Description
The Master’s in Musicology at Université Bordeaux Montaigne is backed by several research centres and comprises one single subject pathway entitled ‘Music and Culture’.
This subject pathway includes theory-based, methodology-based and applied and practical course units. The music classes are incorporated within a multidisciplinary pedagogical framework, which is directed towards the arts and cultural studies. This is so as to offer students the best possible prospects of adapting to the professional context, where a broad and open professional profile is an essential requirement.
The Master’s in Musicology draws mainly on the scientific and artistic output of the teaching staff and university lecturer-researchers who contribute to the programme.
The first year of this two-year programme is merged to a large extent with the Master’s for Future Teachers of Music (Master MEEF Music) in preparation for the competitive recruitment competition for secondary school teachers (‘CAPES’).
Objectives
Backed by research
This Master’s programme subscribes fully to the recommendations from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research as outlined in the research findings of the StraNES report, which favour university research that is innovative, interdisciplinary, outward-looking and active on regional, national and international levels.
It thus favours cooperation with and links to artistic and scientific networks that emerge as a result of training programmes and research or within professional contexts. Our large team includes university lecturer-researchers from a range of disciplines and areas of research: musicology, anthropology, cinema and audiovisual media, mixed-media arts, art history, aesthetics, religions and societies, French and foreign literature etc.
Training content
Two years of study: Master 1 (M1) and Master 2 (M2)
By the end of this two-year programme, students can expect to have the theoretical, artistic and practical skills expected of professionals in the field of musicology and culture.
Master 1: First year of two-year Master’s programme
Objectives:
- Students acquire cross-disciplinary knowledge of the history and analysis of musical works and ethnomusicology, with an additional training in cultural studies (units on World Literature and World Art, Art History, Cinema, Iberian Studies). Among the musical repertoires looked at, there is a unit that focuses particularly on Russian musical theatre.
- Students acquire the methodological tools for successful completion of research projects.
- Students produce a dissertation of approximately 50 pages on a research question of their choosing.
- Students’ learning is comprehensive, practice-based and closely linked with theory.
- Students have the capacity to elaborate and apply a research process in the field of musicology, and are able to establish corpora and fully exploit the sources there.
- Students have the capacity to link theoretical research with practical learning, demonstrating an ability to work autonomously and within a group.
Master 2: Second year of two-year Master’s programme
In Master 2 taught elements are concentrated in Semester 3, which leaves time free for the production of the dissertation in Semester 4.
In Semester 3 the course units are structured as an extension of those from the first year with the exception of the practical workshops, which do not feature in Master 2. The music history unit investigates performance art in Russia more specifically, as well as Western religions music. There is also a seminar unit on aesthetics (the relationship between art forms). Students gain insight into other disciplines in Semester 3 via seminar units on religious arts, world literature and world art and Iberian culture.
Students learn how to develop a research project based on a research question and to write a research-based dissertation. The final aspect of this programme is the ability to defend this dissertation during an oral examination.
Dissertation
Students are expected to produce a research-based dissertation of approximately 100 pages. They will then defend this dissertation in an oral examination before a panel of judges.
Access condition
Find information regarding enrolment procedures and the supporting documents to be provided, according to your profile and your level of studies :
Career pathways
Beyond careers in academia, graduates who hold a Master’s in Musicology can enter the worlds of professional musical performance and public or private cultural institutions.
The main careers concerned are as researchers, university lecturer-researchers and project managers. There are also opportunities in professions related to culture and mediation, such as those linked to concert venues, theatres, multimedia libraries, town halls, musical ensembles and art journalism (art critics).
