A taught graduate degree program at the Faculty of Music was inaugurated in 1954. Graduate studies in music theory combines scholarly excellence, the intimate scale of the program and close ties to Musicology and Ethnomusicology to make for a vibrant, friendly, and intellectually engaging environment that attracts top-level students pursuing the course-intensive MA and the research-oriented PhD in music theory. Graduate students also benefit from the regular presence of guest speakers at the biweekly colloquium series, graduate student roundtables and special events such as the annual Form Forum. All graduate students in music theory are supported by UofT's generous standard funding package and have the opportunity to gain professional experience through teaching and research assistantships.
Ethnomusicology, the study of music as culture, aims at understanding how music from around the world works, why it exists, what it means, and how it reflects, references, and inflects our human condition. Ethnomusicologists come from, draw upon, and contribute to a variety of disciplines: music, cultural anthropology, folklore, performance studies, dance, cultural studies, gender studies, ethnic studies, area studies, and other fields in the humanities and social sciences. Ethnomusicology has been a rapid growth area for UofT Music. We have research specialists in musical and cultural practices of East and Southeast Asia, India, Latin America, the Middle East and North America. Our thematic specializations include diasporic musics, transnationalism, historical ethnomusicology, music, capital and technology, the analysis of rhythm and metre, musical change, women's music, and music, traumatic experience, and everyday life. We place particular value on methodology and fieldwork.