Music

University of California, Berkeley

This is an archived copy of the 2021-22 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu.

Overview

The Department of Music fosters the cultivation of music on campus through undergraduate and graduate programs of study, and also public concerts and lectures in Hertz Hall, Morrison Hall, and elsewhere. For undergraduates, the department offers a major in music as well as numerous nonmajor courses for students with little or no previous experience in music. A minor in music draws on courses for either majors or nonmajors, depending on student qualifications. For graduate students the department offers programs leading to the MA/PhD or PhD degrees in musical composition, history and literature, or ethnomusicology.

The department's theory courses provide an introduction to the materials of musical composition through ear training, harmony, counterpoint, and analysis. The history and literature courses present a survey of Western music and detailed study of the chief periods of its development. Courses in ethnomusicology provide study of specific areas of world music, both in survey and in depth, and also provide an introduction to the principles and methods of research. Courses in performance (including orchestra, chorus, and various ensembles) offer the opportunity to perform a varied repertory and are open by audition to all students and auditors.

Course Placement Procedure

Students who plan to major in music or wish to take music major classes must complete the Musicianship Placement Exam before beginning music major classes. Students may pre enroll in classes before the Musicianship Placement Exam and make adjustments to their schedule during the add/drop period if necessary. For detailed information regarding the placement test, see the Placement Procedure page on the department's website.

Facilities and Library

The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies is the site for interdisciplinary research and teaching on the application of computer and related technologies to music, and for related concerts, lectures, workshops and seminars by internationally renowned performers, scholars, and researchers.

One of the finest music research collections in the world, the Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library provides strong support for instruction, research, and performance at Berkeley. The Hargrove Music Library currently holds some 180,000 volumes of books and printed music; 50,000 sound and video recordings; 30,000 microforms; and extensive manuscript and archival collections. Originally centered on the Western classical tradition, it has in recent years increasingly extended its collecting into non-Western, traditional, and popular musics. While supporting advanced research in musicology and ethnomusicology, it also serves the needs of composers and performers. Its extraordinary collection of music manuscripts and early editions, which continues to grow thanks to generous endowments, offers students the opportunity to work directly with original sources.

Now in its 63rd year, the well-attended free noon concert series takes place in Hertz Hall, a 678-seat performance space. Also used for evening concerts, rehearsals, and lecture classes, it is home to many department ensembles including the symphony, choruses, and ensembles.

A campus icon located in the middle of campus, the Campanile houses the 61-bell carillon and features daily performances by carillonists, students, and guests.

Located on the ground floor of Morrison Hall, the music practice rooms at Berkeley consist of 31 small rooms, most with a single piano, as well as five larger grand rooms which double as teaching studios and an organ/early music practice room.

The department maintains several instrument collections, including the Salz Collection of String Instruments, the Baroque Instrument Collection, the Edmond O'Neill Memorial Organs, and world Instruments. For further information on these collections, see the department's website.

In addition, the department houses two special collections of musical resources, the Joan Lam Choral Library and the Chambers Campanology Collection.  For further information on these collections, please see the department's website.

Performance Opportunities

Unique to Cal’s Department of Music, among the great music departments in the country, is the degree to which performance experience and study are integrated into every aspect of the academic program, whether honing musicianship skills; acquiring knowledge of the music of diverse cultures and traditions; or studying the history and literature of European music or contemporary music life in America and elsewhere. It shows up as a requirement only in one form: Music majors must enroll in at least three semesters of performance from the 140 or 150 series. However, undergraduates and graduate students avail themselves of rich performance opportunities by participating in one of the department’s ensembles that presents evening and weekend concerts; by presenting a noon concert; by auditioning for the opportunity to perform a concerto with the university orchestra; by performing in concerts of the Berkeley Undergraduate Composers Club; and in many other ways.

For further information on these opportunities, see the department's website.

Graduate Areas of Specialization

Each of the graduate programs — composition, ethnomusicology, and musicology— has a set of requirements that are tailored for the particular specialization.

Composition

Students in composition are encouraged to create music that is personal both in style and content while building a firm technical foundation. Composition is taught through seminars and independent studies by all composers on the faculty. Opportunities exist for public performances of student compositions, including chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Facilities are available for work in electronic and computer music.  For more information, view the Graduate Student Handbook.

Ethnomusicology

Students in ethnomusicology prepare for ethnographic research, through the study of cultural theory and methodology from various disciplines. Each student’s program is individually designed in consultation with an advisor, including opportunities for drawing on Berkeley’s considerable resources in related disciplines and area studies. For more information, view the Graduate Student Handbook.

Musicology

Students in the musicology program gain skills for historical research while developing a sense of critical inquiry and intellectual independence. The M.A. program introduces students to musicological methods and techniques and at the same time seeks to broaden their horizons through a variety of courses, including analysis and ethnomusicology. The Ph.D. involves more detailed work in research seminars and special studies. Dissertation topics at Berkeley have run the gamut of scholarly approaches and subjects, from source studies to theoretical or critical works, and from early medieval chant to the music of the present day. For more information, view the Graduate Student Handbook.

