Since its early beginnings, the Graduate Program in Music has worked to promote academic research and artistic practice, striving to produce new knowledge in music. Our graduates have successfully pursued professional work in the academic and artistic areas, both in Brazil and abroad. The graduate program seeks to foster innovation and research in music through exchanges and partnership agreements with other institutions, as well as through scientific meetings, workshops and masterclasses with distinguished performers and music scholars.
Scope: The Graduate Program in Music is characterized by a strong commitment to excellence in teaching and research, which is reflected in the composition of its faculty, research subjects and curriculum structure. The program aims to promote innovative musical studies incorporating research and practice in different aspects of music at the masters and doctoral levels. To prepare students for roles as artists, teachers and scholars, the program’s curriculum strives to offer advanced training that qualifies them to act in a critical way, with an emphasis on the artistic specificity of the area.
Mission Statements: The mission of the Graduate Program in Music at USP is to promote innovative musical studies that incorporate research and practice in various aspects and areas of music at the masters and doctoral levels. To achieve this mission, the specific goals are:
Training of students for careers as scholars and teachers in colleges and universities;
The development of innovative research that generates new knowledge in music and its connections;
The promotion of academic and artistic production in music.
Faculty
Concentration area: Musicology
Research line: Teory and Music Analisys
Adriana Lopes da Cunha Moreira
Paulo de Tarso Camargo Cambraia Salles
Silvia Maria Pires Cabrera Berg
Research line: Musicology and Etnomusicology
Mário Rodrigues Videira Junior
Silvia Maria Pires Cabrera Berg
Susana Cecília Almeida Igayara de Souza
Concentration area: Music Criation Process
Research line: Performance
Eduardo Henrique Soares Monteiro
Research line: Interpretative Questions
Eduardo Henrique Soares Monteiro
Susana Cecília Almeida Igayara de Souza
Research line: Music and Educacion: Criative Process, Teaching and Learning
Linha de Pesquisa: Sonologia: criação e produção musical
Fernando Henrique de Oliveira Iazzetta
Rodolfo Nogueira Coelho de Souza
Subjects
Line of Research in Performance
The candidate for the title of Master in the line of research in Performance should disburse a minimum of 96 (ninety-six) credits, distributed as follows:
- 28 (twenty-eight) credits, with at least fourteen (14) credits due to the semestral participation in compulsory practical subjects specifically related to the line of research in performance
- 68 (sixty-eight) credits in the preparation of the dissertation;
The candidate for the title of Doctor in the line of research in Performance, with the prior obtainment of the title of Master, shall disburse a minimum of 178 (one hundred seventy-eight) credits, distributed as follows:
- 35 (thirty-five) credits, at least 28 (twenty-eight) credits due to the semestral participation in compulsory practical subjects specifically related to the line of research in performance
- 143 (one hundred and forty-three) credits in the preparation of the thesis.
The candidate for the title of Doctor in the line of research in Performance, without first obtaining the title of Master, should disburse a minimum of 199 (one hundred and ninety-nine) credits, distributed as follows:
- 56 (fifty-six) credits, with at least 35 (thirty-five) credits due to the semestral participation in compulsory practical subjects specifically related to the line of research in performance
- 143 (one hundred and forty-three) credits in the preparation of the thesis;
Note: The student may substitute up to seven (7) credits for courses with special credits (with the agreement of the duly recognized official mentor on the specific form). The CCP will analyze and consider the application for incorporation of special credits. IV.2. Other Lines of Research
Compulsory subjects (only for line of research in performance)
Students in the line of research in Performance will be required to fulfill credits in compulsory practical subjects, to be chosen from the following: Master's degree (14 credits):
Musical Performance I-II (Piano, Strings and Guitar)
or
Laboratory Practice in Choral Conducting I-II
PhD (28 credits):
Topics in Performance I-IV (Piano, Strings and Guitar)
or
Topics in Choral Conducting I-IV
Direct PhD (35 credits):
Musical Performance I-II (Piano, Strings and Guitar) and
Topics in Performance I-III (Piano, Strings and Guitar)
or
Laboratory Practice in Choral Conducting I-II and
Topics in Choral Conducting I-III
Each of these courses disburse 7 (seven) credits. Master's degree students in Performance must comply with fourteen (14) credits, doctoral, 28 (twenty-eight) credits and direct doctorate students 35 (thirty-five) credits in compulsory subjects during the course.
Other Lines of Research
The candidate for a Master's Degree in other lines of research should disburse a minimum of 96 (ninety-six) credits, distributed as follows:
- 28 (twenty-eight) credits, with at least fourteen (14) credits in courses offered by the program, preferably related to the line of research in which the student is enrolled;
- 68 (sixty-eight) credits in the preparation of the dissertation;
The candidate for the title of Doctor in other lines of research, with the prior obtainment of the title of Master, shall disburse a minimum of 178 (one hundred seventy-eight) credits, distributed as follows:
- 35 (thirty-five) credits, with at least fourteen (14) credits in courses offered by the program, preferably related to the line of research in which the student is enrolled.
