Musicology (MSc) – (M.Sc.)

The MMus in Musicology is an excellent choice for any music graduate (or graduates of joint degrees with music or with equivalent qualifications) interested in developing their studies further, and in increasing both subject-specific and transferable skills and critical abilities. The programme has been designed to draw upon the very broad range of music research conducted in Edinburgh by experts in their fields. Musicological study here covers the classical and the popular, spans eras from the pre-modern to the present, and deals with both musical autonomy and functional music, as composed, for example, for the screen or for religious ceremonies.

The programme is organised into three key areas:

1 Research Methods

Courses in research methods offer methodological training, introduce research techniques, and prepare students for the writing of a dissertation. They include training in archival research and in editing music, dealing with musical multimedia and music as a recorded artifact, and quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.

2 Issues in Musicology

Issues in musicology are introduced in two courses, dealing with the more philosophical questions raised by skills and methodologies elsewhere in the curriculum. These include questions of history, canons and archival research, performance studies, fieldwork, semiotics, the body, race, diaspora, gender, sexuality, and consumption.

3 Focussed Research into Specific Areas

Students develop their interests in specific research topics via both a taught course of their choice and through an individual research project, supported by supervision. One third of the degree is allotted to a large research project: either a dissertation or an editorial project (15,000 words or equivalent). Recent candidates have produced research in a variety of areas: jazz studies (transcription and editorial work), critical theory, music in the Edinburgh theatre, 17th-century English 'mad' songs, 18th-century music patronage in Scotland.

The university's music holdings, as well as Edinburgh's comprehensive cluster of libraries and archives (including the National Library of Scotland - a UK deposit library), provide an excellent set of facilities for musicological research.