About Us

Musicology and ethnomusicology at MSU is supported by an outstanding Music Library, an excellent collection of early musical instruments, and the resources of a major research university.

Aurand Collection of Early Musical Instruments Music Library

student sits in library, studying alone at a table; bookshelves in the background The Musicology/Ethnomusicology Area at Michigan State University is committed to the study of music as a diverse social practice. We have a large and active faculty of seven full-time musicologists and ethnomusicologists who specialize in a range of research fields and methodological approaches. The area has strengths in medieval and renaissance music in France and the Low Countries; music and court societies in Western Europe during the early modern period; French baroque music; music in the Caribbean; jazz and popular music; Eastern European music; music of sub-Saharan Africa; North American Indigenous music and dance; intellectual and cultural property; and gender/sexuality in music.

Through coursework and seminars, the Musicology/Ethnomusicology Area contributes to all undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the College of Music. We offer Master’s degrees in historical musicology and ethnomusicology and have an exceptionally strong record of preparing students for doctoral work and arts careers. Students in the Master’s program benefit from a range of area activities, including colloquia, guest speakers, and close work with faculty and fellow students through advising and seminars and methods courses.

Musicology/Ethnomusicology Courses

View a sampling of recent courses offered

MUS 214 – Introduction to Music Studies | C. Scales
MUS 409 – American Music | K. Prouty
MUS 410 – Jazz History | K. Prouty
MUS 419 – Baroque Music | M. Ray
MUS 421 – Art Music of the 19th Century | K. Bartig
MUS 422 – Art Music of the 20th Century | K. Bartig
MUS 424 – Music, Sexuality, and Gender | M. Ray
MUS 425 – Music South Asia | M. Largey
MUS 810 – Graduate Jazz History: Jazz Avant-Garde | K. Prouty
MUS 992 (001) – Seminar: Teaching Caribbean Music | M. Largey
MUS 992 (002) – Seminar: Music & Identity | M. Ray
MUS 992 (003) – Seminar: Music, Patronage, and Performance | N. Field
MUS 992 (004) – Seminar: Performance Practice through Classical Period | S. Long
MUS 214 – Introduction to Music Studies | C. Scales
MUS 420 – Art Music of 18th Century | M. Ray
MUS 427 – Early Music | S. Long
MUS 430 – Music of the Caribbean | M. Largey
MUS 491 – Special Topics: Indigenous Music & Globalism | C. Scales
MUS 491 – Special Topics: Music and the Moving Image | M. Cryderman-Weber
MUS 491 – Special Topics: Sacred Music in History and Cultures | N. Field
MUS 992 (001) – Seminar: Music and Social Justice | M. Ray
MUS 992 (002) – Seminar: Intellectual and Cultural Property | C. Scales
MUS 992 (003) – Seminar: Music, Nationality, and the Other | N. Field
MUS 992 (004) – Seminar: Music, Tradition, and Modernity | N. Field

HOLLANDER DISTINGUISHED LECTURES IN MUSICOLOGY SERIES

Each year, the Musicology Area hosts the Hollander Distinguished Lectures in Musicology Series, in which prominent guest scholars share their newest research. The series is generously funded by the late Stanley and Selma Hollander.

Previous Hollander Lectures

2023: Francesca Royster (DePaul University): The Futures of Black Country Music
2023: Anna Schultz (University of Chicago): Marathi Kirtan Before and After the “Classical”
2023: Halina Goldberg (Indiana University), “The Piano Virtuosa at Home and Away: Transnational Salon Networks of Maria Szymanowska, Maria Kalergis-Muchanoff, and Marcelina Czartoryska”
2023 Mark Clague (University of Michigan), “Writing Hits for the Symphony: The Fusion of Classical and Popular in George Gershwin’s An American in Paris“
2022: Marina Frolova-Walker (University of Cambridge), “Revolution, Trauma, and a Transition to Nowhere: Thoughts on Russian Music and Culture post-1991”
2021: Steven Swayne (Dartmouth College), “The Twenties: Sondheim’s, Mine, Yours, and Ours”
2020: Naomi André (University of Michigan), “Activist Operatic Spaces in Puccini’s La Bohème with South Africa’s Breathe Umphefumlo and Larson’s Rent”
2019: Emily Dolan (Harvard University), “Impossible Gluck, or the Future of Timbre”
2018: Ingrid Monson (Harvard University), “Courage and Improvisation: the Max Roach Papers”
2017: Anne Robertson (University of Chicago), “Beads, Books, Coins and Rituals: Josquin’s Music and Material Culture of the Late Middle Ages”
2016: Annegret Fauser (University of North Carolina), “Appalachian Spring: Martha Graham, Aaron Copland, and Their Audiences”
2015: Jocelyn Neal (University of North Carolina), “The Politics of Twang or What’s a Harpsichord Doing in My Country Music?”
2014: Glenn Watkins (University of Michigan), “Writing History: The Composer and the Musicologist”
2013: John Rice (University of Michigan), “Music and the Grand Tour in the 18th Century”
2012: Charles Hiroshi Garrett (University of Michigan), “Joking Matters: Humor and American Music”
2011: Danielle Fosler-Lussier (The Ohio State University), “The Right and the Best Ambassador: Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong, and the U.S. Reception of Cultural Diplomacy”