The Centennial Celebrations, 1996-97 > From the Chair of the Department of Music
Department of Music Chair George Edwards and Rachel Hadas viewing the Centennial Exhibition, Music at Columbia: The First 100 Years, Rotunda, Low Library
Photograph by Damon Winter, October 19, 1996
Columbia University Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
As it begins its second century, the Department of Music is in most respects well-positioned to meet the educational, scholarly, artistic and technological challenges which lie ahead. For a medium-sized department, the range and quality of our activities is staggering. We have sole responsibility for twenty-eight sections of Music Humanities (part of the undergraduate Core Curriculum). We offer both electives for non-majors and a demanding curriculum for majors and concentrators, as well as a large and active Music Performance Program. We run two of the strongest graduate programs in the nation, one leading to the Ph.D. in Musicology (historical musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory), the other leading to the D.M.A. in composition. In addition, we are the home of two research certers, the Computer Music Center (formerly the Electronic Music Center) and the Center for Ethnomusicology, and of a leading scholarly journal, Current Musicology.
Fortunately, our sense of common purpose is as strong as our offerings and activities are diverse. Most of our faculty have research and teaching interests that overlap conventional disciplinary boundaries, and which often connect us with faculty and students in other departments. Despite operating in an economy of scarcity, we seek to dramatically improve our practice and rehearsal facilities and to build on emerging strengths in music cognition and music technology.
George Edwards, 1996