Below are lists of Graduate Music Theory courses for the 2023–24, 2022–23, 2021–22, 2020–21, and 2019–20 academic years. Click a course number to navigate to its description.
2023–24 Academic Year
MUS1000H Introduction to Music Research (MA1 only) (Neufeldt)
MUS1250H PhD Seminar (PhD1 only) (Pilzer)
MUS1990H MA Major Paper (MA only)
MUS1998H Reading and Research (MA only)
MUS3228H Classical Form (Vande Moortele)
MUS3262H Theoretical Perspectives on Global Musics (Vishio)
MUS3403H Theory and Analysis of Atonal Music (Sallmen)
MUS3404H Extended Tonal Techniques in Twentieth-Century Music (Sallmen)
MUS3406H Current Perspectives on Music Theory (Vande Moortele)
MUS3412H Theories of Rhythm and Meter (McClelland)
2022–23 Academic Year
MUS1000H Introduction to Music Research (MA1 only) (Neufeldt)
MUS1006H Public Music Scholarship (Copeland and Tan)
MUS1250H PhD Seminar (PhD1 only) (Pilzer)
MUS1990H MA Major Paper (MA only)
MUS1998H Reading and Research (MA only)
MUS3113H Symphonic Modernisms (Vande Moortele)
MUS3248H Current Compositional Practices (Sallmen)
MUS3265H Music Cognition (Tan)
MUS3404H Extended Tonal Techniques in Twentieth-Century Music (Sallmen)
MUS3410H Analysis II [1840–1910] (Vande Moortele)
2021–22 Academic Year
MUS1000H Introduction to Music Research (MA1 only) (Neufeldt)
MUS1250H PhD Seminar (PhD1 only) (Pilzer)
MUS1990H MA Major Paper (MA only)
MUS1998H Reading and Research (MA only)
MUS3251H Late Schubert (Vande Moortele)
MUS3306H Pedagogy of Music Theory (Sallmen)
MUS3403H Theory and Analysis of Atonal Music (Vishio)
MUS3404H Extended Tonal Techniques in Twentieth-Century Music (Sallmen)
MUS3405H Topics in the History of Music Theory 1600–1950 (Tan)
MUS3412H Theories of Rhythm and Meter (McClelland)
MUS7406H Music Psychology (Tan)
2020–21 Academic Year
MUS1000H Introduction to Music Research (MA1 only) (Neufeldt)
MUS1250H PhD Seminar (PhD1 only) (Pilzer)
MUS1990H MA Major Paper (MA only)
MUS1998H Reading and Research (MA only)
MUS3243H The Music of Elliott Carter (Sallmen)
MUS3261H Theory and Analysis of Popular Music (Duinker)
MUS3404H Extended Tonal Techniques in Twentieth-Century Music (Sallmen)
MUS3409H Analysis I (MA only) (Vande Moortele)
MUS7406H Music Psychology (Tan)
2019–20 Academic Year
MUS1000H Introduction to Music Research (MA1 only) (Neufeldt)
MUS1250H PhD Seminar (PhD1 only) (Pilzer)
MUS1990H MA Major Paper (MA only)
MUS1998H Reading and Research (MA only)
MUS3101H Seminar in Schenkerian Analysis (McClelland)
MUS3232H Romantic Form (Vande Moortele)
MUS3248H Current Compositional Practices (Sallmen)
MUS3316H Cognitive Perspectives in Music Theory (Tan)
MUS3403H Theory and Analysis of Atonal Music (Bisciglia)
MUS7406H Music Psychology (Tan)
Course Descriptions
Below are course descriptions for all Graduate Music Theory courses at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.
MUS1000H Introduction to Music Research
Studies in historical, analytical and critical methods with a view to exposing different approaches to research; investigation of reference books and music editions; bibliographical and organizational problems in preparing music papers.
MUS1006H Public Music Scholarship
This graduate seminar examines recent and historical approaches to publicly engaged music scholarship, broadly defined as intellectual and creative activities for and with communities beyond the academy. Course topics include: music scholarship and the changing media landscape, music research and social responsibility, collaborative methodologies, “applied” research and community engagement, and historical perspectives on “the listener.” Students will read and respond to literature on public scholarship, review and critique examples of public scholarship produced for popular audiences, and consider the methods and outcomes of community-engaged and policy-oriented work. Students will practice public-facing writing and will work collaboratively to develop original content with public engagement in mind. Students will expand their understanding of the role and potential of public music scholarship, and will engage with music scholars working outside the academy.
