Course summary
This programme fosters your ability to compose and notate music, and to develop your own personal musical language.
- You explore a wide range of technical procedures for contemporary composition and engage intellectually and critically with related theories and concepts.
- There are many practical opportunities to work with performers, including the Department of Music's ensemble-in-residence, and other artistic collaborators.
- The composition pathway appeals to composers interested in a wide range of contemporary music including Boulez, Stockhausen, Birtwistle, Carter, Xenakis, spectral music and improvised music.
- There's a focus on fundamental issues concerning pitch, time and pulse, and covers topics such as orchestration, advanced instrumental techniques, large-scale structure.
- Composers taking this pathway may elect to take options in studio-based composition, providing they have the requisite prior experience.
- There are also opportunities to work with visiting professional musicians and meet visiting composers, which have included Harrison Birtwistle, Michael Finnissy, Brian Ferneyhough and Jonathan Harvey.
Modules
Compulsory modules You take the following compulsory modules: Compositional Techniques 30 credits Material, Form and Structure 30 credits You also complete a portfolio of compositions 60 credits Option modules You choose two option modules. Options change on an annual basis, and recent examples include: Advanced Music Studies 30 credits Analysing Contemporary Music: From Serialism to Spectral Noise 30 credits Audiovisual Composition 30 credits Composition and Moving Image Media 30 credits Contemporary Music: Practices and Discourse 30 credits Interactive and Generative Music 30 credits Performance as Research (Ethnomusicology) 30 credits Research through Musical Performance 30 credits Sound Agendas 30 credits Studio Practice 30 credits Philosophies of Music 30 credits Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.
Entry requirements
You should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at least upper second class standard in Music or a relevant/related subject. Your qualification should comprise a substantial practical/creative element relevant to the pathway. A detailed transcript of your degree is preferred. You might also be considered if you aren’t a graduate or your degree is in an unrelated field, but have relevant experience and can show that you have the ability to work at postgraduate level. Students who have completed up to 90 credits (not including final 60-credit projects or dissertations) of a comparable degree at another university can apply for recognition of prior learning status as part of their application for a place on the programme, where such credits are carried forward into your study at Goldsmiths. If English isn’t your first language, you will need an IELTS score (or equivalent English language qualification) of 6.5 with a 6.5 in writing and no element lower than 6.0 to study this programme.
Fees and funding
Tuition fees
No fee information has been provided for this course
Additional fee information
Unless otherwise stated the annual fee for part-time students is half the full time fee quoted.
Provider information
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross
Lewisham
SE14 6NW