My PhD is in musicology, so I've spent a few hundred hours in music theory courses (the differences between music theory, music history, musicology, and ethnomusicology are shrinking, but that's a whole other topic). I can confirm that this is the kind of stuff that we teach in 1st or 2nd year music theory classes. But yeah, this isn't what graduate students study. This is the kind of thing that can help you learn the language of music scholars.

If you want to see a small sample of what music theorists find interesting nowadays, just look a the latest issues of some of the major journals to get an idea. For example:

Journal of Music Theory: https://www.dukeupress.edu/Journal-of-Music-Theory/ Music Theory Spectrum: http://mts.oxfordjournals.org/content/current Perspectives of New Music: http://www.perspectivesofnewmusic.org/ 19th-Century Music: http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=19th... Journal of the American Musicological Society: http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=jame...