MUSIC: Goldsmiths, SOAS, City or Royal Holloway?

I may be crazy but ive been offered a place at leeds college of music for production and want to change courses and apply through clearing at one of these places, can anyone give me advice on which is best?

Reply 1

akmd

They are all very good choices for music. RHUL and City were both rated grade 5* for music in the 2001 RAE while Goldsmiths was rated grade 5. As those are courses which are among those unis greatest strengths, I'm not sure if they will be in clearing. It's worth a try though.

Reply 2

BovineBeast

random11

SOAS music is very specialised, like every course at SOAS. So you'll be mostly studying non-European music. And if that's what you're interested in, you should definitely apply there.

Reply 3

akmd

Here are Goldsmiths' music courses:

BMus (Hons) Music: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/departments/music/programmes/bmus.php

BMus (Hons) Popular Music Studies: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/departments/music/programmes/bmus-pms.php

Reply 4

Kew

Royal Holloway is great for Music. The Music Department has an excellent academic reputation, which is well deserved; it is rated 5* for research, and as a former student there I can testify that the teaching is really good. It offers a wide range of units, which cover all the main areas of musicology (historical musicology, ethnomusicology, theory & analysis), performance and composition. The majority of units are quite traditional, though you can do units/half-units on topics such as music technology, film music, popular music and so on if you want. The offer for single honours Music, 2008 entry, is AAB.

Performance isn't compulsory, even in the first year, but if you do want to specialise in it then there is ample opportunity. If you are good enough then you can get instrumental lessons at the Royal College of Music, and in order to get onto any of the specialist performance units you have to pass a stringent audition. If you enjoy performance but aren't good enough to specialise, then there are loads of performance opportunities available in the many ensembles (Symphony, Chamber, String and Baroque Orchestras, University Chorus, Chamber Choir, Chapel Choir and Schola Cantorum within it, Big Band and Pheonix, plus an Andean band and a gamelan orchestra!). The Music Department runs a packed concert calendar.

In addition, the Department is close-knit, warm and supportive. The main building (Wettons Terrace) must be Edwardian at the latest, but the facilities themselves are up-to-date. There's a well-stocked music library with a PC lab in the department building, which is handy for last-minute dashes to hand in essays...