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The musical focus at Brunel is firmly in the present, making the most of recent developments and changes, and looking creatively at the future. Brunel offers four undergraduate programmes in music, all firmly focussed on the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Brunel does not ignore music of the past, but views it through the prism of contemporary musical activity, while providing a strong base of knowledge and craft to enable students to be flexible, skilful and creative 21st century musicians.
Staff include some of the leading figures in European contemporary music, including composers Richard Barrett, Christopher Fox and Peter Wiegold, and leading contemporary performer Sarah Nicolls. Click here for more information on Staff research news and forthcoming performances.
Brunel offers four undergraduate (BMus and BA) programmes and two taught postgraduate routes (MMus and MA). Supervision is also offered at MPhil and PhD levels.
Whether you are interested in performing, composing, or studying the music of today, whether using traditional instruments or new technologies, Brunel offers a programme which will provide you with both the necessary professional skills and a rigorous academic grounding. Many ‘specialist’ music degrees are simply pathways through a generic music degree; but at Brunel we offer specially designed programmes focussing on the skills needed by a composer, performer, sonic artist, or musicology. But in all of these degrees you also have the opportunity to pursue other areas, with options in performance, composition, popular music and music technology, regardless of which degree you choose. All programmes also give you the opportunity to study the social, perceptual, and theoretical aspects of music, and to undertake a practical or written special project of your own choosing at Level 3.
Undergraduate Courses for 2008/09 entry
The BMus (Hons) in Composition benefits from the presence of seven professional composers of international esteem, working in a wide range of media and styles. This is genuinely a degree for composers, so you will study solo composition, conducting, orchestral composition, harmony and counterpoint, as well as having the option to include modules in computer music, music for the theatre, and improvisation. You will receive a firm grounding in compositional craft, giving you the tools to pursue your own creative interests later in the degree. There are regular opportunities to hear your music performed.
The BMus (Hons) in Contemporary Music and Performance is a unique programme in contemporary musicianship, giving you the opportunity to study with some leading figures in contemporary musical performance, and to develop your performance skills with a strong academic backing. This degree offers in-depth study in specific areas such as extended solo contemporary repertoire, contemporary chamber music, and playing in a directed contemporary ensemble (including playing with such an ensemble as soloist), as well as options in stylistic improvisation (from perspectives on baroque practice to non-Western traditions to jazz and avant-garde approaches), conducting, popular music, and performance with live electronics.
The BA (Hons) in Sonic Arts gives you the choice of combining your studies in creative applications of music technology either with traditional music modules, or with other modules in creative digital practice and theory. If you choose the latter option, you do not need to have music reading skills to do this degree. With module ranging from computer music composition to real-time interaction, as well as studies in the history and repertoire of sonic arts, this degree allows you to gain the skills and knowledge to work as a sonic artist, composer of electroacoustic or computer music, or a specialist in interactive performance technology.
The BA in Music will be of interest if you want the option to study a range of topics in the history, analysis, and theory of the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, with the flexibility to include many practical options in performance, music technology, and composition, without the need to specialise in a practical area. Alternatively, you can opt for a largely ‘theoretical’ programme if your interest is mainly in musicology.
Postgraduate Courses
The MMus and MA programmes take the contemporary musical situation as their focal centre, but explore its interfaces with diverse areas through the unusual concentration of specialists on the staff (improvisation, world music, phonetics, installation work, critical theory, popular music, politics, dance and live electronics). The MA has a more theoretical, the MMus a more practical emphasis. These are excellent programmes for any musician seeking a year of concentrated learning in a range of contemporary practice and theory.
We are able to offer supervision at MPhil and PhD level many areas, including instrumental composition, composition in mixed-media contexts, electroacoustic music, performance, improvisation, conducting, music and phonetics, sound design for installation and choreography, 20th Century musicology, aesthetics and sociology of music.
At Brunel, improvisation and composition are both important, and the relationship between composer and performer a vital focal point for exciting experimentation. |
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