The University of Missouri offers an undergraduate degree in music history as well as the opportunity to minor in this field. This liberal education is designed to help prepare students as scholars and musicians for a possible career in college teaching. In addition to an audition on the major instrument or voice, approval of admission must be received from the music history faculty.

For those interested in the academic study of history and who possess a love of music, the discipline of musicology represents an ideal means to combine the two. The Musicology Area at the MU School of Music offers a range of courses at both basic and more advanced levels that provide students with a diversity of approaches to the study of this art form. Among the focus areas are courses directed to style periods, composers, genres, and special topics. Students may also self-direct their coursework in part through the mechanism of independent studies, where topics are selected in collaboration with a professor, who then serves as the student’s mentor through the investigative process.

These degrees culminate with the ability to work one-on-one with a faculty member in conducting research, whether the project be a capstone experience at the undergraduate level or a thesis at the master’s level. Students are also encouraged to participate in academic conferences and to showcase their research in printed form as possibilities arise. A weekly seminar in which musicology, theory, and composition students and faculty participate not only builds a sense of community and serves as a venue for intellectual exchange but also affords the opportunity for students to present their work to their colleagues and instructors.