Music PhD

Music at Glasgow has a dynamic, supportive but rigorous research culture with a strong sense of community linked by ideas and practice.

OVERVIEW

Music PhDs at Glasgow comprise a process of research over 3 years full-time or 5 years part-time that leads to either a thesis that may be supported by practical work, or a portfolio of practical work supported by a written component. If your work is centred on cultural or historical musicology, this provides great opportunity to support your main thesis with performance, edition or other forms of musical practice. If you are a composer, improvisor, or sonic artist, this provides a great opportunity to develop your creative work and present this as a substantial piece of practice research.

Topics in which we would welcome postgraduate research include:

• Composition, including experimental music, intercultural aspects of composition and music and the moving image
• Historical and cultural musicology, including philosophy and aesthetics of music, music in popular culture, music and politics and music and modernism.
• Sonic arts and audiovisual practice, including live electronics, spatial composition and sound design and sound art aesthetics
• Performance, including historically informed performance and contemporary music practices.

A Doctor of Philosophy may be awarded to a student whose thesis/portfolio is an original work making a significant contribution to knowledge in, or understanding of, a field of study and normally containing material worthy of publication.

Thesis Length:70,000-100,000 words, including references, bibliography and appendices (other than documentary appendices).

For examination by thesis, the candidate may include a range of practical components in support of their underlying argument, but this is not a requirement. The precise relationship between practical work and written commentary, and their relative weightings, will be agreed between the candidate, their supervisors, and the Music postgraduate convener, through Annual Progress Review as part of the development of the project.

For examination by portfolio, candidates may submit work in a range of disciplines, including composition, sonic art, performance or other forms of creative practice. Extended critical and methodologically informed documentation of the research project will accompany the creative inquiry. The written component is expected to complement and reflect in a rigorous manner upon the practical component. Normally the portfolio will comprise creative work of approximately two hours’ duration or work of equivalent depth or complexity and the written component will be 10,000 – 20,000 words. The precise relationship between practical work and written commentary, and their relative weightings, will be agreed between the candidate, their supervisors, and the Music postgraduate convener, through Annual Progress Review as part of the development of the project.