Music – (M.A.)

Contents

Course length

Full-time: 12 months
Part-time: 24 months

As our courses are reviewed regularly, course content and module choices may change from the details given here.

Students studying for the MA/PG Dip in Music are required to complete the following two compulsory modules (40 credits each):

Key Concepts and Methods in Research

Provides a grounding in the skills, methodologies and theoretical approaches for work in music at postgraduate level. Training is provided in the following: the use of bibliographic databases and internet-based resources specific to the study of Music; identifying sources and the use of libraries and archives; writing skills. The module also features a series of sessions devoted to developing students' awareness of recent debates within musical scholarship. These sessions are designed to bring together musicologists and composers from across our pathways in fruitful debate.

Dissertation / Major Project

An in-depth project in independent study or creativity, taken at the end of the course, enabling students to deploy skills, knowledge and understanding gained during the course in producing a substantial piece of written work, or practice-based outputs. This can be a critical examination, through independent study and extended written work of an appropriate musicological topic, theme or issue. Alternatively, a portfolio of practice-based work is also acceptable, presented and documented as appropriate to feature an agreed combination of compositions, installations, site based work, live electronic applications.

You will then take two of the following modules depending on your chosen specialism (40 credits each):

Composition and Sonic Art Practice

This module provides an opportunity for you to enhance your technical and analytical skills, building upon previous experience. Working with an appropriate supervisor within the areas of composition and sonic art practice, you will fhave the opportunity to focus on acoustic composition, electro-acoustic composition and sound art, and will explore the importance of site and context. You will develop your own conceptual concerns and expand your vocabulary of technical skills relating to your creative practice. You will develop a body of practical research - to include scores and recordings - and reflect upon this through seminar feedback sessions. In addition, you pursue a research topic that explores contemporary practice; for instance through the analytical study of the work of a composer or group of composers, or a detailed consideration of a particular conceptual or technical issue.

Electroacoustic and Live Electronic Composition

This module gives you the opportunity to focus on electroacoustic composition and live electronic composition, including interactive computer music. You will enhance your technical and analytical skills, building upon your previous experience of composition. You will develop a body of research that might include recordings, software patches and installations - and reflect upon this through seminar feedback sessions. You also pursue a research topic that explores Electroacoustic or Live-Electronic composition; for instance through the analytical study of the work of a composer or group of composers, or a detailed consideration of a particular conceptual or technical issue.

Approaches to Popular Music

An examination of the methodological issues and traditions in the study of popular music. Although the module can include reference to any repertory including jazz, focus will be on the song-based lineages of American country and British folk music, American blues and gospel music, and the trans-national languages of pop, rock, and rap. However, in addition, reference will be made to non-Anglophone repertory. Musicological approaches are practised through active listening to selected recordings and live performances. Finally forms of writing are examined and discussed, in which popular music is seen within the context of sociology and politics, literary study, cultural and media studies, aesthetics and critical theory.

Approaches to Film Music

This module takes as a starting point the role of music in film, seeking to explore in detail a number of scholarly and creative perspectives on that role. The purpose of the module is not to trace the history of music in film, but rather to survey recent critical thinking about music in film: how music is thought to clarify, confuse or contradict the expressive or informative content of the image track; how music is understood to generate impressions of time, space, character, mood, scene. Sessions will involve group discussion of weekly readings, as well as student presentations on specific films and themes.

Approaches to Opera

This module explores recent critical thinking about the creation, performance and reception of opera and about operas as dramatic and musical texts. You will focus upon debates about the following issues: the social and aesthetic contexts that have shaped operas; the representation of political concerns in opera; gender and sexuality on the operatic stage; operatic institutions and audiences; the staging and interpretation of operas; critical responses to opera; opera’s place in the musical canon; and the role of opera in 21st-century society. Other forms of music theatre may also be discussed. Sessions will involve group discussion of weekly readings, as well as student presentations on specific operas and themes.

Approaches to 19th Century Music

The study of 19th-century music is currently one of the most vibrant areas of historical musicology, inspiring many of the perspectives developed by 'new' and post-modern musicology. This module explores the music of the 'long' nineteenth century, from late Haydn to early Schoenberg, in its historical and disciplinary contexts and from a range of current perspectives, bringing together cultural studies, history, literature and the arts in an interdisciplinary and transnational approach. Topics explored include the ideology of genius and the rise of the work concept; music in the salon and the market place; popular music of the 19th century; women as performers, patrons and composers; music and the beginnings of mass media; virtuosity and the cult of celebrity; music and the ‘Gothic’; music and national identity; the rediscovery of early music and historicism.

Independent Study

A critical examination through independent study and extended research of an appropriate music-based topic, theme or issue. This will result in an extended piece of written work or a portfolio of compositions/practice-led outcomes. You will be required to produce a detailed plan of study leading to a learning contract agreed between the student, the supervisor and the course leader.