This thesis proposes control schemes and converter configurations for high power wound field synchronous motor (WFSM) drives. The model for a salient pole WFSM in any general rotating reference frame is developed which can be used to derive models along known rotor (dq) and stator flux (MT) reference frames. Based on these models, the principle of sensor-less stator flux oriented field-oriented control (FOC) for salient pole WFSM is developed. So far in the literature, control of cylindrical rotor machine only has been addressed and the effects of saliency have generally been neglected. The performance of the proposed sensor-less FOC has been demonstrated by experimentally operating a 15.8 HP salient pole WFSM using a three-level IGBT based voltage source inverter (VSI). The principle of FOC has been later extended to the control of current source load commutated inverter (LCI) fed salient pole WFSM drives, where the drawbacks present in conventional self-control method such as rigorous off-line calculation for generation of look up tables, coupling between flux and torque control etc. are eliminated. This thesis also proposes the combination of a VSI with the LCI power circuit to overcome the different disadvantages that are present in the existing LCI topology. Firstly, a novel starting scheme is proposed, where the LCI fed WFSM is started with the aid of a low power auxiliary VSI converter in a smooth manner with sinusoidal motor currents and voltages. This overcomes the difficulties of the present complex dc link current pulsing technique that has drawbacks such as pulsating torque, long starting time etc. In a second mode of operation, it is shown that the VSI can be connected to the existing LCI fed WFSM drive as a harmonic compensator in On-The-Fly mode; this will make the terminal stator current and voltage sinusoidal apart from cancellation of torque pulsations thus improving the drive performance. The above two schemes have potential as retrofit for existing drives. It is possible to combine both the advantages, mentioned above, by permanently connecting the VSI with the LCI power circuit to feed the WFSM. This proposed hybrid LCI/VSI drive can be regarded as a universal solution for high power synchronous motor drives at all power and speed ranges.