Program Overview

Program Overview

The Music Composition program at Princeton University offers a unique and open curriculum that allows students to pursue their individual compositional interests. The program is designed to foster a lively exchange of ideas among composers with diverse backgrounds and approaches.

Program Structure

• The program is typically 5 years long.
• Students are required to live in Princeton during their first two years of study.
• The program includes a combination of seminars, composition lessons, and research opportunities.

Admission Requirements

• Application deadline: December 30, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
• Fee: $75.
• GRE: General Test - Not Accepted.
• Additional departmental requirements:
  • Scores and recordings can be accepted in the following formats:
    • Preferred Method: Create a simple website for your Princeton portfolio and enter the URL in the space provided within the application.
    • Upload Method: Upload your scores and recordings in the space(s) provided within the application.
  • Sample of written work (analyses, term papers, etc.): optional, 25 page maximum.

Program Offerings

• Ph.D. in Music Composition.
• The program includes a variety of seminars, composition lessons, and research opportunities.
• Students are expected to take a range of seminars during the first two years, which have three principal aims:
  • To develop and sharpen the skills each student needs to realize his or her compositional intentions.
  • To expand each student's conception of what is musically possible.
  • To develop a sense of the context in which the student's own work exists by studying and writing about other music.

Language Requirement

• Each student is asked to demonstrate, before taking the general examination, a working knowledge of some ancillary discipline relevant to his or her concerns as a composer.
• The language requirement is normally satisfied by examinations administered by appropriate campus departments as part of intensive reading courses.
• Students are urged to satisfy the language requirement during the first year of graduate study.

General Examination

• The general examination, normally taken at the end of the second year, is designed to establish the candidate’s readiness to undertake the Ph.D. dissertation.
• The examination has four parts, two of which are analytical.
• Students are asked to design a syllabus for a graduate seminar and to respond to the music of an established composer.

Teaching

• Students normally teach during some but not all of their first eight semesters, and never in the first year.
• Fifth-year students are required to teach in that year.

Dissertation and FPO

• After the successful completion of the general examination, the student begins the process of consultation with faculty members that leads to the candidate’s formulation of a Ph.D. dissertation proposal.
• The Ph.D. dissertation comprises an original composition and a scholarly essay, both developed in consultation with two advisers.
• The dissertation is expected to make a significant contribution to the field of music composition.

Faculty

• The program has a diverse and accomplished faculty, including:
  • Chair: Elizabeth H. Margulis (acting) and Daniel L. Trueman (on leave).
  • Director of Graduate Studies: Juri Seo and Gavin Steingo.
  • Professor: Donnacha M. Dennehy, Wendy Heller, Steven Mackey, Elizabeth H. Margulis, Simon A. Morrison, Juri Seo, Gavin Steingo, Daniel L. Trueman, Dmitri Tymoczko, and Barbara A. White.
  • Associate Professor: Rob C. Wegman.
  • Assistant Professor: Tyondai A. Braxton, Nathalie Joachim, Jamie L. Reuland, and Anna Yu Wang.
  • Professor of the Practice: Gabriel Crouch and Michael J. Pratt.
  • Senior Lecturer: Eric B. Cha-Beach, Rudresh K. Mahanthappa, Ruth A. Ochs, Joshua Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jeffrey O. Snyder, Olivier P. Tarpaga, and Jason Treuting.
  • Lecturer: Christopher Arneson, Todd T. Bashore, Brian E. Brown, Geoffrey L. Burleson, Ronald M. Cappon, Ted Chubb, Yousun Chung, Kevin G. Deas, Martha Elliott, Rochelle K. Ellis, Alan Feinberg, John J. Ferrari, Jack D. Hill, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, Jerome Jennings, Margaret A. Kampmeier, Francine Kay, David S. Kellett, Christopher A. Komer, Brian Kuszyk, Sunghae A. Lim, Michelle Lordi, Matthew Melore, David Miller, Leah G. Nelson, Clancy Newman, Miles Okazaki, Laura Oltman, Alberto Parrini, Matthew Parrish, Barbara J. Rearick, Elizabeth L. Rouget, Stacey G. Shames, Sarah Shin, Jo-Ann Sternberg, Arnie Tanimoto, Jessica L. Thompson, Julius Tolentino, Sumi Tonooka, Elio Villafranca-West, Robert J. Wagner, Kendall K. Williams, Nancy J. Wilson, and Eric Wyrick.
  • Visiting Lecturer: Christopher T. Hailey.

Permanent Courses

• The program offers a range of permanent courses, including:
  • COM 532 - Publishing Articles in Literature, Art, and Music Studies Journals.
  • MUS 501 - Musicology as a Profession.
  • MUS 510 - Extramural Research Internship.
  • MUS 512 - Topics in Medieval Music.
  • MUS 513 - Topics in 19th- and Early 20th-Century Music.
  • MUS 514 - Topics in 19th- and Early 20th-Century Music.
  • MUS 515 - Topics in the History of Opera.
  • MUS 519 - Topics in Music from 1600 to 1800.
  • MUS 520 - Topics in Music from 1600 to 1800.
  • MUS 525 - Topics in Music from 1400 to 1600.
  • MUS 527 - Seminar in Musicology.
  • MUS 528 - Seminar in Musicology.
  • MUS 531 - Composition.
  • MUS 532 - Composition.
  • MUS 534 - Ends and Means: Issues in Composition.
  • MUS 537 - Points of Focus in 20th-Century Music.
  • MUS 540 - Composing Opera.
  • MUS 541 - Seminar in Music Composition.
  • MUS 542 - Instrumentation and Performance.
  • MUS 545 - Contexts of Composition.
  • MUS 548 - Creative Practice in Cultural Perspective.
  • MUS 560 - Music Cognition Lab.
  • MUS 561 - Music Cognition Lab.