MUS1250H PhD Seminar
The doctoral seminar is taken by all incoming doctoral students in ethnomusicology, musicology, and music theory. The course examines changes in musical scholarship vis-à-vis some major shifts in modern Western intellectual history: structuralism and its aftermath, Marxism, feminist thought, philosophical hermeneutics, theories of nationalism, postcoloniality, and others. Students read core writings in this history of ideas and music scholarship that draws on these ideas, bearing in mind that not all such theory is created outside the musicologies. The seminar is also a forum for professional development. Topics covered include funding and grant applications, preparation for exams, research design, dissertation writing, conference participation, publishing, teaching and course design.
MUS1990H MA Major Paper
A faculty supervised research paper of no fewer than 13000 words. This course must be approved by both the supervising faculty member and appropriate graduate program advisor. Students who choose to write an MA Major Paper normally do so in the second year of their program. MUS1990H can be taken in addition to MUS1998H only with divisional permission.
MUS1998H Reading and Research
A faculty-supervised course that will comprise the equivalent of the full reading and research/writing components of a graduate seminar. It may be based on a pre-existing seminar that is not offered during the time of the student’s program. This course can normally only be taken in the second year of the student’s program and must be approved by both the supervising faculty member and appropriate graduate program advisor. MUS1998H can be taken in addition to MUS1990H only with divisional permission.
MUS3101H Seminar in Schenkerian Analysis
Introduction to the approach of tonal analysis developed by Heinrich Schenker. Class work will emphasize analytical sketching skills but will also involve readings in the secondary literature, especially related to historical and intellectual contexts, contemporary critiques, and theoretical extensions.
MUS3113H Symphonic Modernisms, 1900–1925
This seminar centers on one of the central and most value-laden genres in Western art music during the first quarter of the twentieth century: the symphony. It focuses on select works both by some of the genre’s major practitioners (e.g., Mahler, Sibelius, Nielsen) and by composers who approached the genre as “outsiders” (e.g., Elgar, Strauss, Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg) that, taken together, provide a representative image of the diverse strands of “symphonic modernism” between 1900 and 1925. Combining score study with readings of relevant recent music-theoretical and musicological literature, the seminar pursues a double goal. On the one hand, it seeks to explore analytical approaches to form, tonal organization, and hermeneutics in these works; on the other, it aims to situate them both in the broader cultural-historical context of early twentieth-century modernism and in relation to the nineteenth-century symphonic tradition.
MUS3208H The String Quartet in the Twentieth Century
This course will analyze selected twentieth-century string quartets with emphasis on those of Debussy, Ravel, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Bartók, Shostakovich, and Carter. Course requirements include analysis assignments, short presentations, listening tests, and a final paper.
MUS3228H Classical Form
Over the past decades, theoretical and analytical interest in musical form in the late 18th and early 19th centuries has surged in North America and beyond. Concepts first presented in two landmark publications of what has become known as the “new Formenlehre” – Caplin’s Classical Form (1998) and Hepokoski and Darcy’s Elements of Sonata Theory (2006) – have not only entered the lingua franca of international music theory, but have also stirred intense methodological debates. This seminar offers a thorough study of differing recent approaches to classical form and their practical application through analysis of music between c. 1760 and 1825. Over the course of the seminar, we will read both central texts of the new Formenlehre and recent responses, adaptations, and alternatives to them, and analyze compositions in a variety of genres by a broad range of composers.
MUS3232H Romantic Form
The last several years have seen a surge in analytical and theoretical interest in musical form in the music of the so-called “romantic generation”—the composers who came to maturity during the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century. Through a study of this repertoire and the literature about it, we will investigate what distinguishes form in this music from form in earlier repertoires. Established theories of classical form as well as broader trends in contemporaneous musical culture and reception will serve as additional points of reference. While our main focus will be on chamber music and music with orchestra (symphonies, overtures, and concerti) by composers such as Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Wagner, we will also make forays into other genres and music by other composers working between ca. 1815 and 1850.
MUS3243H The Music of Elliott Carter
The seminar studies musical structure in the compositions of Elliott Carter, who was active as a composer from the 1930s until his death at age 103 in 2012. Carter’s oeuvre includes numerous instrumental pieces (solo, chamber, large ensemble, concerti), many texted works (vocal, vocal-instrumental, choral), two ballets and one opera. We also survey other relevant extant sources, including monographs, journalarticles, collections of essays, Carter’s own writings, his Harmony Book and compositional sketches.
