The Practice-Led PhD in Music: Where Is it Headed?

The doctorate has been a mainstay programme in universities around the world since at least the 1400s. Over time, however, the doctorate has changed its name, shape, function, and structure. The PhD has been the most common form of doctoral study but other programmes have emerged in the twentieth century, including professional doctorates in fields such as education, psychology, and business studies. Since the 1980s, the doctorate in practice-led research, particularly in music composition and performance, has established itself in the academy and is known by various names such as Doctor of Creative Arts, the Doctor of Musical Arts, and the PhD, depending upon national traditions and local, institutional norms. At the same time as the development of doctoral programmes in music have flourished so too has a plethora of studies interrogating the nature, parameters and definitions of artistic and creative research. In this chapter, we will argue that despite an almost constant analysis of debates concerning the nature of research in music performance and composition, the nature of the doctoral programmes are rarely revisited, mainly because formal reviews of courses at universities are preoccupied with undergraduate programmes. Drawing on our collective experience in practice-led PhDs as supervisors, review panellists, and examiners, we look at the strides the practice-led PhD has taken in the last decade and document some of the benefits and limitations of such degrees, in the Australian context. Through an analysis of the ten Salzburg Principles (2005 and 2010) we reflect on how the practice-led PhD in Australian universities might usefully be revised and improved for the next generation of PhD students, their supervisors, and the music industry.