Course description
Applications
Complete and submit the MMus in Music Application Form citing two referees. Please note that at least one of your referees should have knowledge of your writing skills, critical acumen and musical experience. You should also enclose an essay or project or dissertation demonstrating your current musicological abilities.
If shortlisted, you will be called for interview to assess your potential to benefit from the course.
Introduction
The course offers an opportunity to develop proficiency in a range of advanced musicological research techniques, and to deepen your knowledge and understanding of specific areas of music history, selected in discussion with your tutor.
In a combination of seminars and tutorials, students are guided through each phase of the research process, from defining a topic and locating relevant primary and secondary sources, to presenting a persuasive final report in the form of an extended case study or dissertation.
The Department fosters a thriving postgraduate community, where musicologists study alongside performers and composers. You will benefit from an extensive music library, housing a wealth of books, journals, scores and recordings, supplemented by an efficient inter-library loan service.
Students gain experience of researching in local archives, courtesy of the West Yorkshire Archive Service. You can also explore the impressive collections of York Minster, the Brotherton Collection and the Henry Watson Library among others - all just a short train ride away. The British Library reading rooms at Boston Spa offer additional resources.
Most specialisms can be catered for by the Department's distinguished team of musicologists, but particular areas of expertise include:
-Manuscript Studies
-Handel
-Mozart
-18th Century Opera
-Medieval and Renaissance Topics
-Music in Russia in the 19th Century
-Music and Gender
Course Structure
The course consists of four strands and offers a coherent and progressive programme of study, which moves from general methodological concerns towards greater specialism.
Academic Study - students are required to take two lecture/seminar-based modules:
Postgraduate Study Skills
Issues in Musical Thought and Practice Today
Techniques of Musicology
Musicology Tutorials - in taught tutorials the practical and critical techniques developed in the first two strands are applied to a variety of subjects, including Musical Sources and Archival Documents, and Text and Context. In these diploma-level modules you should gain the necessary experience, knowledge, understanding and perception to enable you to proceed with confidence into the MA phase of the course.
Dissertation - here you may embark on a programme of independent study, supported by tutorials.
Teaching and Assessment
Postgraduate Study Skills/Issues in Musical Thought: two folios of specified coursework, each of 3,500 words.
Techniques of Musicology: the production of a critical edition of the chosen manuscript source, with editor's introduction and critical commentary.
An analysis and critique of the chosen source.
Case Studies: one case study of 7,000 words (Musical Sources and Archival Documents), and two of 3,500 words each (Text and Context).
Dissertation: a dissertation of 15,000 words on an agreed subject of your own choice.
Other Information
RThe Music Department offers an outstanding research environment for both music and music technology. The Department scored a 5 in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, and all full-time staff are active researchers, as performers, composers or musicologists. The Creative Arts Building (newly completed in 2008) comprises purpose-built facilities, including concert hall, extensive studio facilities and sound-proofed rehearsal spaces. The University Library has an impressive range of research materials and multimedia resources, and houses special archival collections (including that of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival).
The school offers bursaries towards the cost of taught MA and MMus courses, which serve as ideal preparation for research degrees (MPhil and PhD), which are offered in all disciplines. A number of our postgraduates are employed as teaching assistants, providing a useful stepping-stone towards an academic career. In addition to subject-specific skills students will develop their intellectual self-confidence and capacity for independent study and a portfolio of key skills that distinguishes all disciplines in Higher Education.
