Music and Sonic Media (2013 entry)

MA, 1 year full time/2 years part time

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Subject overview

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 95 per cent of our music research was rated as internationally recognised or higher, and 65 per cent rated as world leading or internationally excellent.

The Department of Music is a major international centre for the study of contemporary music, contemporary musical thinking and music theatre, offering a unique range of interrelated research disciplines.

We offer expertise in opera and music theatre, analysis and general musicology, studio composition and composition for film and media, allowing you to develop an integrated portfolio of work corresponding to your strengths and interests.

Our electronic music and recording studios and student digital audio workstations are equipped with superb facilities, and we maintain a substantial library of scores, CDs, and DVDs with private listening facilities. These are in addition to the collections in the main University Library.

Specialist facilities

Music library

The music library is a working collection of records, CDs, videos and scores (mainly devoted to 19th- and 20th-century music) as well as the Altman-Koss Jazz video archive located along with collections belonging to the Departments of Media and Film, and Art History.

Music Mac lab

We have a dedicated lab for Music students only, comprising 11 Mac Pro computers for audio and visual processing, each with MBox mini sound interfaces for use with Pro Tools, and controller keyboard. Each Mac Pro runs Logic Pro (audio sequencer software), Sibelius (notation programme), Final Cut Studio, Peak Pro, Max/MSP (for audio tools and sound synthesis), plus IRCAM forum software (including AudioSculpt and Open Music). Each machine also provides access to internet audio and visual material, as well as deskspace and the facility to playback DVDs and CDs from the music library.

Electronic music studio

The Jonathan Harvey Electroacoustic Music Studio features a control room with connections (24 channels) to two spacious live rooms either side.

  • Pro Tools HD based recording system with digital control surface
  • software: Pro Tools and Logic Pro
  • Mackie desk (24 channels)
  • various outboard microphone pre-amps and compressors (Focusrite, Drawmer 1960) and effects units (Lexicon, Fireworx, etc)
  • microphones include AKG condensers and Shure dynamic mics
  • drum kit (Gretsch).

Drama studio

The Department of Music, in conjunction with drama in the School of English, operates a fully equipped drama studio for music and drama students.

Musical instruments

Our own teaching and recital spaces have Steinway grand pianos and A/V equipment. There are practice rooms, each with Yamaha pianos available for use by music students at any time.

Other specialist facilities

We also possess a large percussion collection. For first-study pianists, the Steinway Concert Grand and the Kawai Grand in the Meeting House are available. In addition, the Meeting House has a Grant, Degens and Rippin pipe organ.

Academic activities

We organise regular research seminars to which external speakers are often invited, and Sussex faculty and postgraduate students also present their own papers. Recent speakers have included Professor Eric Clarke, opera director Graham Vick and film composer Stephen Warbeck. Our termly composers’ concerts given by the University of Sussex New Music Ensemble provide an ideal opportunity for graduate students to hear their works performed. Members of the Brighton-based professional new music group Tacet visit to give workshop and concert performances of pieces by graduate composers, and ensembles
and soloists are regularly invited to give concerts, workshops and master classes. These have included flautist Rowland Sutherland, pianists Richard Casey, Philip Thomas and Andrew Zolinsky, EXAUDI, Orkest De Ereprijs, [rout] and members of the London Sinfonietta.

Programme outline

This course develops your creative abilities in composition and sound through practical and theoretical work. The MA reflects current developments both within and beyond concerts, and in film and media music. Theory and practice in the fields of popular music production and performance are also explored, focusing on historical contexts, artistic expression, and the development of advanced technical skills. The course is for composers, musicians, sound artists, sound and music practitioners from related fields, including theatre, and theorists with interests in music and sound. You will:

  • have access to facilities including the Music Department’s recordings and scores collections, the Jonathan Harvey Electroacoustic Music Studio for recording and synthesis, and a wide range of current music software
  • compose, make sound art, devise music theatre, use music technologies, and create film music
  • evaluate music and sonic art in relation to developments in technology and interdisciplinary understanding.

