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MA Music: Composition for Film and Television

Develop your identity as a creative and collaborative screen composer.

Year of entry: 2025 (September)

Length

1 year full-time,
2 years part-time

Start date

September 2025 (semester dates)

Masters Taster Day

Get a taste of what studying a Masters at York is like on 12 March 2025.

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Enhance your high-level composition skills and apply them to film and television. Work alongside filmmakers as you develop your craft. Establish an identity as a creative and collaborative musician.

Examine diverse approaches to screen scoring and explore stylistic studies. and expand your musical perspectives through tutorials, workshops, seminars and concerts. You will explore a wide range of approaches to your creativity within the scope of visual media. You’ll gain confidence in the use of a range of software.

Give intensive focus to your creative practice. You’ll be writing music in every core module. You'll learn to reflect on the relationship between sound and image. As part of the School of Arts and Creative Technologies, you'll get involved in original film work. Collaborate with student filmmakers, or use our rich student archives to inspire you.

Join York’s vibrant composition culture. We have a long history of innovative practice-based teaching and research. Our lively community of students and staff will inspire and support you. You'll be mentored by internationally renowned composers within the School. We'll connect you with professional screen composers. They'll share their industry knowledge and offer advice preparing you for your future career.

You'll graduate as a skilled creative musician. You'll be ready for a career as a composer, to work in a related field, or go on to further study.

Work with the experts

You’ll be part of CMRC, a thriving community of staff and students dedicated to the creation of new music through composition, improvisation and performance.

Real world experience

Collaborate with student filmmakers in your final submission as part of a creative team developing a project from storyboard to screening.

Course content

You'll take a combination of core and option modules. Some are from other Masters courses, and several unique to this course.

You'll produce a substantial portfolio of music for screen. Your portfolio can be a collection of independent scores, or a collaboration with student filmmakers.

Modules

Core modules

Option modules

You'll also study two option modules. Examples of option modules may include:

You could have the opportunity to pick option modules from the rest of our postgraduate music catalogue. It will depend on your previous experience and will be at the discretion of your course leader.

Some option module combinations may not be possible. The options available to you will be confirmed after you begin your course.

Our modules may change to reflect the latest academic thinking and expertise of our staff, and in line with Department/School academic planning.

Final Project

Draw on your creative and technical skills to produce a portfolio of music for screen. Your portfolio can be a collection of independent scores, or a collaboration with student filmmakers. We will match you with a team of filmmakers at the start of the production process. You'll work with film students involved in sound, design and direction to create music alongside their original work.

You and your tutor will agree on the contents and duration of your portfolio. You'll also provide a concise written commentary reflecting on what you have produced.

Your assigned professional composer will offer you advice and direction for your project.

  • Creative Practice Portfolio for Film and TV Composition

The York approach

Every course at York is built on a distinctive set of learning outcomes. These will give you a clear understanding of what you will be able to accomplish at the end of the course and help you explain what you can offer employers. Our academics identify the knowledge, skills, and experiences you'll need upon graduation and then design the course to get you there.

Students who complete this course will be able to:

  • Work independently and collaboratively with sophistication, close attention to detail and creative flair.
  • Lead or constructively contribute to advanced level musical activity by composing and communicating about composition at a professional level.
  • Deploy advanced skills of critical listening, analysis, notation and spotting, and develop ideas in collaborative situations as appropriate to composition within the filmmaking process.
  • Develop convincing mock-ups of their compositional ideas through effective use of relevant software.
  • Communicate at an advanced level on a range of issues relating to the history and processes present in your scoring, its relation to wider culture, and its technical and artistic execution.
  • Apply self-evaluative skills of reflective practice to inform their current work and continuing professional development in composition for film and TV with creativity, imagination, and initiative.
  • Apply the musical and transferable skills gained throughout the programme with confidence and aptitude in a range of contexts, for example in scoring, orchestration, teaching, project management, and academic work.
Studying a Masters in composition at York is a great opportunity to immerse in an encouraging and inspiring environment. The teachers are committed, with a variety of approaches and areas of expertise. You'll interact with a diverse group of classmates all developing very interesting projects.
Florencia, MA Music: Composition

Fees and funding

Annual tuition fees for 2025/26

Study modeUK (home)International and EU
Full-time (1 year) £11,200£25,900
Part-time (2 years) £5,600£12,950

Students on a Student Visa are not currently permitted to study part-time at York.

For courses which are longer than one year, the tuition fees quoted are for the first year of study.

  • UK (home) fees may increase in subsequent years (up to a maximum of 2%).
  • International fees may increase in subsequent years in line with the prevailing Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate (up to a maximum of 10%).

Fees information

UK (home) or international fees? The level of fee that you will be asked to pay depends on whether you're classed as a UK (home) or international student. Check your fee status.

Find out more information about tuition fees and how to pay them.

Funding information

Discover your funding options to help with tuition fees and living costs.

We'll confirm more funding opportunities for students joining us in 2025/26 throughout the year.

If you've successfully completed an undergraduate degree at York you could be eligible for a 10% Masters fee discount.

Funding opportunities

Chevening Scholarships

We are pleased to work with Chevening Scholars to offer funding for our Masters programmes. Chevening Scholarships provide one year of fully-funded postgraduate study in the UK for international (including EU) students. The scholarships are open to early and mid-career professionals who have the potential to become future leaders.

