Graduate Program in Keyboard Studies

Offering the D.M.A. in Performance Practice, the Keyboard Studies program at Cornell is a specialized advanced degree designed for professional caliber performers who wish to combine the performance of specific repertories with research, teaching, and writing about those repertories. Focused on keyboard music of the 17th-21st centuries, the program is highly competitive, admitting only one new student each year to study with performers on the professorial faculty. Keyboard music is divided into areas of specialization, such as 17th–18th-century keyboard performance (fortepiano, organ, harpsichord, clavichord), 19th–20th-century performance practices (fortepiano, organ, and modern piano) and 21st-century keyboard practice (digital technologies and new media). Although there are curricular requirements, the program is flexible and is developed individually in consultation with the student’s Special Committee. Students may combine their study in the Field of Music (music and sound studies, composition, and performance practice) with work in other Fields at Cornell.*

Cornell’s Keyboard Studies program aims to balance professional training and scholarly endeavor, reflecting Cornell’s distinguished tradition of musical scholarship, its eminent faculty in music and sound studies and composition, and its outstanding library system. Performers who hope to teach on a college level must be competent at a broad range of academic musical subjects; candidates will be expected to pursue excellence in both spheres, the professional and the scholarly. Students are expected to take full advantage of Cornell University’s community of practicing musicians and scholars, working closely with musicologists, composers and fellow students to combine skills gained from lessons, practicing, and performing with knowledge and insights gathered from library research and seminar work.

Cornell has historically been highly visible as a center for keyboard studies. It has an outstanding collection of world-class instruments, which includes, in addition to modern piano, at least five fortepianos, two harpsichords, and four organs. 2019 saw the launch of the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards, where the University's 18th- and 19th-century instruments are kept in concert-ready condition for historically-informed study, performance, and recording of classic and romantic repertories. Fortepiano pioneer and Professor Emeritus Malcolm Bilson continues to teach performance in the program, alongside Professors Xak Bjerken, Annette Richards, and David Yearsley, and artists-in-residence Mike Lee and Miri Yampolsky. Students can also expect to work with other professors who are members of the Field of Music: those with research interests in keyboard culture include Andrew Hicks and Roger Moseley. In the area of contemporary keyboard studies, there are many opportunities for interaction with the DMA program in Composition at Cornell. In addition, the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards is home to a world-class collection of historical keyboard instruments that span the earliest keyboard repertories to present-day keyboard culture and publishes a journal, Keyboard Perspectives, that represents the symbiosis of scholarship and performance.

* The “Field of Music” is the official Graduate School designation for the graduate programs and the graduate faculty in music. The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) coordinates the activities of the Field, including admissions, financial aid, advising, and professional development, and represents the Field in the Graduate School. The Department of Music and the Field of Music are not a single entity; some faculty members of the Department are not members of the Field, and most graduate Fields include faculty members from several departments.

Academic Requirements:

Those interested in applying to the Keyboard Studies DMA program should first email a keyboard faculty member to discuss their interests and to confirm their viability. Pianists should contact Xak Bjerken (xb10@cornell.edu), and organists, Annette Richards (ar34@cornell.edu). Generally, successful applicants will hold a Master’s degree in their major instrument as well as extensive experience of performance at a professional level. In exceptional cases, a recent Bachelor’s degree in the major instrument may suffice. For applicants proposing to specialize in the performance of music before 1900, experience with historical instruments is highly desirable.

Application Deadline: December 15

The following materials must be submitted via the Cornell University Graduate School online application system by December 15:

• Cornell Graduate School Online Application form

• Application Fee

• Academic Statement of Purpose

• Personal Statement

• A Master’s degree essay or term paper, demonstrating scholarly research and writing about music

• A live recording of four to six representative works (if unable to submit recordings electronically, applicants should mail them to: Graduate Field Assistant in Music, 101 Lincoln Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4101)

• Three letters of recommendation from faculty members acquainted with your work

• Transcripts and evidence of foreign language study (if transcripts do not show evidence of foreign language study, provide another form of documentation)

• TOEFL Scores (see Graduate School TOEFL requirements for further details)

On-campus auditions for suitable applicants will take place by January 30.

Every student accepted into the Keyboard Studies DMA program at Cornell receives four years of guaranteed funding, including financial support for three summers, plus a fourth summer if necessary. Every student is given a fellowship for the first and fourth year. The remaining two years of funding are provided in the form of teaching assistantships. Student Health Insurance is provided by both fellowships and teaching assistantships. Partners, spouses, and dependents can be included for additional charges.
 
Some students may seek funding beyond four years to complete the DMA. Several dissertation fellowships are available through various Cornell programs. For a list of external and internal graduate fellowships (searchable by keyword, program name, or deadline) see the Graduate School Fellowship Database.

The Department of Music offers a wide variety of teaching experiences. Students can request a specific teaching assignment, and the faculty makes every effort to match interests and skills to appropriate course offerings. Click here to learn more about teaching assistantships.