Modules explore music and sound as practised now in both live and mediated forms. They are taught by faculty with international recognition in the practices and theories of composition, interdisciplinary sound creation, opera and music theatre, film music, site-specific and networked sonic events, performance, studio recording and production, sonic art and computer music. Creative work is stimulated through workshops from visiting professional musicians as well as by public showcase events organised by students with the support of the Music Department.

The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts at Sussex will provide an opportunity for you to show your work at the end of your degree.

We continue to develop and update our modules for 2013 entry to ensure you have the best student experience. In addition to the course structure below, you may find it helpful to refer to the 2012 modules tab.

Autumn term: you take Composing for Media and choose one option from a list that may include Music and the Media of Performance • Music Production.

Spring term: you choose one option from a list that may include Composition • Rock and Popular Music Performance • Sound Environments.

Summer term: you work on either a dissertation or a creative project, chosen according to your specialist area of interest in consultation with your academic supervisor. 

Assessment 

For each module, you will be able to choose between submitting a creative project or an essay. You will also submit a supervised extended project. 

Back to module list

Composing for Media (Practice)

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Music has accompanied the screened moving image since the inception of cinema. This course examines the aesthetics of screen music, moving through practices in the early years of cinema, to music in auteurist cinema (Hitchcock, Kubrick, Godard etc) and present day work with digital video by both individual artists and mainstream practitioners. You will consider musical issues such as developing compositional ideas, small/large ensemble writing, working with computers and electronics, and the significance of the voice in composition for screen media. When engaging in creative work you may use software including Logic Pro, Pro Tools and Max/MSP. Your assessed submission will comprise a direct creative project (composition) in a medium agreed in advance with your tutor (for example a film score, or music for a gallery installation or a website), and a critical commentary.

Composing for Media (Theory)

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Music has accompanied the screened moving image since the inception of cinema. This module examines the aesthetics of screen music, moving through practices in the early years of cinema, to music in auteurist cinema (Hitchcock, Kubrick, Godard etc) and present day work with digital video by both individual artists and mainstream practitioners. You will consider musical issues such as developing compositional ideas, small/large ensemble writing, working with computers and electronics, and the significance of the voice in composition for screen media. When engaging in creative work you may use software including Logic Pro, Pro Tools and Max/MSP. Your assessed submission will comprise a 5,000 word term paper on composing for media with a specific title approved in advance by your tutor.

Composition (Practice)

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Composition develops understanding and practice of 20th century and contemporary musical methods and resources, but without stylistic restrictions, and with flexible outcomes (eg semi-notated and proportionally-notated work, graphic notation, conceptual/installation sonic work, performance art etc).

You will focus on developing an extended piece of work through alternating group seminars and workshops. In consultation with the course tutor, you will be encouraged to develop plans for an individual project early on in the course. The seminars will provide disciplinary context and insights into key techniques and examples of recent and earlier creative practice. The workshops will provide the opportunity to make presentations and to receive peer and tutor feedback. The submission will comprise a creative project (composition) in a medium agreed in advance with the tutor, and accompanied by a critical commentary.

Composition (Theory)

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Composition develops understanding and practice of twentieth century and contemporary musical methods and resources, but without stylistic restrictions, and with flexible outcomes (eg semi-notated and proportionally-notated work, graphic notation, conceptual/installation sonic work, performance art etc). 

You will focus on developing an extended piece of work through alternating group seminars and workshops. In consultation with the tutor, you will be encouraged to develop plans for an individual project early on in the module. The seminars will provide disciplinary context and insights into key techniques and examples of recent and earlier creative practice. The workshops will provide the opportunity to make presentations and to receive peer and tutor feedback. The submission will comprise a 5,000 word term paper on composition methods with a specific title approved by the tutor.

Expanded Media: Forms and Practices

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module looks at what happens when media forms overlap and interact. What new forms are created? What histories can be drawn upon? How does collaboration inform creative practice?

