Master Music

Institution Oxford Brookes University
Method At the institution
Location Oxford
Type Masters
Course fee By request

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Master Music

Entry requirements Admission is by interview. We would normally expect applicants to have an upper second class degree or above (not necessarily in Music). However, applicants with equivalent professional experience may also be considered.
Academic title MA / PGDip / PGCert Music
Course description MA / PGDip / PGCert

This course offers distinctive pathways in ‘Music and Popular Culture’, ‘Music on Stage and on Screen’ and ‘Contemporary Practice in Composition’. It provides you with a thorough grounding in advanced musical studies and can pave the way, where desired, to doctoral research. The course combines taught modules in areas of staff expertise with the opportunity to undertake independent research in your own particular area of interest. All members of staff are internationally respected experts in their respective fields, and link their teaching closely to their research. Our external examiner recently said “I can think of few if any other music departments in Britain or abroad able to match this responsible and expert breadth of provision”.

Oxford is a wonderful city in which to study music, offering not only a rich and varied concert life but the unparalleled research facilities of the Bodleian Library.

Course content

MA and PGDip students take a compulsory core module, Key Concepts and Methods in Research, and two specialist modules, while PGCert students take the core module and one specialist module. The Music team offers a broad programme of electives spanning musicology and composition: your particular choice of electives determines the pathway.

Students who opt for ‘Approaches to Film Music’ and ‘Approaches to Popular Song’ follow the pathway in Music and Popular Culture. Those who opt for ‘Approaches to Film Music’ and ‘Approaches to Opera’ follow the pathway in Music on Stage and on Screen. Finally, those who choose ‘Composition and Sonic Art’ and ‘Electroacoustic and Live Electronic Music’ follow the pathway in Contemporary Practice in Composition.

MA students also submit a dissertation on an approved topic or a portfolio of compositions.
Teaching, learning and assessment

The MA will be taught through a combination of seminars, tutorials and skills-based workshops. Assessment practices include essays, student presentations, literature reviews, dissertations and (for composers) compositions using scores, recordings, software patches or live electronics, performances and installations.