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Master
Vergelijk
Music Studies (Arts and Culture)

Study programme

The Master’s in Music Studies enables you to specialise in historical, cultural or cognitive musicology, or to combine these areas in a study path that suits your interests. During the programme, you learn to analyse music from different angles, from history and politics to everyday life and the mind. The curriculum consists of one compulsory course, four restricted-choice electives, a free-choice component and a Master’s thesis.
COURSES SEM 1 SEM 2 SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 EC
  • Knowing the World through Music
    6

    This course explores how humans and other living creatures make sense of the world through sound, spanning musical practices, listening, movement and acoustic meaning-making across cultures, with room to look beyond Western notions of music.

  • Restricted-choice electives
    12

    You can choose two courses from Generative AI and Music, Music History and Cultural Politics, A Musicology of the Everyday, or How Music Works: Inside the Musical Mind.

  • Restricted-choice electives
    12

    You can choose from the four courses listed above, or from Perspectives on Music, Cognition and Computation, Reading Black Music: Key Texts on African American Music and other Afro-diasporic Genres, Music Theatre as a Laboratory, or Humanities Now: Current Dialogues or Perspectives and Practices.

  • Free-choice electives
    12

    Any course that’s part of a Master’s curriculum can be taken as a free-choice elective, provided you meet the entry requirements. A recommended option is How Music Works. You may also choose additional restricted-choice courses or opt for an internship.

  • Master's Thesis Music Studies
    18

    Your thesis reports on research carried out under the supervision of an academic staff member involved in the programme. The subject of the thesis must be agreed upon by the student and the academic adviser.

Compulsory course
Elective
UvA Course Catalogue: Music Studies
  • Specialisations

    Within the programme you can choose a specialisation. The courses related to each specialisation are listed below. However, the programme is designed to allow you to mix and match across these areas, so you can tailor the programme to your own interests.

    • Cultural: Knowing the World through Music, A Musicology of the Everyday, Reading Black Music: Key Texts on African American Music and other Afro-diasporic Genres
    • Historical: Music History and Cultural Politics, Reading Black Music: Key Texts on African American Music and other Afro-diasporic Genres, Music Theatre as a Laboratory
    • Cognitive: Generative AI and Music, How Music Works: Inside the Musical Mind, and How Music Works: Music Cognition.
  • Internship

    There is, moreover, the opportunity to enrol for an internship (with a well-articulated research component) at one of the many professional music organisations, ensembles, music venues, and festivals in Amsterdam or elsewhere in the Netherlands.

  • Music Studies in part-time mode

    This programme is also offered in part-time study mode, in which case it takes 2 years. You can obtain a maximum of 30 ECTS per year (12-18 ECTS per semester). As a part-time student you will follow the programme together with full-time students. You will prepare your study plan for the part-time programme in consultation with the Master’s programme coordinator (See: Contact).

  • Credit transfer

    Students who show exceptional promise during a regular or professional programme are encouraged to continue their studies in a research programme. Once students are admitted to the research programme, they can transfer credits earned during their previous course of study towards their research programme degree. The Examinations Board determines which courses qualify for transfer.