The Master's programme in Music Studies comprises 60 ECTS credits: 30 credits for Core courses; up to 12 credits for electives; 6/12 credits for an Internship (optional instead of electives); and 18 credits for Master’s thesis.
You can choose between 'Music History and Cultural Politics' and 'Generative AI and Music'.
You can choose from 'Reading Black Music: Key Texts on African American Music and other Afro-diasporic Genres', 'How Music Works: Inside the Musical Mind', 'Knowing the World through Music' and 'Music Theatre as a Laboratory'.
In principle, all courses that are part of a curriculum of a Master's degree programme (including the free electives included therein) can be taken as an elective course, provided you meet the entry requirements. You can always select our restricted-choice courses as free choice electives. It is also possible to do an internship.
Students are required to start the programme with a choice of core courses that cover aspects of Cultural musicology and Cognitive or Historical musicology and finish the programme with a 20,000-word thesis. They choose several musicology and interdisciplinary electives. Core courses can also be chosen as electives.
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.
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).
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.