MA in Music for Screen

This is a career focused Masters degree, offering an exceptional opportunity for students to create a professional portfolio of original compositions for media and screen content and help expose their talent to audio-visual communities world-wide.

The objective of this course is to prepare individuals for self-employment within the visual media industries. Participants will gain an understanding of how music composition and scoring integrates with the wider visual media sector and will be provided with insights into potential new technical opportunities therein. Graduates will be conversant in various compositional methods, gaining knowledge in traditional scoring techniques alongside exploration in sound design, which will be merged with knowledge gained in multimedia production and in writing narrative works through sound. These experiences allow students to score using a variety of techniques and practices, with the opportunity to employ experimental practices through both instrumentation and technology.

The Master of Arts in Music for Screen offers students the opportunity to write for and record with a full Orchestra. Students will be taught by a distinguished staff comprised of professional composers, music producers, sound engineers, and eminent international guest lecturers from the broader Hollywood film, TV and games scoring communities. Students will also have the opportunity to travel as part of a foreign research trip centred around two international film scoring symposia. Over the duration of the research trip, students will learn, participate, and network in important ways that prepare them for numerous career options in this multimedia marketplace, while researching and liaising with the wider international scoring community with a view to finalising their Major Project research proposal.

Specific scoring skills covered by the programme include: fundamental and advanced scoring techniques, experimental music composition principles and technologies, score analysis, orchestration and arranging, music and audio-visual technology, studio conducting and score supervision, as well as preparation for industry and business planning.

Upon completion of this course, participants will either be ready to establish themselves as self-employed professional composers or join an established visual media industries company. The programme is targeted at skilled and qualified individuals across the creative music industries looking to further their creative careers.