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Majors / Music / Specialization

Music History

How we know the music of the past and what it meant: sources and notation, the music of Latin America and the Caribbean, and how power, faith, money and technology shaped what was played.

A specialization of Music. It assumes the first two years of the major and gives the last two a focus.

For: music students drawn to musicology, performers who want to know where their repertoire comes from, and listeners who want the stories behind the music.

Shaped by musicology and ethnomusicology degrees and the American Musicological Society and Society for Ethnomusicology guidelines; told worldwide, with Latin America and the Caribbean in the centre of one subject.

6readings
1.4 hoursof reading
2stages
4 reads · 2 deep dives
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Stage 1

Year 3 · The great histories

4 readings · 54 min
  1. 01ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Western Music History: A Thousand Years of Choices

    A thousand years of the European tradition, from chant to film scores.
  2. 02ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Music Traditions of the World: Each System in Its Own Terms

    Raga, maqam, gamelan and more, each in its own terms.
  3. 03ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Jazz, Popular Music & the Recording Age: How the Last Hundred Years Sound

    The blues, jazz, rock, hip-hop and the recording age.
  4. 04Deep diveInteractiveQuiz15 min

    Musicology: Sources, Notation & Performance Practice: Reading What the Past Left Behind

    How historians find, read and perform music from manuscripts, archives and recordings.
Stage 2

Year 4 · Music in the world

2 readings · 31 min
  1. 05Deep diveInteractiveQuiz19 min

    Music of Latin America & the Caribbean: Roots That Crossed Oceans and Grew New Branches

    From pre-Columbian instruments to son, tango, samba, cumbia, nueva canción and reggaetón.
  2. 06ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min

    Music, Power & Society: Who Decides What Gets Heard

    Patrons, churches, states, censors, markets and technology: who decides what music is heard.

Study it in depth, for free

These pieces give you the intuition. To learn the major properly, these are the courses and texts universities use, free to read or audit, and the standard textbooks if you want to own one. Links checked November 2026.

The whole major, free: A free sequence from MIT OCW covers the specialization: Introduction to Western Music, then Introduction to World Music and American Popular Music, then Popular Musics of the World for the wider Year 4 picture.

Free courses and texts

  1. Introduction to Western Music · MIT OCW 21M.011 · a survey of Western music from chant to the 20th century; Year 3 European tradition
  2. Early Music · MIT OCW 21M.220 · medieval and Renaissance music and how it was performed; Year 3
  3. Beethoven to Mahler · MIT OCW 21M.250 · Romantic-era music; Year 3
  4. Modern Music: 1900-1960 · MIT OCW 21M.262 · twentieth-century art music; Year 3
  5. Introduction to World Music · MIT OCW 21M.030 · music traditions of several world regions, studied on their own terms; Year 3 raga, maqam, gamelan
  6. Music of India · MIT OCW 21M.291 · Hindustani and Carnatic traditions; Year 3
  7. Music of Africa · MIT OCW 21M.293 · African traditions and their diaspora; Year 3-4
  8. American Popular Music · MIT OCW 21M.295 · blues, jazz, rock, hip-hop and the recording age; Year 3
  9. Studies in Western Music History: Quantitative and Computational Approaches to Music History · MIT OCW 21M.269 · how historians work with scores and sources, using data; Year 3 sources
  10. Popular Musics of the World · MIT OCW 21M.294 · popular music, the market and technology across regions; Year 4

The standard textbooks

  • A History of Western Music (J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Jay Grout and Claude V. Palisca) · the standard survey of the European tradition; Year 3
  • Source Readings in Music History (ed. Oliver Strunk, revised Leo Treitler) · primary texts historians read; Year 3 sources
  • Excursions in World Music (Bruno Nettl and others) · the standard ethnomusicology survey of world traditions; Year 3
  • American Popular Music (Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman) · blues, jazz, rock and hip-hop; Year 3
  • Popular Musics of the Non-Western World (Peter Manuel) and Caribbean Currents (Peter Manuel) · Latin America, the Caribbean and popular music, markets and technology; Year 4
  • Experiencing Latin American Music (Carol A. Hess) · a textbook survey from pre-Columbian instruments to the present; Year 4
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