[LAU] OT: Electronic Music Degrees?

[michael noble]

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 10:56 AM, Josh Lawrence <hardbop200 at 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
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