The Music Theory program at the University at Buffalo is one of the most successful in the U.S., with recent graduates moving on to full-time jobs at Yale, Temple, Swarthmore, Bowling Green, Ithaca College, American University, Arizona State, and many other fine universities and colleges around the world. [For a list of all completed UB dissertations in Music Theory, and the current teaching positions of the recipients, click here.]

The UB Theory faculty offers a unique mix of traditional musical disciplines and individual creativity. Students are given a thorough grounding in the standard disciplines, such as history of theory, Schenkerian analysis, and set theory, while being expected to master promising new areas of research, such as Neo-Riemannian transformations, diatonic set theory, and intertextuality. Recent doctoral seminars have addressed such topics, as well as the music of Stravinsky, the music of Ives, and 19th- & 20th-century tonal chromaticism. Among recent completed dissertations are studies of microtonal music by Haba, form in Takemitsu's music, harmony in Schoenberg"s Gurrelieder, and gravitational space as a metaphor for analysis.

The lynchpin of the Buffalo program is the Slee Chair, the oldest fully endowed professorship of Music Theory in the country. Another central resource is the music library, conveniently located on site in the music building, which has unusually strong collections in the areas of jazz, rare editions, and contemporary music. The strong contemporary music presence and distinguished musicology faculty at UB also ensure a lively, interdisciplinary community of composers, performers, and scholars.

All application materials should arrive before January 1 to ensure full consideration for fellowship and/or assistantship awards.

Click here for further information about our undergraduate program.

Click here to request further information about our graduate program.

Charles J. Smith, Coordinator of Theory
Ph.D. University of Michigan
Associate Professor & Slee Chair in Music Theory
cjsmith@buffalo.edu

Martha Hyde
Ph.D. Yale University
Associate Professor
mhyde@buffalo.edu

Richard Plotkin
Ph.D. University of Chicago
Assistant Professor
richardp@buffalo.edu

Robert Phillips
Adjunct Instructor [First-Year Theory]
rjp24@buffalo.edu

Faculty Associated with the Music Theory Program

Michael Long
Associate Professor of Musicology
Graduate courses in Medieval and Renaissance Music Theory
mlong@buffalo.edu

Jeffrey Stadelman
Associate Professor of Composition
Graduate courses in Contemporary Music
stadelm@buffalo.edu