Report on American Master’s Degree Programs in Music Theory

Summarizing American master’s degree programs in music theory is a difficult task. In the United States, there are no national standards, either official or implicit, for what constitutes a master’s degree in music theory (which we Americans generally take to mean music theory and analysis) and there are at least three different sorts of master’s degrees offered: a “stand-alone” degree that helps students prepare for doctoral studies either at that same school or elsewhere, a master’s degree that is earned en route to a Ph.D. at the same school and does not have separate (and separable) requirements, and a master’s degree in theory pedagogy, which is not especially common, but which is generally meant for students who either have an interest in teaching music theory at a non-research university or to help musicians who are earning doctorates in performance or music education gain the training they need to teach some undergraduate theory courses.