MUS3245H Music of Ligeti and Lutosławski
A survey of the music of two important composers of the twentieth century. Analysis of pitch structure, rhythm, and form within selected works leads to a coherent view of each composer’s oeuvre. Course requirements include assignments (listening, reading, analysis), tests (written, listening), class presentation and a final project (research paper or composition).
MUS3248H Current Compositional Practices
A survey of North American concert music since 1990. For composition majors, performers, musicologists, theorists and others interested in recent music. Analysis of individual works. Situating works within the composer’s oeuvre and within broader compositional trends. Study of relevant scholarly literature. Course requirements include listening, analysis, reading, class presentation, and a final paper.
MUS3251H Late Schubert
Franz Schubert may well be the single most written-about composer in academic music theory of the last decade. This seminar focusses on the vocal, orchestral, chamber, and piano music Schubert composed from 1824 to 1828. Taking the recent literature as a starting point, students will develop analytical interpretations of several key works as well as use Schubert’s late music as a vehicle to survey and assess recent developments in music theory, including the new Formenlehre, neo-Riemannian theory, theories of rhythm and meter, perspectives on music-text relations, historical music theory, and theories of hermeneutics, narrativity, and agency in music.
MUS3252H The Early Music of Arnold Schoenberg (1893–1908)
The music Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) wrote prior to his breakthrough to atonality in 1908 includes some of his most performed and best-loved compositions (e.g., the string sextet Verklärte Nacht, the Gurrelieder, and the First Chamber Symphony). Many of these works, composed at the very edge of common-practice tonality, are exceptionally rich in musical content, but also notoriously resistant to analysis.
In this seminar we will study these important works as well as the theoretical and analytical discourse that has grown around them, always mindful of the music-historical context in which they were composed. In addition to studying the pieces themselves, we will read recent theoretical work on Schoenberg’s early music and investigate what insights into this repertoire can be gained from Schoenberg’s own theoretical writings and those of his pupils.
MUS3261H Theory and Analysis of Popular Music
This seminar offers a survey of theoretical and analytical approaches to popular music, a fast-growing subdiscipline of music theory. Readings will draw on recent scholarship in the areas of form, tonality, harmony, melody, phrasing, texture, rhythm, metre, and timbre, and analytical techniques will be applied to a variety of repertoire from rock, pop, hip hop, and related genres. Students are encouraged toengage their analytical work with discussions of music performance, perception, and popular music’s bilateral relationship with society. Work will include critical reading responses, short transcription/analytical assignments, and a final analytical paper and presentation
MUS3262H Theoretical Perspectives on Global Musics
Through extensive engagement with the growing relevant literature, this course will explore the analysis of global musics, examining the validity of particular analytical approaches as well as the interface between different kinds of music-theoretical knowledge. Analytical exercises drawing on various methodologies and conducted across several repertories will be completed. Students will undertake a final project that could involve critically examining writings on a particular musical topic, evaluating a published analysis, or developing an analysis of their own.
MUS3265H Music Cognition
This course offers an introduction to music cognition, a research field that embraces perspectives and methodologies from music theory, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and related disciplines. Representative topics include: music and social bonding, perception and cognition of pitch and timbre, musical expectancy, meter and entrainment, embodied cognition, relationship between music and language, music and emotion, and cross-cultural work in music cognition. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to critically appraise published studies involving behavioral experiments and large music corpora, interpret data presented in such studies, design an empirical study of their own, and extrapolate ideas for future research. Course requirements include weekly reading responses and a semester-long research project on a topic of the student’s choosing.
MUS3306H Pedagogy of Music Theory
A study of the teaching of tonal and atonal music theory, keyboard harmony, and aural skills. The course surveys various analytic and pedagogical approaches through an examination of textbooks and other sources. Students compare, contrast, and evaluate these approaches; and apply the concepts in oral presentation and in the creation of sample course materials (outlines, assignments, and handouts). Topics for the final paper will be determined by the research interests of the students.
MUS3309H Brahms: Symphonies and Chamber Music
This course will study the four symphonies of Brahms and a large selection of his chamber music (including duo sonatas). Although the course will emphasize analysis of individual works, these analyses cumulatively will reveal distinctive aspects of Brahms’s compositional approach. The analytic work will provide an understanding of Brahms’s approach to formal organization and the ways it introduces ambiguities/overlaps, his use of metric dissonance and the potential of rhythmic-metric elements to shape the plan of an entire movement, his fascination with continuous development of thematic material, and his complex appropriation of elements from the music of previous composers and styles. Requirements will include listening and reading assignments and an analytic paper.