Through the exploration of global concepts such as (but not limited to) narrative (and anti-narrative),  time and space,  dreams, and  memory, you  will experiment and collaborate in ways that reflect the formal and thematic implications of the concepts discussed. Topics may include: theorisations on hybrid forms; expanded cinema; history of collaborative practice and experimentation; interactivity; notions of the avant-garde; synesthesia; site-specific media installations; and immersive technology.

Media Theory and Research

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

The module offers you the chance to explore at an advanced level a number of principal theories and methods within a cultural studies approach to media studies, and to consider how these shape the ways we might think about and research particular media industries, forms and issues. The theory element aims to introduce you to the key thinkers, traditions and debates in media and cultural studies and contributing disciplines. It investigates media as institutions and systems of representation and explores problems of production and consumption in a variety of social and geo-political contexts. You will be encouraged to prepare informal presentations and to engage in discussion with other members of the seminar group. Each week there will also be a short introduction to the following week’s topic in the lecture given by members of the Media and Film faculty.  The research element aims to develop a systematic and critical understanding of the practical, epistemological and ethical issues involved in conducting different kinds of media and cultural research. It also aims to make you methodologically self-conscious in your own research and written work.

Media, Culture and Communication

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

The module offers you the chance to explore at an advanced level a number of principal theories and methods within a cultural studies approach to media studies, and to consider how these shape the ways we might think about and research particular media industries, forms and issues. The module begins with a focus on questions concerning media production, distribution and consumption. In the latter part of the module, we pay attention to a variety of methodological approaches which draw attention in particular to different ways of conceptualising the relation between the media and concepts like subjectivity, identity, perception and experience.

The theory element aims to introduce you to the key thinkers, traditions and debates in media and cultural studies and contributing disciplines. You will investigate media as institutions and systems of representation and explore problems of production and consumption in a variety of social and geo-political contexts. You will be encouraged to prepare informal presentations and to engage in discussion with other members of the seminar group. Each week there will also be a short introduction to the following week’s topic in the lecture given by members of the Media and Film faculty. The research element aims to develop a systematic and critical understanding of the practical, epistemological and ethical issues involved in conducting different kinds of media and cultural research. It also aims to make you methodologically self-conscious in your own research and written work.

Music and the Media of Performance (Practice)

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

During the past fifty years the parameters of musical performance have expanded enormously. For John Cage all musical performance was inherently theatrical since it engaged both eye and ear. The visual aspect of musical performance, and the relationship of music to the spatial and to the embodied, has often been overlooked, and has led composers such as, eg, Cage himself, Mauricio Kagel and Heiner Goebbels to explore the extended theatricality of musical performance in directions beyond opera. Other artists like Meredith Monk, Philip Glass and Robert Wilson have restored the term 'opera' to refer to music theatre works that reconfigure the traditional media of opera (music, language, voice, sound, body, space, image) in new ways. More recently muscians such as Michel van der Aa have incorporated sonic and visual media in a live performance context.

The module will examine both theories and practices of experimental music theatre and multi-media performance through critical and practical engagement with the ideas that lie behind such practices. The module will be assessed by an essay, through which you will demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of key theories and practices in experimental music theatre or multi-media performance.

New Developments in Digital Media 1a

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module critically surveys developments in the expanding field of new media and explores the dynamics driving digital convergence, which is viewed as an industrial, political, social, economic and technological process. You will consider what drives convergence between previously discrete industries, technologies, and contents, and what limits convergence processes. You will explore key developments in the field of new media, including phenomena such as social networks, pervasive and locative technologies, new forms of knowledge organization and gathering.

The module is both theoretical and practical, with seminars exploring the areas outlined above through critical reading, while a series of workshops provide you with an understanding of core technologies underlying contemporary developments, and help you gain literacy in approaches to content development in this field.

Sound Environments (Practice)

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module examines sonic media creations and sound architectures, which may be physical, digital or hybrid, through alternating seminars and workshops. Seminars will provide interdisciplinary context and review a range of practices, while workshops afford a space for you to develop your ideas through practical work and theory.

We consider the rapid development of interdisciplinary sound creation beyond the concert hall. Urban spaces as venues for creative work are considered alongside creative, curatorial and critical practices arising from networked sound technologies (streamed radio, distributed performance works, podcasts etc.)