- 143 (one hundred and forty-three) credits in the preparation of the thesis.
The candidate for the title of Doctor in other lines of research, without first obtaining the title of Master, must disburse at least 199 (one hundred and ninety-nine) credits, distributed as follows:
- 56 (fifty-six) credits, with at least 28 (twenty-eight) credits in courses offered by the program, preferably related to the line of research in which the student is enrolled.
- 143 (one hundred and forty-three) credits in the preparation of the thesis;
Note: The student may substitute up to seven (7) credits for courses with special credits (with the agreement of the duly recognized official mentor on the specific form). The CCP will analyze and consider the application for incorporation of special credits.
Selective process
Application Requirements:
The admission to the program is carried out through an application process regulated by public notice published periodically in the Official Gazette of the State of São Paulo and on the program's website. Foreign students are required to be proficient in Portuguese with an intermediate or higher level, which can be validated by presenting the Certificate of Proficiency in Portuguese for Foreigners, CELPE-BRAS or the certificate from the Language Center of FFLCH-USP.
Research Project
Concentration area: Music Creation Processes
Research line: Sonology: sound creation and production
- Spatial Music, Aesthetics and Technologies for Sound and Musical
Creation -
This project integrates complementary lines of research and development in processes, aesthetics, and technologies for sound and musical creation in spatial (3D) formats and immersive media, exploring unconventional resolutions and means of creation and presentation, particularly focused on immersive experiences, interaction with sound space, and content personalization. Within its context, it welcomes unexplored themes, unanswered questions, and innovations in the context of music technology, sound and music computing, and sound engineering, as technological supports for analysis, creation, and artistic expression. The project operates in affinity with research lines and groups in Spatial Audio, Internet of Sounds (IoS), Music Information Retrieval (MIR), Virtual/Augmented/Extended Reality (VR/AR/XR), and Intelligent Music Production, addressing diverse objectives and aspects such as the analysis of sound/auditory scenes, the conception and artistic modeling of sound in virtual and augmented space, and the creation and integration of devices and software for recording, processing, and immersive sound reproduction. Reference projects carried out include both the use and evaluation, as well as the development of original processes and software for 3D production, the development of 3D microphones and speaker arrays for spatialization, and involve experiences for personalized and interactive listening in immersive virtual and augmented reality environments. Specific research and productions frequently address demands not met by commercial systems, exploring new artistic and technological perspectives, and are carried out at the Audio and Musical Technologies Laboratory (LATM/EACH), LabArteMídia and NuSom (ECA). The project is funded through agreements, CNPq and CAPES programs, and USP scholarships.
Project Leader: Prof. Dr. Regis Rossi Alves Faria.
Research line: Music and education: processes of creation, teaching, and learning
- Rhythmic studies to poetic bodies: Interactive environments in Music
-
The project to be carried out at the Music Department at the State University of Sao Paulo- ECA/USP continues the research and experiences that have been developed by the author, connecting studies on musical rhythm to corporeality, creative processes, improvisation and interaction with other arts within musical formative environments. The previous path of studies was developed in doctoral research by the Department of Music at USP, post-doctoral research by the Interdisciplinary Nucleus of Sound Communication at UNICAMP and actions developed during teaching at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. At this path we began approaching expressive materials and procedures found in non-Western music, proposing and experimenting hybrid environments for the practice of improvisation; studies generating performance environments from gestural interfaces, and didactic experiences in creative proposals from rhythmic stimuli within the disciplines of Ear Training, Improvisation and Collective Music Practice. More recently, issues such as spatiality and states of presence have been incorporated into the experiences we have been carrying out, and which will be transposed to the discipline of Creative Practices in Music Education at the Music Department of ECA/USP and other possibilities. The purpose of our studies is to contribute with proposals that help to disseminate poetic and immersive states in experiences related to musical rhythm, and that may awaken similar states within other contexts of music, whether in education, performance, interaction with the listener or in the invitation to participate in any musical experience with an alert and present body, which in this project we call poetic bodies. The theoretical material and the experiments we have been carrying out have been supported by the ideas of sound perception, corporeality and cognition linked to the concepts of embodied mind (Varela et al., 2001), affordances (GIBSON, 1979), studies in Neuroscience and Biology (RAVIGNANI, 2014) and studies related to states of presence (PAVIS, 2001), among others.
Project leader: Prof.ª Dr.ª Ana Luisa Fridman.