School funding

Living costs

You can use our living costs guide to help plan your budget. It covers additional costs that are not included in your tuition fee such as expenses for accommodation and study materials.

Creative freedom

For composers, all assessments are based on your own compositions: the focus is always on your creative work.

A historic city

Lively, full of culture and beautiful, York has been voted one of the best places to live and visit in the UK.

Teaching and assessment

You’ll work with world‐leading academics who’ll challenge you to think independently and excel in all that you do. Our approach to teaching will provide you with the knowledge, opportunities, and support you need to grow and succeed in a global workplace.

Teaching format

Teaching is delivered through a combination of individual lessons, group lessons and seminars. You'll have opportunities to collaborate with other Masters students within the School. 

You will have regular meetings with your supervisor, who will advise you and help develop your ideas as you progress through your studies. We'll connect you with professional screen composers. They'll offer portfolio guidance and share their industry knowledge.

We encourage you to get involved with our lively community, from our ensembles to our weekly seminars, performance classes and research seminars.

Facilities

The School is home to the Music Research Centre, one of the finest facilities for listening to and recording sound in the UK. There is a large-scale neutral listening and performing space built to extremely low noise specifications (PNC15), a linked studio suite containing a dedicated performance space with configurable acoustics and two mix down/control rooms (one with an SSL Duality console). These facilities include a wide range of microphones and recording hardware/software.

All students have free access to relevant DAWs, notation software and orchestral libraries.

Additionally, students can expect to work with the industry standard facilities within the film, television and creative technologies areas of the School.

Discover our facilities

Teaching location

The School of Arts and Creative Technologies has facilities on Campus East and Campus West and teaching takes place in both locations.

About our campus

Our beautiful green campus offers a student-friendly setting in which to live and study, within easy reach of the action in the city centre. It's easy to get around campus - everything is within walking or pedalling distance, or you can always use the fast and frequent bus service.

Assessment and feedback

The focus of your assessments will be your own compositions alongside other work that supports your compositional development, which, depending on the options you choose, may also include essays, presentations and/or performance. Feedback occurs frequently, both within individual lessons and in group seminars and workshops where you will share and discuss your work with fellow students.

Careers and skills

You'll graduate with an in-depth understanding of composition for film and television. You'll develop collaborative approaches working with students across our film and television courses. The skills you learn will inform your creative outputs. They will reflect your artistic voice while responding to specific briefs from collaborators.

You'll become a critical thinker and clear communicator. Your ability to analyse and convey ideas are skills valued in any sector. Our music Masters students go on to a range of careers. They work as creative artists and teachers, into arts administration and further study.

Career opportunities

  • Composer of film / game / commercial music
  • Composer of concert music
  • Contemporary music research and PhD study
  • Community arts worker
  • Freelance composer-performer
  • Private music tutor

Transferable skills

  • Communication
  • Creative problem-solving
  • Critical analysis
  • Research skills
  • Self-evaluation
  • Teamwork
  • Time management
York prepared me for my career by allowing the time and freedom of thought necessary and inherent to any freelance life, and especially in allowing me to embark on the substantial/ambitious projects which enabled my career to get going in the first place.
Christian Mason, MA Music: Composition

Award-winning composer

Entry requirements

Typical offer
Undergraduate degree 2:2 or equivalent in Music or another relevant subject.
Other international qualifications Equivalent qualifications from your country

Additional requirements

You will need to attach a link to a portfolio of 2-3 samples of your compositions for screen media. You should also submit a notated score in pdf format for at least one of these where possible. If you have worked exclusively with software/programs for your submitted work for the application, additionally submit a pdf score of a notated piece which can be in any genre or instrumentation and which can be an original work or an arrangement. Please see our guidance on submitting creative work.

English language

If English isn't your first language you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. We accept the following qualifications:

Minimum requirement
IELTS (Academic and Indicator) 6.5, minimum 6.0 in each component
Cambridge CEFR B2 First: 176, with 169 in each component
Oxford ELLT 7, minimum of 6 in each component
Oxford Test of English Advanced 136, minimum 126 in each component
Duolingo 120, minimum 105 in all other components
LanguageCert SELT B2 with 33/50 in each component
LanguageCert Academic 70 with a minimum of 65 in each component
Kaplan Test of English Language 478-509, with 444-477 in all other components
Skills for English B2: Merit overall, with Pass with Merit in each component
PTE Academic 61, minimum 55 in each component
TOEFL 87, minimum of 21 in each component
Trinity ISE III Merit in all requirements

For more information see our postgraduate English language requirements.

If you haven't met our English language requirements

You may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language courses. These courses will provide you with the level of English needed to meet the conditions of your offer.

The length of course you need to take depends on your current English language test scores and how much you need to improve to reach our English language requirements.

After you've accepted your offer to study at York, we'll confirm which pre-sessional course you should apply to via You@York.

Applying

You can apply and send all your documentation online. You don’t need to complete your application all at once: you can start it, save it and finish it later.

Attach a link to a portfolio of 2 to 3 samples of your compositions for screen media. You should also submit a notated score in PDF format for at least one of these where possible. If you have worked exclusively with software/programs for your submitted work for the application, additionally submit a PDF score of a notated piece which can be in any genre or instrumentation and which can be an original work or an arrangement. 

Apply for this course

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