Music is not only about playing instruments and composition; music often has to be designed, which means ensuring the appropriate design and production processes and allowing for the context for which the music is being created and performed.
The suitable application of technology, multidisciplinary collaboration and research are also often important. All these aspects - and not only the quality of playing, composition or interpretation - influence the final musical product and should therefore be determined by a musician. The Music Design pathway is distinctive in this view and approach.
There are four focal areas in the Music Design Pathway
• Music Technology: the focus is on the development and appropriate application of technology in innumerable mono and multidisciplinary situations in which music design plays a role.
• Music Production: the focus is on the musical and production factors that play a role in ‘publicising’ music: from live performance to music on CD or other media and from cross-media use of music to surround productions.
• Sound Design: the focus is on the creation and use of sound and noise in primarily multidisciplinary settings such as film, theatre and games.
• Composition: the focus is on the creation and use of music in mono and multidisciplinary settings and contexts, from contemporary dance to the advertising industry and from games to animation.
The MMus – Music Design is aimed at students of a BMus and MA level with music design talent and experience. They must have the passion and attitude necessary to evolve into self-confident, critical professionals with their own view, focus and reflective/exploratory capacity.
The MMus – Music Design pathway is student-driven and student-focused: the student develops; the programme coaches, supervises and supports.
The HKU offers collaboration with fellow students in innovative music design processes, and provides workrooms and studios, lessons & lecturers, work groups and supervision in the form of coaching and guidance. The student is responsible for the exact content and subject of his or her study. At a number of moments during the course, the HKU, assisted in a number of instances by (international) external experts, assesses whether the subject and content are of a high enough level.
If you feel ready to plunge 100 percent into the music and (interactive) media industry, then you should do so, rather than considering taking an MMus: after all, the industry offers plenty of opportunity to further develop your skills and professionalism.
If you would like to specialise further or want to experiment, develop and/or research, then the MMus – Music Design could offer a highly suitable curriculum. The industry has little room to accommodate such activities, as deadlines and budgets are the major considerations. The MMus – Music Design, on the other hand, offers the opportunity for design & research through projects, artist-in-residences, workshops, master classes and other specialised study, design and research activities. The student then develops his or her focus and view by analysing the aforementioned projects and reflecting on the process and end product.
The focus in the Mmus course is on further artistic development or development of research skill and analysis. The two are not mutually exclusive, but with the first design is central and the majority of the research takes place in the context of your own design and development as a designer. With the second, research plays a far more dominant role and is a requirement, for example, for carrying out a project or using design as proof of certain principles not having been applied before in that way by other music designers.
Once you have obtained the MMus with a focus on research, it is possible to obtain an MPhil through a short, privately financed course validated by Bournemouth University (UK).
If you are interested in the MMus or MPhil, then please contact Rens Machielse – head of the Music Technology course (rens.machielse@kmt.hku.nl) or Jan IJzermans – Professor of Music Design (jan.ijzermans@kmt.hku.nl).