Study programme

The Master's programme Applied Musicology comprises one year (60 EC). A study year is divided into two semesters, running from September until January and from February until June. A semester is divided into two study periods. 

Curriculum

The programme consists of compulsory courses, electives, and a final project: an internship and a Master's thesis. Check the study schedule (PDF). 

First semester | Compulsory courses

During the first semester, you will take four compulsory courses, of which two are in The Musical Knack Lab, which focuses on the development of applied skills and research proficiency. Also you will have the opportunity to choose two elective courses. 

• 'Musical Infrastructure in an International Context' profiles the core theory of the curriculum. This course is part of the training trajectory Music, Media and Infrastructure, in which common theoretical and historic fundaments are studied, later to be contextualised and expanded in the follow-up courses.
• 'Current Musicology' introduces you to prevailing contemporary debates within the musicological discipline. This course is part of the training trajectory Musicological Fundamentals and is jointly offered by the research Master's in Musicology.
• 'Writing about Music' (The Musical Knack Lab). In this course you will learn how to write about music of various genres and for diverse audiences, as well as phrase research questions positioning yourself within relevant musicological discourses.
• 'Staging Music: Programmes, Production, Policies, Pecunia' (The Musical Knack Lab). In this course musical programming is problematised and taught in historic perspective as well as productive contexts. The course also addresses types of financing as well as European cultural politics.

First semester | Electives

Augmenting this, you will choose two electives. You may choose from courses that are jointly offered with the research Master’s programme: the core research seminars 'Historical Musicology', and 'Music and Media', or electives offered by the Master’s programme in Arts and Society.

Second semester

The second semester consists of individual final projects: a research oriented internship and a concluding thesis. The thesis has a minimum study load of 15 EC and maximum of 20 EC; internships vary from 10 EC to 15 EC.

The individual Master’s programme can be modified (with permission of the Graduation Committee). It is possible to commence with internships in the first semester when necessary. The programme can also be supplemented with electives from the research Master's programme curriculum when and if mutually agreed.

Examples of recent thesis topics

• Music To My Ears: Exploring the Potential of Podcasts to Make Classical Music More Accessible
• "I Need to Wake Up" The narrative function of soundtracks in climate change documentaries
• Motivations for using Artificial Intelligence in the popular music composition and production process.
• Eurovision Song is not Pop. How National Identity in Eurovision Defines the Function of the Eurovision Song
• ‘Prepare your lube, cock ring, and put the sound on high volume’. How Music and Sounds are used in inducing a Masturbatory Trance within online Male-to-Male Poppers Training

Educational methods

• seminars (50%)
• self-study (25%)
• internship (25%)

In the first semester you will spend about 8-10 hours per week in the classroom for seminars for the various compulsory courses and electives in the programme. Outside the classroom, you might spend another 10 hours or so per course reading literature and working on assignments. In the second semester, you will divide your time equally between the thesis and internship.

Examinations

• internship report
• papers
• thesis

The courses are taught in English. Writing examples can be submitted in diverse languages.