Content and structure

Course content.

The Major in “Theory” is focused around skills and artistic considerations and is guided by your questions about music. Through stylistic studies and comparative analyses, you will acquire a profound understanding of monophony through to the present day and will examine a variety of musical and cultural forms. You will maintain an intense and critical exchange of views with other students in colloquia and seminars. You will practise continuo, playing from scores, jazz piano and ensemble conducting, sharpen your analytical tools, differentiate your perception and discuss aesthetic questions.

Course structure.

The course centres around the development of your own musical and theoretical thinking. You will expand your practical specialist skills in individual tuition and group courses. Written work such as stylistic studies, short essays, analyses and instrumentation exercises forms an important part of the course and gives students a chance to apply and consolidate the techniques and specialist terminology they have learned. 
 

Module plan:

Skills acquired in the course.

You will acquire a profound understanding of the history of composition through to the present day and develop your capacity to think about music independently and engage in aesthetic/artistic discourse. You will be able to place your own thinking and theoretical knowledge in a historical, music-practice, analytical, compositional and social context.

Admissions requirements.

You have a high level of general education, very good musical knowledge and communication skills and the desire to express yourself in artistic terms. You are creative and capable of articulating the characteristic elements of musical processes. You are committed, resilient, willing to devote your professional life to music and motivated to deepen your skills at a high level and establish and maintain a specialist network.

Benefits of studying at ZHdK.

  • You will study at one of the largest integrated universities of the arts in Europe.
  • You will benefit from a well-developed infrastructure and a large number of performance opportunities.
  • You will attend courses from the core subject area of theory as well as courses of your choice from the fields of composition, electroacoustic or functional composition and sound design. You will also gain insights into the Immersive Arts Space (IAS) and the renowned Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST).
  • The self-designed graduation projects will motivate you to organize your work independently. 
  • You will have the opportunity to deepen your educational and didactic knowledge in the follow-up Master’s in Analysis and Teaching, enabling you to develop and give professional music theory tuition at university level.
  • After completing the Master’s degree, you will have the option of applying for the artistic-scientific doctoral programme that ZHdK offers in partnership with the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.