
Opleiding: Music, MA
Learning purpose
MA Music at Middlesex University has established a reputation for providing the Music postgraduate with a curriculum to strengthen, but also to contextualise the more specialist work in musicon which they may have decided to focus their professional development.
The masters course structure is flexible to allow you to vary your work according to varied interests or to focus exclusively on areas of your chosen practical discipline. This pliability permits international postgraduate students from wider Music disciplines to collaborate and benefit from one another's experience.
You are also encouraged to engage with unique lectures, seminars and workshops on the third year undergraduate BA Music, BA Jazz and BA Music and Arts Management courses to collaborate with other performing arts forms if you wish, and to join the music ensembles which include chamber groups, jazz, contemporary, Latin American and choir.
Programme
In full time mode, you will take four modules from September in the year in which the course is started, to May of the following year. You will have then until late in November to completeyour Final Music Project under the supervision of a dedicated, specialised, professionally-active staff.
In part-time mode,you willtake two modules Musicology and Music Research Techniques, from September of the year in which the course is started, to May of the following year; then Peripheral Music Project and Specialist Music Project from the following September to May of the subsequent year. With specialist staff supervision, you will have then until late in November to work on and completeyour Final Music Project. Preporatory work towards the Final Music Project will normally be started by part-timers during the summer of their first year.
The main teaching sessions are held in the early evenings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Optional specialist seminars and extracurricular activities are timetabled during the day. There are regular masterclasses and research symposia. Individual tutorials may be arranged at other times. Postgraduate students may also attend relevant modules in other programmes or participate in ensemble rehearsals and concerts to broaden their experience.
All assessment is by coursework, either by essay from a choice of questions given by presentation of research portfolios with short accompanying essays and student presentations. Portfolios may comprise written work, compositions or an extended recital. Subject to approval, the format for the final music projectis proposed by the student and may include written work, field study, composition or performance following the postgraduate students own interests.
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- Final Music Project (60 Credits) - Compulsory
- This module aims to allow students to work independently on a major, Master s research project relating to their specialist field. Through the dissertation the student will demonstrate their research knowledge, skills and independent expertise in their chosen Music specialism.
- Music Research Techniques (30 Credits) - Compulsory
- Through practical investigation this module aims to develop in students an understanding of research methodology and epistemology as applied to Music. The focus will be on techniques of collection, evaluation, assessment, articulation, presentation and application of data, arguments and ideas. Philosophy as to what constitutes research in the performing arts is an area of current debate, particularly in relation to practice-based work. As such, students will be challenged to begin to contextualise and reflect empirically on their own disciplines and specialisms in objective, coherent and logical ways.
- Musicology (30 Credits) - Compulsory
- This module aims, through a series of presented case studies, to develop in the postgraduate student an awareness of the current practical, phenomenological and historical branches of musicology; to broaden the student s musical knowledge and to provide experience of on-going professional-level research, the expected standards of which the student will be aiming towards in their final Music project.
- Peripheral Music Project (30 Credits) - Compulsory
- Most Masters students find some difficulty in defining their particular research topics. Paradoxically, this is overcome not from trying to focus in on a specialism, but by examining areas that contribute to it. With the above principle in mind, this module aims to widen the scope of the field in which the student sees themselves. In so doing, the student will broaden their expertise and refine their interests. Work is project-based and will normally involve investigation into the personalities and products associated with chosen specific areas.
- Specialist Music Project (30 Credits) - Compulsory
- This module aims to provide the student with: a trial platform to complete a small-scale, interest-specific project which may be related directly to the student s central concerns as preparation for completion of the subsequent Final Music Project MUS4050 ; OR, an opportunity to work in an area on which the student wishes to concentrate temporarily before turning to the topic s of the Final Music Project MUS4050 . Whichever option is taken, students will gain from the module supported experience and feedback in preparing them for the subsequent, 60-credit Final Music Project.
Entry Requirements
A 2-i or higher graduate degree in Music or related subject s . Candidates with lower grades who feel they have the potential and motivation to complete a postgraduate degree may also be considered. Mature candidates with equivalent professional experience can also apply.
Please apply directly to Middlesex University Code W310 Overseas students should contact their closest Middlesex University International Office. UK students should contact the Universitys Admissions section. Applicants will normally be asked to give details of the kind of projects they would like to carry out during their postgraduate studies. Performers will be required to send in a recording of two or three performances. Composers should submit recordings or scores with recordings of two or three recent compositions.
English language requirements
You must have competence in English language and we normally require Grade C GCSE or an equivalent qualification. The most common English Language requirements for international students are IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL (paper based) 575 or TOEFL (internet based) 90 with specified minimum scores for each component.
Professional perspective and employment market
Media music performance and composition, arts organisation and management. Music industry writers, composers, performers. Music is a usufully-appropriate choice of subject for diverse careers, combining creatively as it does the world of sciences, art, history and aesthetics.

