Welcome to the Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology
The Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology is a vibrant contributor to the College of Music. MHTE maintains a full range of academic programs from the bachelor's to the doctorate. In fact, the Ph.D. program, celebrating more than a half-century of activity, was the first in the university. Today more than 70 students are enrolled in its graduate programs.
As a hub of academic activity, the division fosters a wide range of activities. Students are encouraged to take advantage of our faculty's vast expertise in historical musicology, theory, and ethnomusicology. Division faculty members have been recognized with significant awards for outstanding teaching, research, service and the promotion of diversity in teaching and across campus. The division sponsors a lecture series that annually attracts scholars from throughout the world, regularly invites short residencies from major figures in the disciplines, and in recent years has hosted important international conferences on Strauss, Berlioz, 500 years of printed music, and Argentine Song. MHTE publishes Theoria, a journal devoted to historical aspects of music theory, recently achieving its sixteenth volume. Faculty lead study abroad opportunities in Eastern Europe, India, Ghana, and China. In 2009, MHTE hosted the AMS-Southwest and SEM-Southern Plains chapter meetings.
The Early Music Performance program, one of the largest in the United States, has been designated an area of excellence within the College. Its Baroque Orchestra maintains an extraordinary level of historically informed performance on period instruments and garners international acclaim.
The newest program is the master’s degree in Ethnomusicology, now in its fifth year. A recent acquisition for this program is a full Balinese gamelan, given the name "Bwana Kumala," Jewel of the World. Ethnomusicology and world music ensemble faculty engage in collaborative efforts through the Global Music consortium, a group of faculty dedicated to the study, transmission, and enhanced understanding of music cultures throughout the world.
Division students regularly present their research at regional, national and international conferences and engage with their colleagues as well as faculty through GAMuT, the Graduate Association of Musicologists and Theorists.
While the faculty members have achieved distinction in the full range of their respective disciplines, UNT has become noted as center for study in early music, African and African American music, and especially nineteenth and early twentieth century music. With regard to the latter, an important focal point of activity is the Center for Schenkerian Studies, which particularly seeks to integrate scholarship and performance, and publishes its own Journal of Schenkerian Studies. In Spring 2009, the Center sponsored the Hans Weisse Memorial Concert and a residency by theorist, Allen Forte.
We hope that you will be encouraged to learn more about our programs, attend concerts and lectures sponsored by MHTE, and meet our outstanding faculty and students.
For additional information about our programs, please contact Prof. Eileen M. Hayes, division chair, at eileen.hayes@unt.edu.
New on the Faculty Bookshelf -- Steven Friedson's Remains of Ritual: Northern Gods in a Southern Land
"Beautifully written, with a deft integration of history, theory, interpretation, and fine-grained ethnographic detail, Friedson's narrative-style analysis of Ghanaian Ewe shrine rituals and their music is compelling reading with breathtaking insights in every chapter. Integrating the phenomenological approaches of Heidegger with his sustained field research, Friedson presents the reader with more than just a fresh look at Ewe trancing, drumming, dancing, and singing—he teaches us how to conceptualize gold-standard fieldwork. Without didacticism, Friedson demonstrates the importance of long-term field research and how he negotiates his own role as a participant in the most intimate of Ewe shrine rituals without actually becoming a member. Efficacy is in the doing, not in the believing. He has appropriated and reinterpreted a philosopher from the European past to present a strangely beautiful and haunting tale of a contemporary West African musical/ religious practice." - Judith Becker, University of Michigan
Steven M. Friedson is Regents Professor of Music and Anthropology and the author of Dancing Prophets: Musical Experience in Tumbuka Healing.
