MusM in Music (Ethnomusicology)

at University of Manchester

Course unit details

You will undertake units totalling 180 credits. Core and optional units combine to make 120 credits, with the remaining 60 credits allocated to a dissertation or critical edition.
 

The dissertation or critical edition offers the opportunity to work with world-leading experts in a range of specialist areas. Alternatively, you may pursue their own chosen topic, subject to initial approval and the availability of a suitable supervisor; this may be informed by topics and approaches encountered in the course of the Semester 1 taught units.
 

Recent titles include:

• Music in the Museum: An Ethnomusicological Approach to the Display of Musical Culture
• Rebetiko Recontextualised: An Ethnographic Examination of Processes of Recontextualisation at Rebetiko Carnival
• Ways of Understanding - Ethnomusicology and the Cretan Lyra
• Are You Here for the Jazz? A Study of Derry Jazz Festival
   

All students take Advanced Music Studies: Skills and Methodologies and Texts and Studying World Music Cultures: Themes and Debates and, usually, Ethno/Musicology in Action: Fieldwork and Ethnography. A range of optional units are available (see the course unit list below).
 

A maximum of 30 credits may be chosen from another MA course in the arts or social sciences (subject to availability and approval by the course tutor).
 

Possible options include From Papyrus to Print: The History of the Book; Perspectives on Medieval and Renaissance Studies; and Gender, Sexuality and the Body.
 

If you choose to take the placement unit, placements will be established in Semester 1 to take place early in Semester 2 and will be supervised by a work-based mentor and overseen by an academic staff member.
 

You will spend a minimum of 20 days over a period of up to 12 weeks with an arts and cultural organisation, business or service provider. The placement may take the form of an investigation of a specific business idea, development strategy or management proposition to resolve a problem or particular issue, and will result in a placement report, proposal or essay.
 

Course unit list

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
 

Title

• Dissertation or Critical Edition
• Studying World Music Cultures: Themes and Debates
• Advanced Music Studies: Skills and Methodologies
• Popular Music and Identity
• Historical or Contemporary Performance
• Advanced Analysis
• Ethno/Musicology in Action: Fieldwork and Ethnography
• Case Studies in Musicology: Texts and Histories
• Aesthetics
• Business Strategies for Arts, Culture and Creative Industries

Academic entry qualification overview

• We normally expect students to have a First or Upper Second class honours degree or its overseas equivalent in a humanities-based subject area.
   

English language

• An overall grade of IELTS 7.0 with 7.0 in writing and no skill below 6.5 is required or 100+ in the TOEFL iBT with a minimum writing score of 25 and no skill below 22.

• MusM (full-time)
  
  UK students (per annum): £10,500
  
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £21,000

• Our graduates have pursued successful careers in musical and non-musical fields. Some continue to further study via a PhD before securing an academic position. Some go on to teach in schools or further education, both in the UK and overseas.
• Other areas of work for which advanced musical training has been directly relevant include arts management and the culture industries, producing, music publishing, music, journalism, librarianship, music therapy and performance.
• Careers outside of music have included accountancy, law, social work and human resources.
• Some graduates have gone on to work for com