PhD in Music

Program Overview

This program offers a comprehensive approach to music education, with a focus on composition and musicology. Graduates pursue careers in higher education, research, and the music industry, including as composers and musicians. The department excels in research in acoustic, electro-acoustic, and non-Western composition, as well as musicology spanning Western art music, screen media, and popular music traditions.

Program Outline

Careers:

A significant number of graduates from this programme develop careers in higher education or work on high-level research projects in the field of music. Others take up careers as composers and musicians.

Other:

The Department of Music is a centre of research excellence in both composition and musicology. In composition, there is no particular house style, but we are well known for a number of areas, including: acoustic music, ranging from solo to symphonic scale; electro-acoustic, including acousmatic composition, live electronics, and mixed forms with instrument/voice; composition exploring the interface of Western and non-Western traditions. The department also provides access to a wide network of opportunities for professional and amateur performance. In musicology, research strengths include not only the Western art music tradition, but also screen media, non-Western (Turkey) and popular music. We have particular depth of expertise in the early Middle Ages (especially Spain), and in the 19th and 20th centuries (including the music of France, Britain, Germany, and Soviet Russia). We also have strengths in Anglophone vernacular traditions, including jazz and hip hop; opera, film music and the history and philosophy of technology; music and migration; and cultural and reception history more generally.

UK: full-time £4,758 per year UK: part-time £2,379 per year Overseas: full-time £20,700 per year For programmes that last longer than one year, please budget for up to an 8% increase in fees each year.