Musicology - MA

Members of the music profession require not only high-level specialist skills but also the ability to target those skills strategically to different circumstances. This module focuses on a range of different aspects of a musician’s professional development that directly relate to the music industry and their preparation for it: from self-promotion and self-management, to funding and wellbeing. It is thus central to a programme which aims to prepare you for a career as a musician in the 21st century.

It requires you, near the beginning of your postgraduate studies, to reflect ambitiously yet realistically on your professional aspirations, and to formulate a plan that helps you stand the best chance of achieving your goals. Weekly workshops, delivered by internal staff and external professionals, will focus on the practicalities of a career in music, providing you with a better insight into the industry you will be entering, as well as encouraging you to be self-reflective about your own personal and professional development needs.

This module is designed to develop your understanding of the world of musicology by introducing you to its key concepts and theoretical foundations, providing you with a broad knowledge of the field, including key areas of discourse and development, and enabling you to contextualise your own research or practice. This module will provide you with the knowledge and skills to engage critically with relevant scholarship, construct effective and well-supported arguments, and develop transferrable skills, including self-direction, critical reading and thinking, organization and time management – all of which will be useful beyond the end of your programme.

For MA Musicologists, this is a core module and will provide important training for your Dissertation. You will develop advanced research skills, and a broad knowledge of the field of musicology, facilitating the contextualisation and critical engagement of your Dissertation, and enabling you to engage with the key arguments and theories relevant to your own research projects, drawing upon complementary studies as and when appropriate.

MA Musicology culminates in the submission of a Dissertation, in which you will demonstrate command of your field of study, critical engagement with existing scholarship as a context for your independent research, an ability to work autonomously to formulate and develop an extended research project, and effective communication of your research findings. Effective verbal communication of your research – particularly through a conference-style paper – is an essential tool for a musicologist. Likewise, a knowledge and understanding of the style, function and purpose of conferences is also valuable. As a musicologist, attending and delivering papers at conferences will likely become a feature of your professional life, particularly if you wish to continue your studies to doctoral level and beyond. As such, experience of, and practice in, this discipline will be helpful to your continued development.

This module will equip you with the skills and knowledge to successfully write and deliver your own conference paper on your chosen area of research. This will be given at the Conservatoire’s biannual Postgraduate Research Study Day in the summer exam period, enabling you to present your research within a supportive conference environment, albeit one which mimics the professional context.

This module works in conjunction with Concepts in Musicology to assist the formation, contextualisation and preliminary stages of work on your Dissertation. As your initial research progresses, and your subject area and research questions become more defined, this module supports you in formulating and structuring your ideas into a proposal fit for formal scrutiny. The submission, including a literature review – in which you will critically evaluate and contextualise existing scholarship within your research area – will provide you with the opportunity to exercise your written presentation skills, receive formal feedback on your proposed Dissertation, and will result in the formulation of a strong research project that will be a feasible undertaking within the given time, demonstrating appropriate methodology.

The Dissertation is the culmination of the MA Musicology course. The purpose of this module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, in-depth and theoretically-informed research project by exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. Thus, the content of this module is determined by your individual research interests. The outcome may take the form of a written Dissertation, a Scholarly Edition or a Musicological Equivalent, and will be discussed in consultation with your supervisor(s). Through this module, you will demonstrate command of your chosen field of study by critically engaging with existing scholarship as a context for your own independent research, work autonomously to formulate and develop an extended research project, and develop the skills necessary to present your research findings effectively. Among the transferable skills developed here are self-direction, self-motivation, initiative-taking, problem-solving and decision-making, all of which are essential if you intend to pursue musicological research further, whether independently, in the context of employment, or in a future PhD project, the latter being a logical progression for a student who is particularly successful in this module.

Optional modules (40 credits each)

• Research Project
• Critical Edition
• Lecture-Recital
• The Reflective Practitioner
  • There are two pathways through this module: 1. Professional Placement, and 2. Creative Interdisciplinary Artist.

Professional Development modules (20 credits each)

Conservatoire based

• Concepts in Musicology
• Contemporary Music Concepts and Practice
• Music Technology in Performance
• Critical Editing Techniques
• Documentation
• Experimental Performance in Context(s)
• Historical Instrument Performance
• Historical Performance Practice
• Independent Scholarship in Music
• Music and Ideas
• Music Technology in Context
• Orchestration
• Performing and Producing in the Studio
• Professional Music Criticism
• Self-Promotion Project
• Teaching Matters: Principles and Practice
• Work Placement
• Writing Music for Media
• Music, Community and Wellbeing (BMus module)

Art based

• Art and Ecologies
• Contemporary Philosophy and Aesthetics
• Discourses in Art and Design
• Models and Methods of Curatorial Practice
• Queer Strategies in Practice
• Small Arts Business Set Up
• Social Practice in the Visual

Media based

• Live Events and Festival Management
• Social Media as Culture and Practice