1. Special Committee. A graduate student's program is supervised by a Special Committee comprising three or four professors selected by the student. The Committee is largely responsible for defining the student's goals and evaluating his or her progress. The professor who teaches the student’s primary instrument will ordinarily be the Chair (or Co-Chair) of the Committee; at least one minor member must be a musicologist.

2. Residence. Normally eight semesters of full-time study at Cornell are required. (In certain cases, this may be reduced to six or seven semesters in order to pursue performance and research opportunities.) The first four semesters of residence must be consecutive.

3. Language. [Field requirement.] The minimum is reading proficiency in one language other than English. The Field administers its own exams in French, German, and Spanish at the beginning of each semester; exams in other languages may be requested and arranged with suitable faculty outside the music department, in consultation with the DGS. With the approval of the special committee, the language requirement may be satisfied by the successful completion of language coursework in the relevant department at Cornell, at least some of which is set at an intermediate level. The meanings of “successful completion” and “intermediate level” will be clarified at the discretion of the individual committee.

With the approval of their special committee, native speakers of languages other than English may take an exam requiring translation from their native language into English to fulfill their language requirement. Nonetheless, the Special Committee might insist on yet a third language more closely connected to the work at hand. The Field considers computer coding languages to be equivalent to other languages. The language requirement must be satisfied before the Admission-to-Candidacy Examination can be attempted.

4. Required Academic Activities.

a) Intensive study of the major instrument each semester.

b) At least one full-length concert (or equivalent as determined by the committee) each semester that the student is in residence, with program notes prepared for each recital and reviewed by the committee two weeks beforehand.

c) Satisfactory completion of at least eight seminars numbered 6000 and above in Composition and Music and Sound Studies. With the permission of the Special Committee, a formal independent study may be substituted for one seminar. The DMA program requires the following three courses: Music 6201 (Introduction to Bibliography and Research); Music 7501 (Perspectives on Performance Practice); and Music 7203 (Practicum in Performance, Research, and Curation), to be taken over the course of the first two years. Seminars in other departments will likely be of interest to DMA students, as they are to students for the DMA in Composition and the PhD in Music and Sound Studies. At least five music seminars must be completed before the Admission-to-Candidacy Examination may be attempted.

d) A portfolio of at least two performances from the student’s first year in the program, to be submitted for review by the Graduate Field by September 1 of the second year.

e) A revised seminar paper from the student’s first year in the program, to be submitted for review by the Graduate Field by September 1 of the second year.

5. Admission-to-Candidacy Examination and Lecture-recital. The Admission-to-Candidacy Examination ("A exam") is in two parts: (a) a written exam comprising questions relevant to the proposed DMA thesis topic and (b) an oral/performance exam addressing issues of performance practice across a range of repertories.

The dates of these exams are jointly agreed upon by the candidate and the Committee. Often the two parts are taken over the course of a week or two, but there is no reason they cannot be spaced more widely if such a schedule is agreed to by the candidate and the  Committee.

(i) The written exam, taken first, consists of between three and five essay questions proposed by the Committee whose subject areas involve music history, music theory, and performance practice in ways that are relevant and complementary to the development of the student’s proposed DMA thesis topic. During the exam, the Music Library and other written sources may be used. In general, each member of the Committee contributes a question to this exam. The purpose is to allow the student to demonstrate a mastery of critical thinking and writing; the ability to develop a bibliography of sources regarding a given topic and thereby gain control of the scholarship on that particular topic; to develop solid competence across a range of scholarly themes that proves useful, even if indirectly, to the thesis, and that are also valuable in future teaching endeavors at an institute of higher education.

(ii) The second exam is an oral exam, two to three hours in length. The candidate will be asked questions about the essays from the written exam. In addition, the candidate should be prepared to perform and discuss twelve works drawn from a repertoire of keyboard-based music determined through consultation with the Committee no later than the third semester of the program. This list comprises works or movements to be studied as thoroughly as possible. The candidate must be able discuss these twelve works critically and from a number of perspectives: analytical, historical, cultural, hermeneutic. The candidate should be able to speak to the works’ history, significance, social context, and performance practices, and to relate the works to one another, as well as to other relevant non-keyboard works. 

The twelve works should be by no fewer than nine different composers and should satisfy the following criteria: a central figure in the dissertation; at least three others from the broad historical and cultural context of that composer (these three composers might also figure in the dissertation); at least five other composers from outside the context of the dissertation. How these “other/non-dissertation” contexts are to be defined is to be decided in consultation with the Special Committee; the essential point is to establish the historical breadth of the candidate not only in the realm of performance, but also in the history, literature, and culture of his or her instrument(s).

