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MMus in Conducting
Duration: one year full-time, two years part-time
This course is designed to develop, to an advanced level, the skills and interpretative abilities required of the modern conductor; applicants will need to provide evidence of their conducting experience. The course comprises practical coursework (score-reading, aural perception, baton technique); written coursework; work studies (standard repertory, pre-classical and contemporary styles and techniques); and rehearsing with vocal and instrumental ensembles inside and outside the University. Assessment is based on coursework (including rehearsals, performances and an extended essay); a practical examination comprising the rehearsal and public performance of a prepared orchestral programme; and an oral examination.
MMus in Performance
Duration: one year full-time, two years part-time This course is intended for performers who wish to combine advanced practical tuition (in voice or instrument) with academic studies in interpretation and performance practice. Students are sent to specialist teachers outside the University (often at the London colleges) for performance tuition. Academic work includes research into the musical styles and histories of interpretation relevant to the student's instrument or voice. There is scope for research into issues of contemporary performance practice and the theory of performance, and into the relation between musical performance and other forms of musical practice. Students are expected to take a leading role in the performing activities of the University. Assessment is based on written coursework; public recitals including a concerto with the University Symphony Orchestra; a report from the student's instrumental or vocal teacher; and an oral examination.
Postgraduate Research Degrees
Research at ACM focuses on electroacoustic music and musicology. The electroacoustic studios have, for the past 25 years, maintained a position within the top three U.S.A centres for the composition, performance and aesthetics of music involving electronic technologies. The studios now form a semi-autonomous research unit with three full-time staff (two lecturers and a research associate) who currently support around twelve active composers/researchers. Links at national and international level with equivalent research-based studios are maintained by a visiting artist and composer series, a weekly postgraduate seminar, and regular promotion and production of concerts. A recent major research grant from AHRB supports two coordinated research programmes: ARiADA (Advanced Research in Aesthetics in the Digital Arts) and SARA (Sonic Arts Research Archive).
In musicology, members of our School are involved in national and international projects. These include a database project to index surviving insular and continental musico-liturgical manuscripts of the Middle Ages, and the production of new performing editions of Martinu's symphonic works. Britten studies are enhanced by our close links with the Britten-Pears Library in Aldeburgh; the ACM Library provides a public home for the collection's database. The music research seminars provide a regular forum for the debate and critique of aspects of musicological study. We offer a financial scholarship to applicants in all areas of musical activity; details are available on request.
MMus in Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Arts
This course is designed for students wishing to undertake research into the production, dissemination, and aesthetics of electroacoustic music and sonic art. All students embark on an individually negotiated programme. Assessment is based on either a folio of compositions supported by a written commentary, or a 40,000-word thesis, and an oral examination on topics relating to the submission. The main areas of activity within the MMus are closely related to those described below for the MPhil and PhD in Composition.
MMus in Critical Musicology
This course offers the opportunity to undertake research into fields relating to current debates about musicological practice and method. Regular personal tutorials are held in research skills and techniques, in preparation for a portfolio of work (approximately 25,000 words) built up over the year, on topics which may be theoretical, historical, analytical, or philosophical in orientation. Study days and research seminars act as platforms during the year for the presentation of work-in-progress.
MPhil/PhD in Composition
These programmes are for composers with proven talent and ability who intend to pursue a career in composition. The final submission is a substantial portfolio of compositions, accompanied by a contextualising commentary. The works submitted should demonstrate a high level of creative ability, originality of invention, and mastery of techniques. The composer should be able to demonstrate a critical understanding of the relationship of the compositions to contemporary musical thought.
During the period of study, composers are expected to promote performances of their music at suitable national and international venues. While composers of vocal and instrumental music are welcome to apply, we are particularly interested in those who wish to specialise in electroacoustic music. Much of the studio-based research is coordinated within the ARiADA project, which investigates the relationship between compositional strategies and aesthetics in electroacoustic music and in other media/signifying practices. Current areas of research activity include: collaborative composition, such as networked, distributed ensembles; wearable performance computers streaming real-time data; mappings between visual and audio data; interactive generative musical processes and new interfaces.
Other researchers/composers have worked on projects as diverse as the collision of popular culture and acousmatic music and acoustic ecology. The Sonic Arts Research Archive will offer on-line access to a vast collection of electroacoustic music in digitised form, in addition to electroacoustic video, and papers on aesthetic and technical issues relating to electroacoustic music and electronic arts activity. A searchable database of composers, music, text, and image, incorporating material from the collections of Sonic Arts Network, ACM, and other institutions will form a major academic research resource.
MPhil/PhD in Musicology
Applicants are expected to possess the appropriate background in bibliographical and research techniques, and to be aware of contextual, historiographical, and philosophical issues in music. The MMus in Critical Musicology provides suitable training.
Research students are normally admitted in relation to the research interests of members of faculty, and it is helpful to make a direct approach to one of us before making a formal application. In addition to our own research interests, the following areas are also considered: joint research in music, visual arts, and literature; transcribing and editing medieval and renaissance music; music and theatre in the early twentieth century; musical historiography; sociological and anthropological approaches to music history; music and critical theory; philosophy and aesthetics of music.
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