Interview with Joyce Wei-Jo Chen, conducted by John Wood, May 21, 2024

John Wood – Thank you for doing this. So how did you get into musicology?

Joyce Chen – So I started my Masters of Music in harpsichord at Stony Brook, right after my engineering degree. And basically—this is actually crazy—I took this seminar by Sarah Fuller. She is a leading scholar in medieval music, Machaut. I knew her because back in college, our first sequence, we were using her textbook, The European Musical Heritage. It’s since discontinued. But my teacher at the time still used it, and I knew she was an amazing scholar. So I wrote to her—and this is 2011—I wrote to her and said, “Hi. I’m wondering, I know this is intended as a PhD in musicology seminar, but I admire you. Can I still take this class?” And she just said, “It’s going to be very challenging, and you need probably at least 20 hours a week.” For one seminar. And there I was, a little incoming grad student who didn’t know what she was into. I loved her class. And I learned so much. And that’s when I started thinking, “Should I do musicology? Because I’m really interested.” And a year later, she retired. I actually took her last seminar ever. So it was a historical moment.

She and I worked on a project. It’s called the Robertsbridge Codex. It contains the earliest keyboard music, from 1360, two of which are transcriptions from the Roman de Fauvel. And I basically did analysis of that, you know, just keyboard repertoire. And she’s still one of my supporters. I talk to her a lot. She’s like my musicology godmother. So I always consider myself a student of Sarah Fuller because she is just wonderful. She’s my role model. I want to be like her one day. I’m just really fascinated by intellectual discourse. It’s the same thing like I was into science. I’m curious. I’m very curious about sound. I’m curious about a lot of different things.

JW – What do you think is special about the musicology program here at UO?

JC – I love my colleagues here. I think everyone is very good at what they do. And we’re all doing pretty cutting-edge research. As you know, Zach does this cognition work with neuroscience. Jesus does this decolonial framework. I think we have a very strong kind of faculty presence. And I think because also we teach a wide variety of students. Actually I learn a lot from teaching. You know, I think we are all informed by the students. It’s not just like we’re teaching and that’s it. Sometimes, you know, it can be a masters student doing performance, say clarinet, far away from what I do, but they actually inform me like, oh, this is something I should think about. So I think that’s one of the biggest strengths in our program, is how diverse our faculty and students are, and how we can learn from each other.

JW – If I can add to it, from my perspective, there’s also a tradition here of having professors who are both intellectual researchers but also practical performers. And you’re sort of carrying on that tradition.

JC – Oh yeah. Thank you.

JW – What can students do with a degree in musicology?

JC – A lot of different things: academia, publishing, arts management, program notes, curation. You know, I see a lot of different options. It’s just how you market yourself. What else? Teaching, public school, it might be high school teaching. Consulting as well.

You know, when I say arts management, that was very specific. I do see musicology students can do a lot, and I haven’t seen enough in terms of education outreach programs of different performing arts organizations. I don’t see that enough. Because I think we know so much. And sometimes when I look at the education outreach stuff, I’m like, I’m sure this person can do it. But if you bring someone out of our program, they can have the most fresh idea, really think outside the box. And I’m not talking about Eugene; I’m talking about what I’ve seen in general on the East Coast, West Coast. It’s [usually] someone that has an arts administration background. But our skills are super transferable to do that. You know, say, hey, we’re very good at time management. Duh. As musicologists, we’re very good at analyzing data, because of all the reading. I feel like it’s harder to transfer from, you know, STEM reading. Because they’re very much scientific reading, versus this is more humanities reading. So we’re very good at curating data, almost like data science. And to have that research and then build programs like that, that could actually kind of expand music appreciation in communities. I really see that. That’s actually one thing I thought about doing. I was like, I really think I can make a difference. But you know, I happen to have this job that can also do something collaborative.

One other thing I forgot to say: tech. I know several musicologists that have very successfully transitioned into tech. I don’t know how they do it, but I’ve talked to some of them. But that’s what I was talking about, the data curation thing. We’re very good at reading. We’re pretty good at writing. We have a little bit better skills than a lot of people working in tech—interpersonal skills; we’re good at presentations. These are things I’ve seen in several people transitioning into tech. I’m not saying that’s what we aspire to, like, “I’m doing a musicology PhD so I can work in tech.” You know, I don’t see that.

JW – Right. But it’s great to think outside the bubbles a little bit, to just see more possibilities. I’ve got one more question and this one might stump you. What is your go-to coffee or tea order?

JC – Bubble tea. I used to be a bubble tea barista in college, so I have a pretty high standard. Basically, bubble tea is a comfort food, comfort drink, for me, because that reminds me of my past. And bubble tea’s from Taiwan, so I’ve been drinking it since I don’t know how old I was. Not the healthiest thing, probably shouldn’t drink that much if I want to live to 120. I limit myself to one a week usually.

 

 

Read the longer version of this interview.