Department of Music | MA Music (Ethnomusicology Pathway)

MA Music (Ethnomusicology Pathway) at Durham University

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The MA in Music embraces your passion for music, whether that’s performing, composing or understanding and researching its many forms and its impact on societies and cultures.

The MA in Music embraces your passion for music whether you perform, compose or aim to understand and research music in its many forms and study its impact on societies and cultures across the globe.

The course prepares you to study music through the selection of a specialism from a range that includes musicology, ethnomusicology, composition, performance, and music psychology.

You will take a core module which focuses on the methods used to research and understand music and its performance within a Higher Education context. This module also provides you with the skills and knowledge needed to carry out independent research at Master's level and introduces the contemporary intellectual issues in music research.

Depending on your proposed specialism, you will also select a pathway module chosen from up to five options. This could be from Musicology, Ethnomusicology, Composition, Performance or Music Psychology.

You will also produce a major project in the form of a dissertation, portfolio of compositions or a performance that is related to your chosen specialism.

We pride ourselves on being one of the leading music departments in the UK, offering innovative courses and producing cutting-edge music research in musicology, analysis, music technology, music psychology, ethnomusicology, composition, and performance.

As a postgraduate, you will have access to state-of-the-art facilities that include recording studios, practice and rehearsal rooms, our concert room and an instrument collection. In addition, the University library contains a wide collection of books, scores, and CDs, and offers a rich range of online resources.

Postgraduates are able to seek a range of careers in music or to use the transferable skills they develop in a different setting.

You will have an excellent grounding that will serve you well if you wish to continue research at a higher level. The same skills and knowledge will also help meet ambitions to gain rewarding careers in a range of fields including for example: performance, teaching, arts administration/management, broadcasting, journalism, and music production.

We help with professional development by preparing postgraduates for the world of employment, providing opportunities to work as teaching and research assistants, to disseminate research, and to participate in dedicated training courses.

Further advice and support is also provided by our Careers and Employability Service.

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