MA/MRes
Postgraduate degree
Entry requirements for our postgraduate courses vary. We're generally looking for a good honours degree or equivalent.
Some courses also require an interview or the submission of a portfolio of work.
Please contact our admissions team for more information: admissions@bathspa.ac.uk.
Due to Covid-19, we have made some changes to teaching and learning for the 2020-21 academic year: we have blended high-quality virtual engagement with in-person teaching on campus when possible. Blended learning will continue to some extent in the 2021-22 academic year and we will continue to keep the situation under review in light of ongoing Government guidance. If you’re planning on joining us in September 2021 we will communicate with you about specific details of how your course is taught nearer the time.
During our Master’s in Composition, you’ll develop your skills as a composer and deepen your understanding of current artistic and professional trends in music.
You’ll be supported through weekly seminars, tutorials, and workshops with professional musicians. You’ll also work on your creative and technical skills, commenting critically on your own and others’ work.
This is a broad Music Master’s with a strong focus on experimentation within your areas of interest as a composer. Our aim is to inspire, support, and enrich your knowledge while you pursue your own unique interests. We set this against a wider consideration of current music and developments in contemporary musical thought.
"The course definitely built up my confidence and helped to define my voice as a composer. It also helped me enhance the skills that I would need to move forward in the industry as a composer."
Lois Wyatt, Composition student
Music composition research at Bath Spa is at the forefront of new approaches to notation, materiality, open scores and visual music.
Creative Sound Forum is a weekly event featuring presentations and performances by visiting composers and sonic artists that brings together all the postgraduates who work
Music and Performing Arts Research
We want you to graduate as a skilled composer with a deep understanding of contemporary music.
We’ll support developments in your creative practice through practical consideration of both your professional and academic skills, to help you:
You’ll develop creative and technical skills throughout the course, alongside the ability to think critically about composition.
You’ll have opportunities to collaborate with other creative artists, such as choreographers, filmmakers and theatre practitioners, through joint projects and seminar discussion.
The MA and MRes Composition pathways offer a different emphasis. MRes Composition provides an opportunity to conduct an extended, focused composition project, combining both creative work and academic research. MA Composition provides a space to explore a wider range of approaches and to experiment with new ideas. Composers on both pathways are taught together and work with Bath Spa’s wider Music and Performance community.
Tutorials
We’ll meet with you on a one-to-one basis through weekly tutorials to help you develop your work technically and aesthetically.
Seminars
We’ll discuss broader issues in groups through weekly seminar sessions. Topics could include particular composers or approaches, compositional problems, or explorations of professional contexts.
Workshops
We organise rehearsals and workshops with visiting professional musicians and fellow students. This enables you to hear your work played live and to make changes based on discussion and feedback.
Students of MA Composition and MRes Composition participate in the same seminars and workshops.
This course includes or offers the following modules. Please check the programme document (below the main image on this page) for more details on which modules are core, required or optional.
MA Composition
MRes Composition
The majority of assessment is based on your creative work, including compositions for specified visiting musicians and projects where you decide what to write. You’ll also produce work that assesses your professional and academic skills, including making a website, preparing a funding application, and researching an area of practice that links to your work.
If you take take the MA Composition pathway, you'll typically produce a varied portfolio, inspired in part by the opportunities and experiences afforded by the course, as well as your individual interests and future plans.
MRes composers will typically produce a portfolio of work articulated as a single project that is supported by a clear research context.
Each module has a weekly seminar which is either specific to the MA/MRes Composition or, for core skills, shared by all Composition students. You’ll also have a weekly tutorial during teaching weeks.
Throughout the year, we bring in visitors to talk about their work through the Creative Sound Forum, plus industry professionals, to deepen your knowledge and understanding of current contexts. We also bring in professional musicians to play one of your compositions.
“Bath Spa University have given me the knowledge, support, and inspiration that I needed to take my creative work to levels I never thought possible. The experience has been fun, rewarding, challenging, moving, and memorable.”
Eldred Stevenson, Composition graduate.
