The Australasian Music Research Thesis Register: 1967-2007
|
The Australasian Music Research Thesis Register was instigated in September 2007, taking the Musicological Society of Australia's Thesis register as its starting point. The history of the registers that precede it is outlined below. This register differed from previous registers in that it was designed to be a fully cumulative record of all music-related, awarded or "in progress" postgraduate projects in Australia and New Zealand since the first known degree awarded in 1917. Whereas in the past, university music departments, libraries and authors had provided the details of completed theses to the various compilers, by 2007 the same information had become easily obtainable from the public domain. Collecting the information for this register was simply a matter of searching the appropriate online library catalogues. This was undertaken on a regular basis for a little over a decade. While past registers included only those musicological dissertations emanating from the main tertiary music-teaching institutions in both lands, this register also includes completed theses from other disciplines, and theses from institutions that do not teach music as a separate discipline. In addition, some theses completed at overseas institutions that were either written by Australasian authors or cover Australasian topics have been included. This register also includes postgraduate composition portfolio higher degrees. Such an expanded, cumulative collection of records required a more sophisticated delivery vehicle and categorisation system than that which accommodated the earlier MSA registers.
Subsequent advances in academic search engines has rendered the register largely redundant as an investigative tool for those interested in music research today, and it is no longer being updated. It remains here as an historical record of all Higher Degree music-related research conducted at Australasian universities between 1917 and 2017. |
|
History
As musicology proliferated in Australian universities, so did a desire to "track" the development of the discipline, and to find out what was happening where. This spurred the late Sir Frank Callaway and Professor David Tunley, the founding editors of Australia’s first scholarly music journal Studies in Music - who were also active members of the Musicological Society of Australia - to publish the first music-related Australian and New Zealand thesis register in the first volume of their journal. Drawing upon a British model devised by Mr Paul Doe for its design, the first Australasian register was comprehensively named "Register of Theses on Musical Subjects Accepted for Higher Degrees and Research Projects on Musical Subjects In Progress for Higher Degrees at Australian and New Zealand Universities." Like today’s version the register was retrospective, including 54 theses from 1927 through until 1967, together with the details of 26 projects then currently in progress. From then on, a non-cumulative register of degrees awarded since the previous year’s register had been compiled appeared in every edition of Studies in Music, as did an updated list of “in progress” projects. 25 years later, in what was to become the final volume of the journal - number 26 of 1992 - Studies in Music had recorded the commencement of 850 theses, and the completion of 422.
In 1995, the editors of the MSA's own journal, Musicology Australia took on the task of publishing the register, with the Review Editor, Graham Strahle, supervising the enterprise. The MSA register was more succinctly named "Register of Australasian postgraduate theses in music," but was essentially the same in content as its predecessor, although the categories had been expanded a little and the "in progress" items were no longer separated out from the completed projects. The 1995 register contained details of projects completed or commenced since 1992. In following years, a rolling cumulative update was published in the journal, with four years of information contained in each volume.
By the turn of the century it became obvious that the best place for a thesis register had become the internet, and the data for all projects from 1992 to 1999 was uploaded to the newly constructed MSA website. The format and categories remained the same; however, it was now possible to retain all of the information in one place and simply add to it at regular intervals. The register, as it was just prior to the current register going on line, was available here. An excerpt from the first pages of the Studies in Music register has been reproduced below.
Many thanks to Professor John Griffiths, the 2007-2008 MSA President, and to his committee for their contributions in the final stages of the implementation of this project.
Stephanie Rocke (Nov. 2007- Dec. 2021)
Excerpt: Studies in Music Number 1, 1967: excerpted from pages 102-103
|
THESES ON MUSICAL SUBJECTS ACCEPTED FOR HIGHER Arrangement: This is a modification of the plan devised by Mr Paul Doe in his register of theses on music undertaken by students of British universities (See R.M.A. Research Chronicle, No. 3, 1963, published by the Royal Musical Association). A. European Music I. Ancient and Medieval B. Non-European Music Universities represented The University of Queensland *New Zealand The University of Auckland (*prior to 1962 when these New Zealand universities became autonomous, degrees were granted by the University of New Zealand). |
THESES ON MUSICAL SUBJECTS ACCEPTED FOR HIGHER DEGREES A. I. EUROPEAN MUSIC: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL A. II EUROPEAN MUSIC: RENAISSANCE
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| 1. |
The origins and development of organ music in 17th century Germany. |
Steele, J.H. |
M.A. |
1952 |
| 2. |
Some features of the rise in tonality in instrumental music up to the end of the 17th century. |
Marinovich, V.M. |
M.A. |
1954 |