DPhil in Music

The DPhil in Music is intended to provide you with a wide range of research skills as well as in-depth knowledge, understanding and expertise in your chosen field of research.

You are normally expected to have a master’s degree in music or equivalent before embarking on the DPhil, or you may first undertake one of the MSt programmes in music at Oxford.

Areas of research represented in the faculty include:

• historical musicological topics from the Middle Ages to the present
• music theory and analysis
• composition
• ethnomusicology
• psychology of music
• performance studies
• aesthetics of music
• popular music
• critical and empirical musicology.

Attendance

The full-time programme is studied over three to four years. The part-time programme has the same requirements, but is studied over six to eight years.

Part-time students are fully integrated into the research culture of the University and are expected to attend the University on a regular basis for supervision, study, skills training and participation in some of the many research seminars. If you are in employment, you must provide a letter from your employer stating you may take time off if necessary to attend the University as required for the duration of the course.

The faculty appreciates that part-time research students will have non-standard attendance and work patterns. Your supervisor and the Director of Graduate Studies will be available to advise you on access to research and training provision for part-time students.

There will be some flexibility in the dates and pattern of attendance. Attendance will normally be required each week during term-time, on dates to be determined by mutual agreement with your supervisor. You will have the opportunity to tailor your part-time study and skills training requirements in liaison with your supervisor and agree your pattern of attendance.

Resources to support your study

The Faculty of Music is planning to move to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in Autumn 2025. New facilities will include:

• practice rooms, and a larger ensemble room
• three music studios
• access to the Recital Hall
• The Black Box, a technology-enabled space to use for experimental electronic music compositions, multimedia works, experimental performances, and practice-based research. It will be possible to rig the space in various ways, including with a 56-speaker array to create an immersive sound experience.

Libraries

The University’s Bodleian Library, receives every important British musicological study, in addition to acquiring most major books and editions published elsewhere; it has particularly important collections of printed sources for early music theory and nineteenth-century sheet music. Its manuscript collection contains many important sources for early English and European music, as do several college libraries.

Other significant research collections are held at the Taylorian Library (modern languages), the Bodleian Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library and the Maison Française.
Oxford’s three important collections of musical instruments are the faculty’s Bate Collection, the Ashmolean Museum’s Hill Collection of old stringed and keyboard instruments, and the Pitt Rivers Museum’s extensive collection of ethnographic materials.

The Music Faculty Library is the University’s main repository for sound recordings and holds DVD recordings of opera, film and classical music.

The library’s multimedia resource centre has 11 stand-alone Mac-based composition and research workstations with Sibelius 7 notation software, Pro Tools 10 audio production platform and Max/MSP audio and video modular programming language installed as standard, as well as specialist software for video editing, noise-removal, sound design, graphics editing, audio digitisation and transcription.

Schwartzman Studio facilities

The new Schwartzman studios will be available to use by Music Faculty students for their portfolio work.

Music Studio 1

Will be a professional acoustically designed music composition, production and mixing room, able to accommodate both stereo and the immersive broadcast and recording standard - Dolby Atmos 9.1.4. It will digitally connect to almost all the performance spaces in the Schwartzman building and will be able to simultaneously record up sixty musicians directly in the new Concert Hall.

Music Studio 2

Will be a professionally designed experimental music and acoustics research space, able to accommodate many different listening formats, from stereo to Ambisonics, Dolby Atmos, D&B Soundscape and others. It will have a permanent but adjustable ‘3D’ 22.2 loudspeaker array. The studio will contain a range of experimental electronic music instruments and will be inherently flexible by design, with connections to all performance spaces, but a design bias to working symbiotically with the Black Box.

Music Studio 3

Will be a ‘trad’ recording studio directly connected and adjacent to the ‘Ensemble Room’ and practice rooms on the ground floor. It will house a 32 channel all analogue vintage aesthetic Harrison recording console, with an array of choice microphones for recording small to medium sized ensemble performance: from soloist to quartet, Jazz, Rock and Pop.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Faculty of Music and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. In exceptional circumstances a supervisor may be found outside the Faculty of Music. This supervisor would share their supervisory role with a co-supervisor would from the Faculty of Music.

You will be supported by a supervisor or supervisors who will help you to develop a programme of research and writing. You will also benefit from the advice and support of other members of the faculty who will be involved in your progression through the stages of the degree, and you can draw on the expertise of scholars and colleagues throughout the faculty and University.

In the case of students who require specific help to adjust to acquire new skills, the supervisor will work with them to ensure that they have additional support.   

Assessment

All students will be initially admitted to the status of Probationer Research Student (PRS). Within a maximum of four terms as a PRS student (and normally by the third) you will be expected to apply for transfer of status from Probationer Research Student to DPhil status. Part-time students are required to apply for transfer no later than their eighth term.

A successful transfer of status from PRS to DPhil status will require either (A) or (B):

A. Candidates, who offer compositions as part of the final submission, will submit:

either

1. a portfolio of between three and six musical compositions, totalling between 50 and 80 minutes' duration, with at least one composition being of large scale (defined as for large-scale forces, such as orchestra, and/or of more than 30 minutes' duration). The portfolio will be prefaced by a critical writing submission situating the candidate’s portfolio submissions with respect to the field of contemporary music, and where appropriate to musicological studies or other academic fields/domains of the candidate’s choosing; 
2. a separate dissertation.

or

1. a portfolio of between three and six musical compositions, totalling between 60 and 100 minutes' duration, with at least one composition being of large scale (defined as for large-scale forces, such as orchestra, and/or of more than 30 minutes' duration); 
2. a dissertation situating the candidate’s portfolio submissions with respect to the field of contemporary music, and where appropriate to musicological studies or other academic fields/domains of the candidate’s choosing.

B. For all other candidates:

1. a literature review essay that provides a discursive review of the historical and/or theoretical literature relevant to the thesis topic and its field;
2. an essay on a focused topic relevant to the proposed thesis, and intended to constitute a part of it;
3. a stand-alone overview of the topic of the thesis; and
4. a provisional timetable for completion of the thesis.

Students who are successful at transfer will also be expected to apply for and gain confirmation of DPhil status within eight terms of admission (sixteen if studying part-time), to show that your work continues to be on track.

Both milestones normally involve an interview with two assessors (other than your supervisor) and therefore provide important experience for the final oral examination.

You will be expected to submit an original thesis of up to 100,000 words after three or, at most, four years from the date of admission (after six, or at most, eight years if studying part-time). For those specialising in composition, your final submission will be a Portfolio of Compositions and Critical Writing within the same time frame. To be successfully awarded a DPhil in Music you will need to defend your thesis orally (viva voce) in front of two appointed examiners. 

Graduate destinations

DPhil students go on into all manners of work and careers. Many seek postdoctoral positions in higher education all round the world. Others may become full-time performers or composers. Careers in concert and performance administration are also favoured and all manner of professions.

College preference