Your complete guide to a PhD in Music

Everything you need to know about studying a PhD in Music

part of Arts, Design & Architecture

Music, or Musicology is the art of combining sounds, represented as musical notes, in a succession or simultaneously in an aesthetically pleasant and rhythmical form and the integration of these aspects in a complete piece. Music uses musical instruments or the human voice to create art. Music is divided in genres that are characterised by similar melody, harmonic, rhythmic, form, orchestration, literary text where applicable and other compositional aspects.

Music studies are very complex and can be focused on mastering a certain musical instrument, or mastering composition, conducting and orchestra or being an expert in music history. The study of music has many sub-disciplines like: ethnomusicology, historical musicology, music theory, music analysis, musical composition, musical critic and others.

Students enrolled in a Music degree will gain skills like: creativity, ability to work independently and become more responsible, organised and orderly persons. By studying music, students will be able to express themselves to a range of audiences. They will be able to perform and select repertoires suited to particular performance contexts.

The wide array of possible careers for Music graduates include: musician/performer, music teacher, music composer, music therapist, sound technician, radio producer, radio broadcast assistant, broadcast engineer, artist representative, artist agent/manager.

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View all PhDs in Music. Keep in mind you can also study an online PhDs in Music.

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Best Universities for Music on PhDPortal

Universities Location TopUniversities Ranking (2018)
Royal Academy of Music London, United Kingdom 3
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Vienna, Austria 5
Royal College of Music Stockholm, Sweden 6
Indiana University Bloomington Bloomington, United States 7
Harvard University Cambridge, United States 11
University of Cambridge Cambridge, United Kingdom 12
University of Oxford Oxford, United Kingdom 13
New York University New York City, United States 14
Royal Holloway University of London London, United Kingdom 14
University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, United States 16
Yale University New Haven, United States 16
University of Rochester Rochester, United States 18
Northwestern University Evanston, United States 19
King's College London London, United Kingdom 20
Guildhall School of Music & Drama City of London, United Kingdom 21
Goldsmiths, University of London London, United Kingdom 22
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Los Angeles, United States 23
Stanford University Stanford, United States 25
Melbourne Business School Melbourne, Australia 26
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama London, United Kingdom 27
Queen Mary University of London London, United Kingdom 30
Columbia University New York City, United States 31
Princeton University Princeton, United States 32
The University of Western Australia Perth, Australia 33
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, United States 36
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Urbana, United States 36
The University of Manchester Manchester, United Kingdom 38
The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan 38
University of Glasgow Glasgow, United Kingdom 40
University of Chicago Chicago, United States 42
National University of Singapore Singapore, Singapore 43
The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR) 44
Griffith University Nathan, Australia 46
The City University of New York New York City, United States 47
McGill University Montréal, Canada 48
University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands 49
University of Southampton Southampton, United Kingdom 50
Australian National University Canberra, Australia 51
Berlin Summer University of the Arts Berlin, Germany 51
Boston University Boston, United States 51
Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, United States 51
Florida State University Tallahassee, United States 51
Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, United States 51
Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich München, Germany 51
Michigan State University East Lansing, United States 51
Monash University Clayton, Australia 51
Osaka University Osaka-shi, Japan 51
Purchase College SUNY Rye Brook, United States 51
Queen's University Belfast Belfast, United Kingdom 51
Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, Australia 51
Royal Academy of Music Aarhus, Denmark 51
Sejong University Kuri, South Korea 51
Seoul National University Anyang, South Korea 51
Sungkyunkwan University Seoul, South Korea 51
The University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, United Kingdom 51
The University of Exeter Exeter, United Kingdom 51
The University of Iowa Iowa City, United States 51
UNICAMP - University of Campinas Campinas, Brazil 51
Universitas Gadjah Mada Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Indonesia 51
University of Birmingham Birmingham, United Kingdom 51
University of Bristol Bristol, United Kingdom 51
University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada 51
University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, United States 51
University of Leeds Leeds, United Kingdom 51
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, United States 51
University of Montreal Montréal, Canada 51
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, United States 51
University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand 51
University of Queensland Saint Lucia, Australia 51
University of Sao Paulo São Paulo, Brazil 51
University of Sydney Sydney, Australia 51
University of Texas at Austin Austin, United States 51
University of Toronto Pickering, Canada 51
University of Warwick Coventry, United Kingdom 51
Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands 51
Victoria University of Wellington Wellington, New Zealand 51
Zurich University of the Arts Zürich, Switzerland 51
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