MUS3316H Cognitive Perspectives in Music Theory
This seminar will examine connections between music theory and cognitive science. We will survey contemporary music-theoretical writings that draw on research in schema theory, conceptual metaphor theory, ecological perception, and theories of embodied and grounded cognition to provide insights into musical experience and musical meaning. Historical antecedents for these cognitive perspectives will also be discussed.
MUS3403H Theory and Analysis of Atonal Music
An introduction to the atonal and twelve-tone repertoires through analysis of selected compositions by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Varese, Boulez, Dallapiccola, Berio, Babbitt, and Carter. The course also surveys the related theoretic and analytic literature (Babbitt, Forte, Lewin and others). Course requirements include assignments, presentations, and a final paper. (TMU403H1)
MUS3404H Extended Tonal Techniques in Twentieth-Century Music
An analytic study of the music of Debussy, Bartók, Stravinsky and others. The course will focus on harmony (modes, scales, chords), rhythm, form, and methods of motivic and thematic development. (TMU404H1)
MUS3405H Topics in the History of Music Theory 1600–1950
This seminar will examine central figures and ideas in the history of music theory. The semester will begin in the 17th century and end in the early 20th century. Weekly readings will be drawn from primary and secondary sources. Students will complete regular writing assignments and take turns leading class discussion. Representative topics: counterpoint, figured bass, functional harmony, tonal form, theories of rhythm, music psychology, and Schenkerian theory.
MUS3406H Current Perspectives on Music Theory
This seminar offers a survey of the current state of music theory as an academic discipline, its institutional base, and its ideological superstructure. It will introduce students to the field’s major areas of research and methodological challenges, focusing on three topic clusters: (1) recent and current debates in North American music theory; (2) trends in the discipline in Canada and the US over the past half century; and (3) music-theoretical practices in other parts of the world and the place of North American music theory in a global context.
MUS3409H Analysis I
In-depth analysis of musical works from c. 1750 to 1840; study of recent analytical approaches to music and meaning, musical form, and text-music relationships; selected readings. (TMU307H1)
MUS3410H Analysis II
In-depth analysis of musical works from c. 1840 to 1910; study of recent analytical approaches to musical form, chromatic harmony, and text-music relationships; selected readings. (TMU308H1)
MUS3412H Theories of Rhythm and Meter
The seminar considers definitions of meter, relationships between rhythm and meter, and rhythmic-metric processes proposed by recent music theorists. Readings include Cohn, Epstein, Hasty, Kramer, Krebs, Lehrdahl and Jackendoff, London, Roeder, Rothstein, Schachter, Temperley, and van den Toorn. After surveying theoretical models, the seminar shifts to analytical applications. The final paper may present a rhythmic-metric analysis of a tonal or post-tonal composition, it may probe a theoretical problem in the study of rhythm and meter, or it may pursue connections to areas such as performance and music cognition.
MUS3413H Music and Drama in Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen
Likely the most widely influential musical composition ever, Richard Wagner’s operatic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (1848–74) continues to spark music-theoretical and analytical interest. This seminar offers students the opportunity to acquaint themselves thoroughly with the many dimensions of this important work and to study various aspect of its reception within the field of music theory and analysis. The first part of the course comprises an overview of each of the four music dramas and an introduction to the vast literature about them. Later sessions offer a more detailed investigation of individual scenes in view of specific theoretical and analytical topics (phrase structure and large-scale form, Leitmotiv technique and semiotics, harmony and large-scale tonal organization, orchestration and Klang, etc.). A recurring concern throughout this exploration will be the ways in which the musical analysis can both illuminate and be illuminated by the drama that unfolds on stage.
MUS7406H Music Psychology
This course offers an introduction to music perception and cognition, a diverse field that embraces perspectives from music theory, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and related disciplines. Representative topics include: music and social bonding, perception of musical tones, memory for pitch and timbre, tonality and expectation, meter and movement, music and language, and emotion. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to understand and critique the design of behavioral experiments, interpret data presented in experimental studies, and extrapolate ideas for future studies. Course requirements include weekly reading summaries and a semester-long research project on a topic of the student’s choosing.