Music

The Graduate Program in Music – master’s degree and doctorate – of the Campinas State University (Unicamp) Arts Institute is a center for musical studies that combines research and artistic practice in various musical genres – from contemporary experimental music to popular music and music of historical tradition – in their theoretical-conceptual and practical dimensions.

Introduced in 2001 as an offshoot of the Graduate Program in Arts, it became the graduate program in music in Brazil with the largest number of students, as well as the first to offer a doctorate in music in the state of Sao Paulo.

 

Currently, its master’s degree and doctoral courses focus their studies on a single unified area – Music: Theory, Creation and Practice – supporting the view that performance, creation and critical study are equally relevant to music research. This unified area comprises three lines of research:

– Instrumental Studies and Musical Performance: Music research focused on musical performance and interpretive practice in musical instrument, singing or conducting, addressing repertoires from different periods and drawing on methodologies with performative (historical and technical considerations), artistic and educational goals.

– Music, Culture and Society: Music research focused on the relationships between music and society, music and history, music and culture (musicology, ethnomusicology, sociology of music, popular music studies and music applied to dramaturgy, audiovisual and media), as well as teaching processes and their relationships with means of communication and production.

– Music, Language and Sonology: Music research focused on the implications of creation, development and reflection processes for music analysis, production, cognition, reception and diffusion, related to studies in sonology and musical composition.

 

In keeping with the spirit of graduate studies, which value ​​the association between systematic teaching and research activities, the main goals of the Graduate Program in Music of the Unicamp Arts Institute are to:

  1. produce knowledge in the field of music, in its multiple strands, through theoretical and/or artistic academic research;
  2. qualify professors in undergraduate and graduate education teaching and research, meeting the growing demand in the sector;
  3. contribute to the formation of a body of music researchers in Brazil;
  4. encourage musical creation and professional practice in the areas of artistic production and theoretical-conceptual reflection;
  5. invest in the documentation and dissemination of artistic and bibliographic production by traditional and/or technological means;
  6. contribute to the dissemination, conservation and documentation of the Brazilian musical heritage.

 

In the last CAPES four-year evaluation, our Graduate Program in Music was awarded a score of 6, making it the highest-rated graduate program in music among São Paulo universities and the second-best rated nationwide. The scope of its lines of research – which encompass interpretive practices, popular music studies, creative processes, teaching processes, music and society and sonology – and the level of insertion of our alumni in various teaching and research institutions consolidate the relevant position of the program in its area at regional, state, national and international levels, as well as its potential to attract students and researchers from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds.

 

Evaluation and Recognition 

The master’s and doctoral courses in music were awarded a score of 6 in the CAPES evaluation for 2013/2016 and were recognized by MEC Ordinance 524, dated April 29, 2008.

Since 2018, the Graduate Program in Music has been part of Unicamp’s Institutional Project for the Internationalization of Graduate Studies through the CAPES/PRINT Program.