M.A. Cultural Musicology

The master's degree in Cultural Musicology offers you a unique opportunity in Germany: to deal in depth with cultural issues relating to the musics of the world. The faculty integrates methods and techniques that are taken to be characteristic for each of the three 'classical' sub-disciplines of musicology (Historical Musicology, Systematic Musicology, Ethnomusicology), and aims for a joint exploration of opportunities within these three areas. This, we believe, results in music research that can do better justice to its object: musics of the world, with no preference for a particular music.


Teaching and learning content

In the course of the Cultural Musicology program, you learn to integrate current musicological research with theories and methods from Cultural Studies. The program includes introductory courses on cultural analysis, as well as advanced seminars in which musical practices are critically examined in their historical, social and spatial cultural contexts. The analysis of music with different techniques, including computer-based methods, plays a central role. Depending on your study profile, you may deepen your knowledge and improve your skills in an independently conducted research project that precedes the thesis. Finally, the Cultural Musicology program also provides for an internship, which helps you prepare yourself for various professional fields.


Profiles

You can study Cultural Musicology as a 78C single subject. This option is advisable if you are interested in a broad, research-oriented approach to the subject. You can also combine Cultural Musicology as a 42C major with 36C from another subject, or 18C each from two other subjects.
The latter option is advisable if you have both research and application-oriented perspectives, and are interested in exploring the joint potential of two or three disciplines. Finally, you may study 36C or 18C in Cultural Musicology and use these credit points in combination with other subjects.


Who is the M.A. Cultural Musicology for?

The M.A. program in Cultural Musicology is for those holding a B.A. in Musicology, those who possess a keen interest in Musicology, and for who the subject of "music" does not restrict said music to the musical practices of Europe, but who are interested in musics from different historical and cultural contexts worldwide. Göttingen’s Cultural Musicology program corresponds well to the very large range of subjects at the University of Göttingen, especially within the Faculty of Arts, the Centre for Contemporary East Asian Studies, the Centre for Contemporary Indian Studies, the Religious Studies seminar and other essential facilities.


Career prospects

The M.A. in Cultural Musicology prepares you for professional activities in many fields, whether it be in libraries, archives and museums, music in non-university research institutions, or as part of the music management at media companies. It qualifies you for professional journalistic work for the press, radio, television or the internet, and not least, it also gives you the opportunity to qualify yourself for postgraduate studies which may lead you to an academic career.