The repertoire list is not all-encompassing, but rather provides a framework around which to organize study for the oral exam: the Committee can ask anything it considers necessary to establish the professional credentials of the candidate. The Committee will require the submission of a written thesis proposal or prospectus (with bibliography) to be turned in at the time of the orals. The thesis proposal will be discussed as part of the exam.

Only the oral/performance portion of the A exam is scheduled formally through the Graduate School, and this must be done at least one week in advance, on a form signed by the Committee and by the DGS. Any member of the Graduate Faculty is entitled to attend the orals and to ask questions, but only the Special Committee votes on admission to candidacy. A unanimous vote is required to pass; the results are made known to the candidate immediately. If the exam is failed, the candidate can petition to retake it. But, provided the candidate has prepared for the exam in close cooperation with the Committee, its members are not likely to allow the exam to be scheduled unless the candidate is ready to take it. Most students who prepare conscientiously pass the first time.

The Lecture-recital is a presentation of approximately one hour, combining performance of one or more works or movements with a formal lecture interpreting them in a manner relevant to the student's historical period or repertory. The lecture-recital is ordinarily given after the A-exam but before the end of the fifth semester of residence, and is viewed as a way of focusing on the DMA thesis subject. In this semester, the candidate need not give an additional recital.

6. DMA recital. A full-length, formal recital with appropriate written program notes demonstrating research activities and writing skills in the student's historical period or repertory. This recital should be given during the final semester of residence. Without being pedantic or overly schematic, this recital should have a theme, or even represent a kind of musical argument, one that should be reflected by the program notes and adumbrated by a few (no more than five minutes) spoken words at the concert itself.

7. Thesis. Following the Admission-to-Candidacy Examination, the student writes a thesis on an aspect of performance practice. It is ordinarily directed by the chair of the Special Committee in conjunction with the minor members, one of whom must be a musicologist.

8. Thesis defense. The defense is a formal meeting with the student’s Special Committee to discuss the dissertation. Candidates need not be in residence as full-time students when the examination is taken. They are expected to submit a complete draft of the thesis—including an abstract not to exceed 600 words—to all members of their Committee at least four weeks before their defense, unless otherwise specified by the Committee. This examination is oral, based on a complete and polished version of the thesis. (By false analogy with the A exam, this exam is often called the “B exam.”) The defense focuses primarily on the thesis itself, but it may also raise broader issues arising out of the thesis topic. The examination must be passed and the thesis accepted by unanimous vote of the Committee, subject to the candidate making any specified revisions and corrections. The defense must be passed within seven calendar years of the date of matriculation unless an exception is granted by the Graduate School. If the thesis is submitted after this deadline, the B exam may not be scheduled until a petition, endorsed by the Committee and by the DGS, is approved by the Graduate School.

Also to be supplied by the candidate at the thesis defense is a portfolio containing all of the recitals (with program notes) that the candidate performed during the period of residency. The nature, scope, and intention of these programs can also serve as a topic of questioning and debate during the exam.

[Note: the Thesis and Dissertation Guidebook, as well as formatting guidelines may be found at http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/thesis-and-dissertation.]

First year

Week before classes

• Orientation
• Language exams
• Diagnostic exam
• Choose courses for the fall

Fall semester

• Seminars/performances
• Language study, as necessary
• Choose courses for the spring
• Meet with the DGS at least once

Spring semester

• Seminars/performances
• Language study, as necessary
• Meet with the DGS at least once
• Begin thinking about Special Committee Chair
• Participate in prospective student visits
• Choose courses for the fall

Summer

• Language study, as necessary
• Identify Special Committee chair; file necessary form; with the chair, choose other committee members

 

Second year

Fall semester

• Special Committee Chair must be selected by the beginning of the semester, and the rest of the committee by the end
• Meet with Special Committee at least once
• Seminars/performances
• Complete language exams
• Teaching
• A Exam preparation
• Choose courses for the spring

Spring semester

• Seminars/performances
• Teaching
• Meet with Special Committee at least once
• Participate in prospective student visits
• Choose course(s) for the fall

Summer

• Thesis research

 

Third year

Fall semester

• Seminar(s)/performances
• Teaching
• Thesis research/writing
• A Exam: the oral/performance portion must be scheduled at least seven days in advance and the final report must be filed within three days of completion—check with the grad field assistant and see http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/forms for the schedule and reporting forms)
• Lecture recital
• Choose course(s) for spring
• Meet with Special Committee at least once

Spring semester

• Seminar(s)
• Teaching
• Meet with Special Committee at least once
• Thesis research/writing/defense
• Participate in prospective student visits

Summer

• Thesis research

 

Fourth Year

Fall semester

• Seminar(s)/performances
• Meet with Special Committee at least once
• Thesis/dissertation research

Spring semester

• Participate in prospective student visits
• DMA Recital
• Thesis/dissertation completion
• Defense (B Exam) must be scheduled at least seven days in advance and the final report must be filed within three days following the defense—check with the grad field assistant and see http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/forms for the schedule and reporting forms