The PhD in Creative Music Practice is for composer-theorists, practitioners in musicological research; computer music composers working in hard/software systems, instrument builders and historians of period instruments to name a few. A willingness to engage with primary-source material and to interpret this alongside existing literature in the field are essential attributes in those wishing to undertake this programme. The student’s aim will be to make an original and substantial contribution to knowledge in the chosen area of study.
The PhD in Creative Music Practice provides an opportunity for candidates to pursue practice-led research in the field of music at the highest level. The research combines textual and musical outputs, for example:
- Composition
- Performance (either of original or pre-existing repertoire)
- Installation
- Sound design
- Interactive music software, etc.
The outputs take the form of a portfolio, performance, and/or recording, as well as theoretical work and documentation of the processes by which the music was made (e.g. video, photographs, recordings, sketches, studies, and web pages).
The musical outputs are explicitly linked to the textual material. This linkage may take various forms: musical material might exemplify, contextualize, and/or expand an idea elaborated in the text, and vice versa.
The programme requires candidates to critically evaluate and articulate the relationship of textual to extra-textual media in the formation of musical knowledge.
