The MA in Music provides you with a thorough grounding in the creative, critical and practical underpinnings of advanced study and research in composition, musicology and performance. Specialist areas of study include analysis, screen music, critical theory, cultural history and ethnomusicology. Practice and creativity can be balanced with innovative and more traditional critical-theoretical approaches; there is also the option of a work placement. The principal purpose of the MA in Music is to develop critical and artistic creativity, equipping students with the tools to undertake independent ‘research’ (broadly construed) as musicologists, composers and performers, as well as providing students with understanding of a range of important issues in their chosen area(s). The Masters equips students for further study (for instance a PhD in musicology, composition or performance practice) or employment through the generation of subject specific knowledge and transferable skills central to the pursuit of careers related to these areas and a much broader field of potential careers (for instance, but not exclusively, in media production, finance and banking, the law, publishing, broadcasting, marketing and consultancy, or as performer, composer, teacher (at all levels of education), music therapist, community musician, private tutor or sound technician, or in arts administration, orchestras, bands, a recording company, publishing, game design, film, radio and television). The MA in Music provides students with higher-level research, analytical and study skills necessary for students intending to pursue further academic research. It also provides students with the opportunities to enhance their oral and written communication skills, as well as their team working and individual organisational capabilities. Modules are generally taught through a combination of seminars, workshops, small group discussions and individual supervision. There is a strong emphasis on independent learning and students are expected to work on their own to produce work. Assessment is diverse through the use of dissertations, composition portfolios, projects, recitals, essays, reflective diary, presentation, book reviews, posters, etc. For full-time students, taught modules are completed by May, leaving the summer months for students to complete final projects.