We also consider architectures where performance is integral. Earlier examples of the integration of architecture, space and organised sound include Semper's Festpielhaus in Bayreuth and Le Corbusier/Xenakis's Philips Pavilion.

Today, digital processing opens up new performance possibilities including new notions of 'performative architectures'.

You will create a practical project and critical commentary in response to these ideas.

 

Sound Environments (Theory)

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module examines sonic media creations and sound architectures, which may be physical, digital or hybrid, through alternating seminars and workshops. Seminars will provide interdisciplinary context and review a range of practices, while workshops afford a space for you to develop your ideas through practical work and theory. We consider the rapid development of interdisciplinary sound creation beyond the concert hall. Urban spaces as venues for creative work are considered alongside creative, curatorial and critical practices arising from networked sound technologies (streamed radio, distributed performance works, podcasts etc.) We also consider architectures where performance is integral. Earlier examples of the integration of architecture, space and organised sound include Sempers Fespielhaus in Bayreuth and LeCorbusier/Xenakis's Philips Pavilion. Today, digital processing opens up new performance possibilities including new notions of 'performative architectures'. You will write a term paper of 5,000 words in response to these ideas.

Theory and Practice of Interactive Media

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

Digital technologies are re-wiring established media cultures, transforming traditional media systems (television, cinema) and introducing new media networks (internet, mobile devices). This module explores aspects of this techno-cultural transformation, through both a practical exploration of the form and by considering critical debates exploring the power, force, significance and form of a series of new media texts, artefacts and systems. The module situates practices related to these forms in a media studies/cultural studies perspective and with reference to multi-disciplinary debates.

The module consists of a series of theory orientated seminars and project based workshops that are designed to give you a practical introduction to a range of software authoring tools widely used within the media. Early sections of the course are taught through discrete group-based tasks. During the latter stages of the module, you produce your own short terms papers and creative projects investigating an aspect of a new media artefact or system.

The module will equip you with the necessary production skills and theoretical frameworks to schedule and deliver these projects. This grounding will provide you with basic authoring skills, will give you the capacity to develop your skills further through individual study, and will also equip them to think critically about the forms and contents of contemporary media systems.

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Entry requirements

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in music, theatre, sonic arts or audio-visual media. Applicants with relevant professional experience will also be considered on an individual basis.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column A on the Overseas qualifications.

If you have any questions about your qualifications after consulting our overseas qualifications table, contact the University.
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

Visas and immigration

Find out more about Visas and immigration.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

For more information about the admissions process at Sussex

For pre-application enquiries:

Student Recruitment Services
T +44 (0)1273 876787
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

For post-application enquiries:

Postgraduate Admissions,
University of Sussex,
Sussex House, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RH, UK
T +44 (0)1273 877773
F +44 (0)1273 678545
E pg.applicants@sussex.ac.uk 

Fees and funding

Fees

Home UK/EU students: £5,9001
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £5,9002
Overseas students: £13,4503

1 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
2 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
3 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

To find out about your fee status, living expenses and other costs, visit further financial information.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

To find out more about funding and part-time work, visit further financial information.

Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust for Postgraduate Study (2013)

Region: UK
Level: PG (taught), PG (research)
Application deadline: 1 October 2013

The Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust are offering bursaries to Postgraduate students following any postgraduate degree courses in any subject.

Sussex Graduate Scholarship (2013)

Region: UK, Europe (Non UK), International (Non UK/EU)
Level: PG (taught)
Application deadline: 16 August 2013

Open to final year Sussex students who graduate with a 1st or 2:1 degree and who are offered a F/T place on an eligible Masters course in 2013.

Faculty interests

Much of our research is interdisciplinary, involving collaboration between our three main areas of research, described below and on the right, as well as with other subject areas at Sussex (in particular media theory and practice, film theory and practice, drama and informatics). 

