Music History & Literature

Cal State Fullerton’s music history and literature area seeks to provide every music student with essential knowledge and skills in music history and literature and provides training in musicological research and methods for B.A. and M.A. music history majors. We offer undergraduate courses and graduate seminars in a wide range of areas including Western art music of all periods, jazz and popular music, and world music. The B.A. degree in music history emphasizes the academic study of music for students who wish to prepare for graduate work or who simply seek greater exposure to music history and literature. The M.A. degree in music history provides students with close faculty mentoring and flexible study plans tailored to individual interests. 

Graduates of both programs are prepared to enter careers in music and related fields and to continue their studies at the graduate level. CSUF music history majors have researched a wide array of thesis topics, and have gone on to advanced graduate study in musicology and ethnomusicology at institutions such as the University of Michigan, University of Washington, Claremont Graduate University, and University of California, Riverside. Music history faculty members regularly employ their research interests in their teaching; their specialties range from the Baroque period to contemporary music and represent a variety of scholarly methodologies in historical musicology and ethnomusicology.