Postgraduate Study in Music
We teach a wide range of music-related topics, including both practice-based and academic areas of study.
Music MMus
The MMus is distinctive for its flexibility. You can specialise in musicology or creative practice, or mix and match across these fields. And you can study in full-time or part-time mode (12 or 24 months respectively).
The MMus is primarily a research degree, but it also features taught elements alongside 1:1 supervision. It offers you a spectrum of musical styles and repertoires from which to specialise, or through which to shape a personal programme. These include early, classical, popular, contemporary, avant-garde, folk and world musics.
The MMus helps you further develop musical and intellectual skills you acquired as an undergraduate. It also offers you new learning opportunities. This course will also help prepare you for professional life. The MMus is an excellent foundation for students going on to a PhD.
Music MLitt
The MLitt (Master of Letters) in Music enables you to develop a flexible individual research programme. You may research any musicological area covered by our supervisory expertise.
This programme is a valuable qualification in its own right. It enables you to develop your research skills and deepen your knowledge and understanding. It also provides a robust foundation for further study at PhD level.
The MLitt requires 12 months full-time or 24 months part-time study.
Music MPhil, PhD
Our Music MPhil and PhD programmes enable you to pursue advanced research in many musical areas. They include:
- classical
- popular
- world
- contemporary
- early
- folk and traditional
Our MPhil takes 12 months full-time or 24 months part-time. The MPhil focuses on training you for further PhD study.
It is also a valuable qualification in its own right. For some the MPhil adds a further dimension to their undergraduate degree, in a 3+1 model.
The PhD takes 36 months full-time study or 72 months part-time. A PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) is the gold standard of all research degrees. It is usually the minimum requirement for entry into an academic career.
Creative Art Practice MA
The MA in Creative Art Practice takes one year full time or two years part time. It's designed for graduates from any form of creative practice.
The course will appeal to people who prefer to work between disciplines. They will also engage with contemporary technology.
The programme also offers a grounding for those hoping to progress to PhD degree study.
We admit around 15 students per year on to the course and encourage collaboration and exchange.
Find out more about Creative Arts Practice MA
Finding a supervisor
Academic staff supervise candidates working across a wide range of music-related topics. This includes both practice-based and academic areas of study.
Here are the main areas in which we are keen to supervise your work:
- composition – of all kinds (studio-based, notated, multi-media and improvised)
- performance – in a range of genres (including classical, popular, folk, contemporary)
- music and cultural/critical theory
- ethnomusicology and world musics
- popular music studies
- historical musicology (medieval, early modern, nineteenth-, twentieth- and twenty-first-century musics)
We can also supervise music analysis and theory, and folk and traditional musics.
For more detail, take a look at our individual staff specialisms.