Our research groups are well funded from a variety of sources and have specialist facilities and resources: 

Composition 

This group engages in research through practical composition in acoustic, electro-acoustic, electronic/computer and film music media. Works are regularly performed and produced at a variety of prestigious international venues from major opera houses and concert platforms to state-of-the-art electronic venues such as IRCAM, contemporary music festivals and international film festivals. 

Critical musicology 

Critical theory and interdisciplinary research methods underpin the critical thinking about music undertaken at Sussex, which focuses in particular on the sociology and aesthetics of 20th-century and contemporary music, although research sometimes engages also with the historical interpretation of music in other centuries. 

Opera and music theatre 

The Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (CROMT) focuses on issues of music theatre (eg theories and practices of opera, experimental music theatre and related multimedia forms). The Centre’s activities involve historical research into opera and music theatre, and both critical thinking about, and practice-based research in, these forms, often in collaboration with partner institutions in the Sussex region (eg Glyndebourne Opera) and elsewhere in the UK and Europe. CROMT also organises seminars, symposia and conferences on opera and music theatre. 

Individuals’ research interests are briefly described below. For more information, visit the Department of Music.  

Professor Martin Butler 20th-century compositional techniques, improvisation and performance skills, music theatre. 

Dr Nick Collins Computer music including interactive music systems and realtime machine listening, and audiovisual performance. 

Dr Richard Elliott Popular musics of the world, music and technology, music and memory, cultural and critical theory, music and media, technoculture, space and place, urban musicology.

Dr Evelyn Ficarra Electro-acoustic composition, music theatre and collaborative work.

Tim Hopkins Digital media in relation to opera, opera as historic multimedia tradition, contemporary and historic opera and music theatre repertoire, dramaturgy.

Dr Ed Hughes Composition, experimental and avant-garde film music, opera and film. 

Dr Nicholas McKay Music theory, analysis, linguistics and semiotics of music, 20th-century music, Stravinsky, aesthetics. 

Professor Sally Jane Norman Director of the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. Theatre architectures, multimedia installations. 

Professor Nicholas Till Director of CROMT. Research in contemporary and historical opera and music theatre, modernism/postmodernism. 

Careers and profiles

This degree emphasises and encourages skills in technology, communication, IT, evaluation, analysis, collaboration and organisation, and will enable you to go on to compose, conduct, arrange, perform, produce, record, engage in sound design and work in many different ways in the creative music and performance sectors.

This MA will also give you the skills to go on to do research; teaching including schools, FE and HE lecturing; arts administration; broadcasting; writing; music journalism; writing music for video games; and running your own music production companies.

Ed's faculty perspective

Dr Ed Hughes

‘Interest in music and sound as an important factor in contemporary culture is intensifying: artists are blurring the lines between visual arts, cinema, video, sonic art and music, and they are doing this through innovative performance, inventive approaches to space, and online work, as well as in the traditional arenas of concert halls and theatres. The MA in Music and Sonic Media addresses developments, connecting advances in sound design and ideas about music and sound in new spaces as well as online.  

‘Depending on the options you choose, the MA gives you the opportunity to write on topics ranging from compositional practice, film music, sound environments to mediatised listening and performance. You will have a collection of work that will show your ability to research and organise ideas coherently around a pressing question or set of questions. Or, you may have the experience of developing new musical ideas and techniques in a compositional and/or gallery installation context, using computers, studio resources or live professional musicians, or a combination of all these ingredients. You will have a substantial portfolio of compositions and creative projects. With these skills and experiences, our graduates go on to work in an amazing range of careers from freelance professional musicians and composers to work in the arts sector, in publishing, arts administration, producing events, radio broadcasting, writing and lecturing.’

Dr Ed Hughes
Senior Lecturer in Music
University of Sussex

For more information, visit Careers and alumni.

School and contacts

School of Media, Film and Music

The School of Media, Film and Music combines rigorous critical and historical studies of media, film, music and culture with opportunities for creative practice in a range of musical forms and the media of photography, film, radio, and interactive digital imaging.

School of Media, Film and Music,
University of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RG, UK
T +44 (0)1273 873481
E mfm@sussex.ac.uk
School of Media, Film and Music

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