Research line: Performance
- PROFESSIONAL TRAINNING OF CLASSICAL SINGERS: practice of operatic repertoire with focus on the integration of bodily, theatrical and musical elements
-
This research project investigates the impacts of practising operatic repertoire on the development of classical singers, with an emphasis on the integration of bodily, theatrical and musical dimensions of performance. It is grounded in the understanding of opera as a complex pedagogical tool, capable of articulating vocal technique, stage expressivity and interpretative construction in an integrated manner. In this context, the project explores the outcomes of the course “Prática de Repertório Operístico”, developed within the Music Department of the School of Communications and Arts at the University of São Paulo (CMU/ECA-SP), which adopts operatic repertoire as a formative practice. It seeks to understand how the systematic engagement with this repertoire contributes to students’ technical, artistic and interpretative development. By foregrounding practice as a space of inquiry, the project analyses how operatic experience mobilises multiple competences and fosters the articulation of different dimensions of singer training. In doing so, it aims to contribute to reflections on teaching methodologies in singing and operatic performance, highlighting the role of repertoire practice as a structuring element in the training process.
Project leader: Flavia Albano de Lima.
Concentration area: Musicology
Research line: Musicology and ethnomusicology
- Modernity and tradition, chronicle and intransitivity, national identity and madness: Chico Buarque
-
Developed with support from CNPq (Research Productivity Grant), the project aims to study Chico Buarque’s samba through the intersection of three analytical frameworks, in order to critically examine themes that have yet to be fully identified or discussed. The first framework seeks to explore the relationships between modernity and tradition in the very form of the sambas. The methodology is based on the principle that the form of popular song is structured around the interaction of seven elements: melody; lyrics; singing; harmony; rhythmic pulse; arrangement; musical genre. The second axis of analysis, meanwhile, focuses on the relationships that Chico Buarque’s samba establishes, on the one hand, with the journalistic-literary chronicle (a text that takes as its subject, often in a lyrical vein, everyday events) and, on the other hand, with the notion of intransitivity presented by Muniz Sodré and reworked by the author (a notion through which the creation of a world of its own within the poetic-musical space of samba is highlighted). Finally, the third axis investigates Chico Buarque’s responses both to the consolidation of samba as an emblem of Brazilian identity (a cultural process dating back to the 1930s) and to the fraying of the social fabric, captured by the artist as a constellation of madness, over the course of six decades. The project’s interdisciplinary approach builds on the author’s previous researches, which was supported by CNPq, and draws on tools from musicology, literary criticism, critical theory, song semiotics, historiography, the social sciences, and media studies.
Project leader: Walter Garcia da Silveira Junior.
Research line: Music Theory and Analysis
- Textural Transformations: Strategies and Musical Scope
-
The present in-depth investigation of musical texture is informed by a perspective that seeks both to broaden and to critically systematise the subject. With a focus on the analysis of compositional strategies that articulate form through textural transitions, the project seeks to elucidate the ways in which texture functions as a transformational continuum within musical works. It proceeds from the premise that texture is not exhausted by the notion of sonic density, but rather constitutes a complex experiential instance, emerging from the interaction among the elements of musical material, their inscription within the physical (or virtual) space of performance, and listening as shaped by the development of the interpreter’s perception, musical experience, and auditory memory. Grounded in an extensive historical and bibliographical survey, the analysis will encompass a wide range of repertoires, including works by women compos ers, Brazilian and Latin American composers, as well as canonical examples from the European repertoire.
Person Responsible: Profa. Dra. Adriana Lopes da Cunha Moreira.
- The Musical and Theoretical Repertoire of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries as a Source for the Development of Analytical Resources
-
Situated within the field of Analytical Musicology, this project is devoted to: (1) the analysis, perception, and interpretation of musical works composed during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; (2) the study of theoretical approaches concerned with investigations into rhythm, temporality and kinesis, form, texture, and timbre; and (3) the development of analytical strategies that extend and lend continuity to these approaches. In proposing the creation of means that provide continuity with historically established analytical–musical traditions, the project also addresses the dimension of innovation in analytical resources. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of works composed by Ibero-American composers, especially Brazilian composers.
Person Responsible: Profa. Dra. Adriana Lopes da Cunha Moreira.
History
The Postgraduate Program in Music at the University of São Paulo was created through the reformulation and separation of the postgraduate programs at the School of Communications and Arts. As of 2007, programs that were previously grouped under the generic name of “Arts” (this is the first postgraduate course in Arts in Brazil, started in 1974, as well as the first doctorate in the area, implemented in 1980) , independently formed programs, namely: Performing Arts, Visual Arts and Music. This reformulation brought greater independence and agility to the programs and, consequently, greater consistency in the set of activities carried out in each of them.
Since its creation, the Postgraduate Program in Music (PPGMUS) has sought to promote innovative musical studies, combining academic research and artistic practice with the aim of generating new knowledge in music, offering the student body training that qualifies them. to act critically and innovatively. Thus, PPGMUS is characterized by a commitment to excellence in teaching, research, extension and artistic practice in its most diverse aspects.
Between the years 2012-2013 we had a substantial reformulation in the lines of research, in order to better adapt them to the artistic and academic performance of the teaching staff, creating favorable conditions for organizing the research and guidance processes developed in the Program in a more consistent and vertical way.