The Brandeis University music department's graduate programs concentrate in two areas: Composition and Theory, and Musicology. The department also offers, in conjunction with the program in women's and gender studies, a Joint M.A. in Music & Women's and Gender Studies.

Composition and Theory
The department offers three degree programs in composition and theory: M.A. (normally one year), M.F.A. (normally two years), and Ph.D. (normally two or more years following the completion of M.F.A. requirements). The programs are designed to help students develop a command of the craft of composition. That objective is supported by studies in theory and analysis and in electro-acoustic music.

Musicology
The department offers three degree programs in musicology: M.A. (normally one year), M.F.A. (normally two years), and Ph.D. (normally two or more years following the completion of M.F.A. requirements). The programs offer an integrated approach to the understanding of the nature, structural basis, and historical development of music. Students may elect to emphasize or concentrate in music history or in theory and analysis. In the music history program, a variety of techniques and methodologies, including style development, source studies, and historiography, are applied to different repertories and historical problems. The theory and analysis program features work in the history of theory as well as analytic work in the context of theory construction involving the evaluation of pretonal, tonal, and contemporary analytic models.

Joint M.A. in Music & Women's and Gender Studies
The music department offers an interdisciplinary Joint Master of Arts program in Music & Women's and Gender Studies that integrates the study of women's experiences and gender roles with the music course of study. Topics include feminist theory, gender studies, cultural history, and the investigation of work by and about women