On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 10:56 AM, Josh Lawrence <hardbop200@gmail.com> wrote:
minimal background:  I went to college when I was 18, and in my youth
and stupidity, wasted the opportunity.  I went to work in the IT field
and have done reasonably well, but the 8 - 5 corporate grind is
destroying my soul.  I'm now 35 and have a family.

is there such a thing as electronic music-related degrees (undergrad)
in the US?  or, are there composition degrees that primarily focus on
electronic methods?  I'm considering going back to school, and I would
like to investigate this possibility, if it exists.

sorry for the off-topic post.

thanks,

Josh

--

Hi Josh,

Funny story - I went to college and in my youth and stupidity received an arts degree and have been working on a PhD on soundscape composition. None of which opens many doorways to corporate or any other kind of employment! Now I'm nearly 35 and wanting to go back to school and get an IT degree. Go figure.

Anyway, I'll try to answer your question, albeit as a non US citizen. My understanding is that electroacoustic composition and computer music composition remain specialized streams and are often offered as electives for partial credit in a standard music degree. If you wish to pursue that stream, you can then go on to postgraduate studies alligned with one of the research institutes such as CCRMA, CNMAT or CMC at Columbia. That being said, a number of schools offer Music Technology programs as either a BA or BM and hence include varying amounts of composition and/or performance. Also, there are courses in electroacoustic composition, which may or may not be the kind of electronic music you are interested in. A quick search revealed Rutgers or San Diego State for example both offer some kind of electroacoustic composition focus at undergrad level.

I think that overall, however, you would need to spend some time researching and thinking about what kind of electronic music you are actually interested in. I've found the academic idea of what constitutes serious electronic music is informed by a history of electronic music experimentation that occured far from the mainstream and often with a modernist or postmodern philosophical perspective. In other words, its more angled towards csound and max/msp than a midi DAW and virtual synths.

But that's just my however limited experience. There are others on list that may offer a different perspective entirely.

best regards

Michael