MusM Composition (Electroacoustic Music and Interactive Media)

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2027, the tuition fees are as follows:

• MusM (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £14,400
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £29,800

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

International student CAS deposit

Self-funded international applicants are required to pay a deposit of £2500 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. Some applicants will be required to pay a higher deposit. More information on tuition fee deposits .

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

• Learn more about - student finance options for UK students.
• Learn more about - fees and finance for international students .
• Graduates of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University can receive a 10% discount on their master's degree tuition fees as part of our Manchester Alumni Loyalty Discount scheme.

This course unit provides a comprehensive training in the practice of orchestration and its relationship to the other parameters of musical composition. It involves close collaboration with the professional orchestras based in Manchester. Weekly seminars are supplemented by attendance at BBC Philharmonic and/or Hallé Orchestra rehearsals. Course content is tailored to complement the current concert season. 

Student would normally hold a first degree in Music

• To provide students with an advanced understanding of instruments and the principles underlying late 19^th century to contemporary approaches to orchestration.

• To acquaint students with techniques of orchestration through both theoretical study and analysis, and practical engagement through attendance at BBC Philharmonic and/or Hallé Orchestra rehearsals.

• To provide an understanding as to how the practice of orchestration relates to the other parameters of musical composition.

By the end of the course-unit students should have:

• Studied a variety of 20th/21st-century musical scores.
• Developed a comprehensive understanding of 20th century to contemporary practice in orchestration and its relationship to the other parameters of musical composition.
• Developed skills in problem solving, analysis, aesthetics, and judgment.
• Made a detailed study of the orchestration of a selected composer and put this knowledge into practice in their own orchestration of a piano piece (or work for voice or solo instrument with piano) by the same composer.
• Developed acute aural awareness in the balancing and combination of instruments, in terms of timbre, dynamics and density.
• Learned to make appropriate aesthetic judgments.
• Developed creative decision-making.
• Developed skills in orchestral layout of scores and preparation of parts, which involves professionalism, proof-reading, organizational skills and attention to detail.

Orchestration Project

100%

 

 

 

Feedback method	Formative or Summative
Supervision on work in progress in one-to-one tutorials with main supervisor	formative
Orchestration	summative

Adler, Samuel - The Study of Orchestration (Norton, 1989)

Blatter, Alfred - Instrumentation and Orchestration (Schirmer, 1997)

Piston, Walter - Orchestration (Gollancz, 1955)

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay - Principles of Orchestration (Dover, 1964)