Staff at Birmingham have been active as editors for over six decades. Critical editions of Renaissance and Baroque music have been published by Anthony Lewis (founding editor of Musica Britannica), Paul Doe, David Greer, Nigel Fortune, John Whenham and Colin Timms.

We have substantial resources to support editing, including Library holdings and performance opportunities. The Cadbury Research Library includes substantial collections (still growing, thanks partly to the Henry Barber Trust) of manuscript and early printed music, mostly English and Italian but also some French – see Iain Fenlon, Catalogue of the Printed Music and Music Manuscripts before 1801 (1976) – and of Elgar and Bantock, among others; the Library is also the repository for the Feeney commissions – the autograph scores of compositions commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with funds provided by the John Feeney Trust. University-related performance opportunities are provided by the Centre for Early Music Performance and Research, Birmingham University Singers, the annual Birmingham Early Music Festival and the Barber Opera.

You will study four core modules:

• Techniques of Music Editing
  This module will show you the mechanics and transcription of early notation in the context of brief editing projects, and to apply knowledge gained in Introduction to Music Research and elective modules in understanding source traditions. You will develop skills in transcription, in the interpretation of various notations, and in the critical evaluation of different editions.

• Musicology Research Seminar
  Invited speakers from other universities will give eight musicology research seminars, each of one hour in length, followed by discussion. The seminars will provide case studies in a range of methods, techniques and philosophies in contemporary musicology. Staff of the Music Department will lead four follow-up sessions of up to one hour in length, examining the broader issues that lie behind the approaches taken in the seminars.

• Information Skills and Resources in Music
  This module helps you to identify and access appropriate bibliographical resources, archives, and other sources of relevant information; describe in detail the process of bibliographical research and justify it; and execute a critical survey of the existing literature on a research topic.

• Introduction to Music Research
  This module introduces you to contemporary issues, methods, techniques and debates in music, in such areas as source studies (manuscript, printed, electronic), historical performance practice, reception history, and genre studies.

You will also choose one optional module from the following:

• Advanced Music Analysis
  This module will benefit Masters students in Music who lack a traditional background in technical analysis. You will attend the Level I undergraduate module ‘Analysis’ and tutorials given by the module leader. Topics include analysis of fugue, sonata form, nineteenth-century harmony, rhythm and metre, post-tonal pitch organisation and musical narrative.

• Thinking about Music: From Aesthetics to Critical Theory
  Some knowledge of philosophical aesthetics is an essential prerequisite for any musicologist who wishes to follow the critical debates that have stemmed from the ‘New Musicology’ of the 1990s. Composers, too, are increasingly called upon (or find themselves drawn) to explain their work in philosophical terms. This module is intended to prepare you to meet these demands. At its core is an introduction to the German aesthetic tradition, and the crucial role played in its history by music. Extracts from canonic texts will be read and discussed in seminars, and the development of aesthetic thought traced from the Enlightenment to Postmodernism.

• Contemporary Music Studies
  This module studies the explosion of musical expression that characterises 20th-century and contemporary music, focusing on key movements (serialism, minimalism, etc) and concerns (tonality/atonality, aleatoric principles, etc). Starting from the musical ‘crisis’ of the early years of the 20th century, the course will address issues such as the separation of ‘art’ and ‘popular’ music, the impact of technology and the presumption of postmodernism at the start of the 21st century. The marked shift in aesthetics and music’s ‘function’ will also be discussed.

• Historical Musicology
  This module introduces you to contemporary issues, methods, techniques and debates in historical musicology, in the areas of source studies (manuscript, printed, electronic), historical performance practice, reception history, and genre studies.

• British Music Studies
  This module takes the broadest perspective on modern British art music, offering case studies in the work of the ‘great composers’ of the tonal idiom such as Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten, evaluation of the Anglican choral tradition and the British symphonic tradition, examination of the problematic status of modernism in British music before 1960, and criticism of modernist and postmodernist composition since World War II. Approaches are critical, analytical and sociological, with some reception history as well. The repertory under study is mainly choral, orchestral and chamber music.

We charge an annual tuition fee. Fees for 2013/14 are as follows:

• Home/EU: £5,130 full-time
• Overseas: £15,000 full-time

Part-time programme fees are one half of the full-time programme fees.

Learn more about fees and funding  

Scholarships and studentships

Scholarships to cover fees and/or maintenance costs may be available.
For further information, visit the College of Arts and Law scholarships page or email financialsupport@bham.ac.uk

International students can often gain funding through overseas research scholarships, Commonwealth scholarships or their home government.

When clicking on the Apply Now button you will be directed to an application specifically designed for the programme you wish to apply for where you will create an account with the University application system and submit your application and supporting documents online. Further information regarding how to apply online can be found on the How to apply pages

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