Undergraduate Program

Music: BA, Minor

Graduate Program

Music: PhD, Graduate areas of specialization can be seen above. 

Visit Department Website

Courses

Music

Faculty and Instructors

+ Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.

Faculty

Jeanne Bamberger, Adjunct Professor. Music cognition and child development.

Benjamin Brinner, Professor. Indonesia, Java, Bali, Israel, musical memory, situated musical cognition, musical interaction, improvisation, gamelan, music and oral narrative.
Research Profile

Edmund Campion, Professor. Music, composition, musical application of computer technologies.
Research Profile

Delia Casadei, Assistant Professor. Voice and politics in Italian 20th-century music .

Carmine Cella, Assistant Professor. Music and Technology.

Cindy Cox, Professor. Composition, music analysis and theory, post-tonal music, piano, music and live electronics, text-setting.
Research Profile

James Davies, Associate Professor. Musics and bodies, cultural performance, romanticisms, nineteenth-century music, histories of science, pianists and pianos, singers and voice, music pedagogy and training, South Africa, colonial melodrama, township opera.
Research Profile

Jocelyne Guilbault, Professor. Cultural politics, Caribbean, popular and traditional musics, nation, diaspora, cultural entrepreneurship.
Research Profile

Matthew Hough, Assistant Teaching Professor. Instrumental and vocal composition, theory and analysis of popular music, theory and ear training pedagogy.

Lester Hu, Assistant Professor, Musicology. Early Modern period (Renaissance/Baroque/late-imperial), global music history, songs and opera, music and empire-building, notation and grammatology, tuning.
Research Profile

Nicholas Mathew, Associate Professor. Beethoven, Haydn, music in Vienna, music and politics, music and urban culture, aesthetics, piano performance, historical performance practices.
Research Profile

Myra Melford, Professor. Jazz composition and improvisational practices.

David Milnes, Professor. Music, directing, orchestral conducting technique, music ensemble.
Research Profile

T. Carlis Roberts, Associate Professor. Popular music, social identities, performance, spirituality.
Research Profile

Mary Ann Smart, Professor. Staging of opera, 19th-century music, opera, opera and politics, 19th-century Italy, music and gender, singers and voices, Verdi, Wagner, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini.
Research Profile

Maria Sonevytsky, Assistant Professor. Sovereignty and wildness in post-Soviet Ukrainian ethno-music, the legacy of Soviet cultural policies on music after socialism, folklore and nuclear experience after Chornobyl .

Ken Ueno, Associate Professor. Music composition, noise, electronic music, Asian music, music of Japan, extended vocal techniques, overtone singing, musical culture of Japan, experimental improvisation.
Research Profile

Emily Zazulia, Assistant Professor. Medieval and Renaissance Music, the intersection of musical style, complex notation, and intellectual history .
Research Profile

Lecturers

Jean Ahn, Lecturer.
Research Profile

Christine Brandes, Lecturer.
Research Profile

Carla Brunet, Lecturer.

Lisa Gold, Lecturer.

Benjamin Goldberg, Lecturer.

Rama J. Gottfried, Lecturer.

Candace Johnson, Lecturer.

C. K. Ladzekpo, Senior Lecturer.

Midiyanto Midiyanto, Lecturer.

Michael Orland, Lecturer.

David Pereira, Lecturer.

Carla Shapreau, Lecturer.
Research Profile

Jeremy Wagner, Lecturer.
Research Profile

Doniel Mark Wilson, Lecturer.

Robert Yamasato, Lecturer.

Emeritus Faculty

Richard L. Crocker, Professor Emeritus.

Christy Dana, Senior Lecturer Emeritus.

Mary Kay Duggan, Professor Emeritus.

Richard Felciano, Professor Emeritus.

Marika Kuzma, Professor Emeritus.

Davitt Moroney, Professor Emeritus. Music, musicology, music performance, Italian Music.
Research Profile

John H. Roberts, Professor Emeritus. Music, music bibliography, Handel, French nineteenth-century opera.
Research Profile

Karen Rosenak, Senior Lecturer Emeritus.

+ Michael C. Senturia, Professor Emeritus.

Richard Taruskin, Professor Emeritus. Nationalism, music, musicology, theory of performance, Russian music, twentieth-century music, theory of modernism, analysis.
Research Profile

Bonnie C. Wade, Professor Emeritus.

Contact Information

Department of Music

104 Morrison Hall

Phone: 510-642-2678

Fax: 510-642-8480

music@berkeley.edu

Visit Department Website

Department Chair

David Milnes

104 Morrison Hall

MusicChair@berkeley.edu

Student Services Advisor

Zarah Ersoff

104 Morrison Hall

Phone: 510-642-8725

musicadvising@berkeley.edu

Department Manager

Mark Shaw

246A Morrison Hall

Phone: 510-643-8723

musmgr@berkeley.edu

Graduate Student Services Advisor

Zoe Xu

104 Morrison Hall

Phone: 510-643-8724

musicgradadvisor@berkeley.edu

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