Program Overview

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Musicology - MA

Overview

Scholarships are available to study this course. Apply before Friday 18 July pm noon GMT. Find out more

Applications will be considered for a scholarship on a first come first served basis, which means that we may close applications for the scholarship before the deadline.

Whatever your interests, our Musicology course gives you the unique opportunity to pursue your own research project within a lively and exciting Conservatoire environment.

Our flexible course enables you to mould a programme of study to your own needs and aspirations, and may be approached as preparation for a research degree in music.

It is important that a musicologist also develops complementary skills and/or knowledge outside their specialism which will help equip them for a future career: professional musicologists typically find themselves, amongst other things, teaching, managing and administering; some even maintain parallel careers as professional performers or composers.

Therefore, we provide you with a choice of Professional Development Options (shared across our postgraduate programmes) alongside your musicological work to give you the opportunity to develop and/or expand your interests across a range of complementary areas.

The Conservatoire team—which comprises a large number of research-active staff—has a vast array of expertise, allowing us to supervise a wide range of projects, and we are particularly keen to attract those interested in pursuing Masters-level research in our specialist areas.

These include: Late Medieval Music; French Music of the 17th, 18th and 20th centuries; Italian Baroque Music; 18th and 19th Century British, Russian or Austro-Germanic Music; Contemporary Film and Television Music; Theory and Analysis; 20th-Century Music Theory and Analysis; and Music Critics and Criticism.

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire also hosts a significant collection of historical instruments and we welcome studies with a focus on performance practice and/or critical editing.

Recent research projects include:

• Florence B. Price: An exploration of European Tradition with African-American Heritage
• An Exploration of Music Performance Anxiety in a Conservatoire Woodwind Department
• Chopin’s Neglected Contemporaries: Charles-Laurent Rhein and Adolph von Henselt as Contributors to the Nineteenth-Century Piano Etude
• Critical Edition of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint George, Violin Concertos, Op. 7
• Easy Listening: Jerry Lanning and the BBC Radio Orchestra
• Voices from a Non-Place: An Investigation into Language, Space and the Sung Voice
• The Lute and Non-Nobility in Elizabethan England
• Alexei Stanchinsky ): Context and Influences
• Clara Schumann as Pedagogue
• Italian Film Music During the 1930s: Political Appropriation and Socioeconomic Agendas
• Constructive or Destructive? Assessing the Impact of Feedback in Instrumental Piano Lessons
• The Pianist-Composer Alexis Weissenberg
• Ravel and his Aesthetic of the Macabre
• A Handsworth Revolution: The Development of a Birmingham Reggae Sound
• “A Master of his Profession”: Carlo Bassini and the training of the female voice,
• Zooming forward: the implications of online learning environments on pain-free piano pedagogy
• Understanding Leschetizky: The Methodologies, Approach, And Relevancy Of A 19th Century Pedagogue In The 21st Century
• “Rise like a phoenix, out of the ashes.” The Eurovision Song Contest and LGBTQ representation.
• Augmenting Interaction: Exploring the Effect of Haptic Feedback on the Experience of Installation Audio

Entry Requirements

Essential requirements

• UK students should normally hold a 2:1 honours degree, ideally but not necessarily in Music.
• Non-UK students should hold a Bachelor's degree or a similar degree-equivalent diploma, ideally but not necessarily in Music.

Applying with international qualifications

Please see our international pages for further details of the entry requirements for our courses and information relevant to applicants from your country.

English language requirements

• IELTS 7.0 overall with no less than 6.5 in each band, or equivalent. See details of accepted qualifications.

Your proposal

At the time you submit your application, you should send direct to a proposal containing the following:

• A rationale for your proposed dissertation project
• A discussion of the context in which your proposed project sits, with references: i.e. you need to show an awareness of existing research on the topic (about 250 words)
• The aims of your project
• An outline description of what will be covered in your project (about 300 words)
• An indicative bibliography

Fees & How to Apply

UK students

• Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.
• Award: MA
• Starting: Sep 2025
• Mode: Full Time/Part Time
• Duration: 1 year/2 years
• Fees:
  • Full Time: £10,000 in 2025/26
  • Part Time: £1112 per 20 credits
    • Year 1 - 80 credits
    • Year 2 - 100 credits

International students

• Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.
• Award: MA
• Starting: Sep 2025
• Mode: Full Time/Part Time
• Duration: 1 year/2 years
• Fees:
  • Full Time: £19,970 in 2025/26
  • Part Time: £1112 per 20 credits
    • Year 1 - 80 credits
    • Year 2 - 100 credits

Course in Depth

Core modules

• Career Development 20 credits
• Concepts in Musicology 20 credits
• Conference Paper 20 credits
• Preparation for Research 20 credits
• Dissertation 60 credits

Optional modules

• The Emerging Researcher: Optional modules 40 credits
  • 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: Optional modules 40 credits
  • Conservatoire based
    • 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, Community and Wellbeing
    • 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 Experience Project
    • Writing Music for Media
  • 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 Arts
  • Media based
    • Live Events and Festival Management
    • Social Media as Culture and Practice

Employability

Our aim is to prepare you for employment, giving you the knowledge, skills and confidence to succeed in your chosen branch of the music profession. This will give you a head-start in meeting the challenges involved in becoming a professional musician in the 21st century.

We also offer you guidance in making choices on your programme by encouraging you to consider your future plans, as well as your priorities. This will ensure that your decisions are strategic in relation to your professional development and future employability.

Facilities & Staff

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s £57 million music building opened in September 2017, and is located on Birmingham City University’s City Centre Campus in the Eastside ‘learning quarter’ of the city.

This state-of-the-art music facility includes five public performance venues – a 440-seat Concert Hall, 150-seat Recital Hall, Organ Studio, Eastside Jazz Club and the experimental black box performance venue known as The Lab. As well as these stunning performance venues, we have nearly 100 practice spaces, including 70 small practice rooms and larger ensemble rooms and workshops.

Our home is the first conservatoire built in the digital age, and as such it has been vital to ensure that the technical infrastructure installed is on par with any advanced commercial facility. We have seven recording studios, a mastering suite, a distance learning hub, and all of our performance venues feature high specification audio-visual equipment that enables interconnectivity and advanced functionality throughout the building.

These impressive modern facilities guarantee that we are able to excel in our unique dual purpose of providing the highest standard of music education deserved by our students, as well as meeting our role as a concert and performance venue for the people of Birmingham, taking our place in the vibrant cultural landscape of the UK’s second city.

Our staff

• Dr Siân Derry
• Dr Luan Shaw
• Dr Joanna Bullivant