to learn and develop software for in-house and Internet use. The lab includes computers, seminar space, and a sound-proof booth for running music-cognitive experiments. Vital support for theory scholarship also is provided by the Sibley Music Library, which houses an extraordinary collection of historical treatises on music theory, manuscript letters, and first editions, and maintains active subscriptions to more than 650 periodicals.

Music Theory graduates join distinguished alumni from Eastman’s other PhD-granting disciplines—Musicology, Composition, and Music Education—many of whom are teaching and leading at musical institutions and schools around the world. This list offers a sample, rotating list of 50 PhD alumni from the past 30 years who are helping to shape the field of music through their work in a wide variety of colleges, universities, music schools, and other institutions.

Due to generous faculty and alumni donations to a new fund in support of student research, applications are invited from music theory students for grants to support specific research projects. Grants will typically be made in amounts of $300 or less.

Awards will be made by a committee consisting of the chair of music theory, plus one tenured and one untenured member of the theory department, each of whom serves for not less than one academic year.

Applications must be for an individual expenditure that is essential to the development or completion of a music theory research project. Examples include cost of specialized software for research, travel to present research at a conference, preparing music examples for a publication, or visiting an archive overseas, etc.

Students are expected to utilize funding sources already available to them (e.g., Professional Development Funds) prior to applying for SRAF funding.

E-mail Department Chair for more information on how to apply.