Princeton University. Dept. of Music.

Princeton University's Department of Music was founded in 1934 as a section of the Department of Art and Archaeology. Though Princeton was relatively late to offer musical study as an academic discipline, the appointment of well-known and widely published musical scholars as faculty members throughout the department's history has contributed to the program's high esteem within the field.

Despite the lack of a dedicated building and scant funding, the early music program proved popular among students and an M.F.A. degree was offered starting in 1940, followed by a Ph.D. in 1950. The section was elevated to departmental status in 1946 and promptly took up residence in Clio Hall. As additional faculty were brought to Princeton and performance became an increasingly important element of the music curriculum, lack of adequate space became a consistent problem. The issue was temporarily alleviated by the Department's move into the newly constructed Woolworth Center of Musical Studies, and an expansion and renovation of the facility in 1997 was accompanied by the addition of the Mendel Music Library.