We have good links with the UK contemporary music scene, and have regular visits from performers, composers and other industry speakers during the year. Recent visiting performers who have played student work include Plus Minus Ensemble, Kreutzer Quartet, Ensemble Bash, Christopher Redgate, Alexandra Wood, New London Chamber Ensemble and Darragh Morgan.
Composers and sound artists who have visited us to talk about their work include Peter Ablinger, Joanna Bailie, Laura Bowler, Gavin Bryars, Kim Cascone, Cathy von Eck, Jem Finer, Graham Fitkin, Bryn Harrison, Kathy Hinde, Tom Johnson, Liza Lim, Anton Lukoszevieze, Thomas Meadowcroft, Cassandra Miller, Claudia Molitor, Phill Niblock, Tim Parkinson, Michael Pisaro, Matthew Shlomowitz, Howard Skempton, Atau Tanaka, Jennifer Walshe, Michael Winter, Amnon Wolman.
We also run a regular series of presentations by visiting composers that brings together MA and PhD students with staff and colleagues from other disciplines. Industry and academic speakers also present their work at the commercially-orientated Music Think Tank (recent speakers include Paul Brindley, CEO at Music Ally; Paul Gray, Musicians' Union; Vick Bain, BASCA; Chris Carey from EMI; Will Page, chief economist PRS for Music; John Minch, CEO of Boosey and Hawkes/Imagem).
You’ll develop a broad range of intellectual, practical and transferable skills. We’ll help you prepare for a portfolio career built around your creative practice, drawing in other related areas of work such as:
Our aim is that when you graduate from the Composition degree, you'll have developed core problem-solving, analytical, and critical skills to support you in the ever-evolving music and composition landscape.
Composition tutors at Bath Spa are internationally-recognised composers, digital sound artists, professional music-makers and active researchers.
Based at Newton Park’s Michael Tippett Centre, you’ll have access to a range of University services, venues and facilities (plus further specialist music resources) including:
As an MRes/MA Composition student, you'll have access to networked music technology labs with highly specified workstations, running core software including Pro Tools, Logic, MAX/MSP, Macromedia suites, and Final Cut.
We also have five purpose-built digital recording studios, featuring:
Please note: Students from the EU, EEA and Switzerland are no longer eligible for the UK (Home) fee status. Please refer to the international student rate.
| 2021/22 entry | £7,790 |
| 2022/23 entry | Published Jan 2022 |
| 2023/24 entry | Published Jan 2023 |
Fees shown below are for part time study over two years, although some courses may be available over longer periods.
| Year 1 | £3,895 |
| Year 2 | Published Jan 2022 |
| Year 1 | Published Jan 2022 |
| Year 2 | Published Jan 2023 |
| Year 1 | Published Jan 2023 |
| Year 2 | Published Jan 2024 |
| 2021/22 entry | £15,070 |
| 2022/23 entry | Published Jan 2022 |
| 2023/24 entry | Published Jan 2023 |
We’re looking for students with an enquiring approach to music. You’ll be interested in developing your practice and exploring the many contexts in which it is situated.
We support work in a wide range of styles and genres, while maintaining an experimental and exploratory approach.
Ready to apply? Click the 'apply now' button in the centre of this page.
Need more guidance? Head to our how to apply pages.
You should submit a portfolio with your application, comprising no more than three pieces of representative work. The form of this portfolio will depend on the music you make, but is likely to contain scores and recordings.
We’re happy to receive links to online material, CDs, DVDs, printed scores, documentation of performances or installations, as appropriate. If you need guidance on this, please contact the course leader.
Many of our postgraduate courses have a limited number of student spaces. To avoid the disappointment of the course being full, we recommend that you apply now.
Late applications (generally those made after 31 July) will only be considered if places remain on the course.
Need more information or still have questions? Contact us to discuss your situation.
Admissions service: +44 (0)1225 876 180
Email: admissions@bathspa.ac.uk
Course leader: James Saunders
Email: j.saunders@bathspa.ac.uk
Website feedback to web@bathspa.ac.uk
Matthew
Sergeant
Jan
Meinema
Joseph
Hyde
Lois
Wyatt
James
Saunders
Benjamin
Ramsay