Music

Music at degree level is an invitation to engage with one of the most ancient and universal of human creative practices with the full seriousness and rigour that a university education can bring. It encompasses the study of musical theory, history, and analysis alongside practical musicianship, composition, and performance. Understanding music means learning to listen more deeply, to read its structures and conventions, to trace its historical development across centuries and cultures, and to reflect on what it means and how it works in the world.

At the University of Edinburgh, this four-year programme offers a wide-ranging and intellectually demanding approach to music. You will develop your skills in harmony, counterpoint, and musical analysis, engaging with music from the Western canon alongside traditions from other parts of the world. The programme spans historical periods from medieval music to contemporary practice and explores music through multiple lenses, including theory, performance, composition, ethnomusicology, and music technology.

Edinburgh's music department is distinguished by the quality and diversity of its academic staff and by its connections to the outstanding musical life of one of Europe's great cultural cities. You will be studying within a rich environment of concerts, festivals, and professional musical activity that complements your academic work.

This full-time programme runs over four years and includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to engage with music in a different academic and cultural environment, whether in another European institution, a conservatoire, or elsewhere. That experience can significantly deepen your musical and personal development. Graduates in music go on to careers as performers, composers, conductors, and teachers, and also to roles in music publishing, arts administration, broadcasting, music therapy, and the creative industries more broadly.

The analytical, creative, and communication skills that music develops are also genuinely transferable to a wide range of careers beyond the music profession. Postgraduate study in performance, composition, musicology, or music technology is a well-established pathway for those who wish to specialise further.