Maynooth University
| Our University is located just 25 km west of Dublin and can be reached by road (car, bus) or a regular train network. Choose to join us for a full degree, semester or a summer school. 34 academic departments over 3 Faculties: Arts, Celtic Studies and Philosophy; Science and Engineering; and Social Sciences. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) assessment translates easily to other credit systems. Maynooth University boasts 8 cutting-edge Research Institutes on campus. There have been 2 Nobel Peace Prize winners among our Alumni and Staff. |
| BMus | The BMus is designed to ensure a broad and firm grounding in practical, compositional and academic work, with expanded opportunities to specialise in areas that interest you the most in your final year. As well as acquiring a range of skills in musicianship, you will explore repertoire and issues in Western art music, popular music and jazz, Irish traditional music and world musics. Performance is an important aspect of the programme: you will be expected to develop your performance skills through individual tuition on an approved instrument/voice, and to take an active part in one of the Department’s vocal or instrumental ensembles. You will also be encouraged to develop your creative potential through studies in traditional and electroacoustic composition. |
| BA (Music) | Music is also available as an arts subject in the three-year BA Honours Degree. In first year, you will study music in combination with three other subjects, while in the second and third year you will take music along with one other subject. Music can be combined with Music Technology within the BA |
| BA (Music Technology) | Music Technology is available as a a subject within the BA and can be combined with Music or with Computer Science. Studying Music Technology offers an opportunity to develop and combine your creative and technical abilities. You gain hands-on experience of the practical skills involved in music technology while learning about essential concepts. The programme is designed to ensure a broad and firm grounding in practical and theoretical work in recording and sound engineering, computer music programming, sound design, composition and acoustics. In your final year you will have an opportunity to specialise in the areas that interest you the most, including projects in recording and composition, or work towards instrument and software development. |
| MA CREATIVE MUSIC TECHNOLOGIES | The MA in Creative Music Technologies degree is a skills conversion programme. The programme is aimed at graduates, with musical abilities, who would like to explore musical applications of technology. The programme accepts graduates from any primary degree. |
| MA IRISH TRADITIONAL MUSIC and P/T | This MA is designed for students who are interested in traditional music, arts, and culture, including the broader areas of literature, language, and history, and who want to develop their interests in performance, creativity, or research. The MA is anchored by a final capstone project (choosing from options in performance, recording, and thesis) and provides specialist training in the areas of student choice. |
| MA MUSIC COMPOSITION & P/T | The MA Composition at Maynooth University provides a supportive yet stimulating environment in which to develop your individual compositional style. The focus of the course is the creation of a professional portfolio of compositions, supported by regular one-to-one tuition from the experienced composers in the Department of Music. Core modules in contemporary compositional technique and the study of works and writings of other composers help broaden your compositional focus and allow you to develop your own voice in the exciting world of contemporary music. These activities are complimented by regular talks and consultations with visiting professional composers and opportunities for performance of your works by visiting performers and student ensembles. |
| MA MUSICOLOGY | Whether as a stand-alone degree or a stepping stone towards MLitt and PhD research degrees, the MA in Musicology offers you the opportunity to develop as a researcher, deepen your critical and communication abilities, and apply these skills to the study of music history, music and culture, and analysis. The programme is delivered by staff with strong international research reputations, active as scholars, performers, and composers. Their diverse expertise includes areas such as: music and film; opera studies; source studies; European art music in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; music in Ireland; ethnomusicology; popular music; music, gender, and sexuality; analysis; and more. Beyond the modules, seminars, and showcase outlined in the Course Structure, MA in Musicology students may also attend conferences, concerts, and other events that Music Department staff regularly organise. Students also benefit from a first-rate library, access to the University’s language courses, and close proximity to Dublin, enabling access to a further range of research libraries and archives. |
| MA PERFORMANCE & MUSICOLOGY & P/T | The MA in Performance & Musicology degree programme is designed for students with strengths in performance who want opportunities to deepen and extend their skills. The pathway is carefully honed to foster and develop skills in performance and musicology at postgraduate level. The preparation of a dissertation allows you to develop research skills in an area closely related to your final recital performance. All of this takes place within the rich environment of the Department of Music’s with its research and teaching strengths in musicology, performance, composition and technology. |
| POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MUSIC TECHNOLOGY | The course is creativity-driven, with emphasis on musical aspects of computer programming and audio technology. It offers full use of computer resources at the Music Technology Labs at Maynooth University; access to studio space, with the possibility of working towards recording and production projects; expert advice on musical and technical issues is provided by composers and researchers at the cutting edge of their fields. |
| Postgraduate Research Programmes (MLitt and PhD) | |
| Composition (Acoustic and Electroacoustic) | The composers on our staff work at the cutting edge of practice-led research. As active professional composers and academics, the composition team brings a wide range of expertise to composition tuition particularly in the areas of contemporary performance practices, Irish art music in the 20th and 21st centuries, Irish traditional music, computer-based music and jazz. The Department’s in-house contemporary music ensemble, Fuaim, gives students the opportunity to perform compositions of their own and of others. This, coupled with regular workshops from visiting composers, musicians, and ensembles, makes for a vibrant and dynamic contemporary musical life in the Music Department and wider University. |
| Musicology | Placing music and musicians within their social, cultural, political and historical contexts is central to musicological research undertaken in the Department. We particularly focus on European Music, Culture and Society and on Analysis and Performance from the sixteenth century to the present day. Our specialist interests include song studies, gender studies, opera, film music, pan-European piano music, historiography, institutional histories, interdisciplinary studies, and multifaceted approaches to analysis. |
| Music Technology/Computer Music | Our Music Technology research draws on expertise in Computer Music, Digital Signal Processing, Electroacoustic Composition and electronic instrument design and building and is coupled with excellent facilities in the dedicated music technology lab, making study at Maynooth University popular among students from a variety of backgrounds. |
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