Master's degree program "Popular Music" (M. Mus.)
The artistic-practical Master's degree program "Popular Music" is an interdisciplinary project course and is aimed at artists with a Bachelor's degree and artistic experience.
Aim of the degree program
The focus is on the creation of pop music as an independent art form. The course particularly emphasizes artistic-practical work and is aimed at artists who have already completed their training or are professionally active on the open market. The Master's degree program thus focuses on the training of artists who want to expand their existing artistic-practical experience and at the same time deepen central aspects of pop music and combine them in an individual course of study.
Profile of the degree program
The aim of the course is to realize artistic development projects within the framework of various artistic projects. Students combine musical and artistic work with organizational, technical and economic aspects. A freely selectable range of courses on various creative means and techniques (project parts) expands the spectrum of individual artistic skills and applicable means. Students open up new perspectives and hone their own artistic profile. They establish a functioning artistic network with fellow students and institutions within and outside the university.
TEACHING & MODULES
Course of study
The focus of the course is on artistic projects that emerge from two main areas of musical and artistic activity, namely the activity of an "Artistic Composer/Producer" and a "Performing Artist". This results in very different and individual training paths, which can also take place across different specializations: Practical performance and work production are thus integrative components of the course and their weighting depends on the individual decision of the student and the specific use of artistic and technical means.
Teaching & modules
The projects are organized as project modules. They consist of "project supervision" and various "project parts". The "project supervision" is the curriculum-based supervision in individual lessons. The "project parts" are different specialist artistic disciplines geared towards pop music, which are ultimately brought together in different combinations in a project. Students are free to choose the "project parts" they want for their individual training path from a pool of courses from the available areas.
Two modules form the basis of the four-semester course at the Institute of Pop Music: the "Project" module and the "Reflection and Context" module. Artistic work and artistic research take place in the "Project" module, while "Reflection and Context" enriches the project work with scientific and economic-legal content and provides a reflective foundation.
"Project" module (as of summer semester 2025)
- Project supervision (individual lessons)
- Instrumental practice / ensemble practice
- Sound & Effect
- Film, stage and media music
- Text & Music
- Instrumentation / Arrangement
- Video & Animation
Module "Reflection and Context" (as of summer semester 2025)
- Musicology / aspects of music history
- Trends & Society
- Music & Media
Master's project
The focus of the course is project work, in which a wide variety of artistic development projects are implemented and presented: After two compact projects in the first year of study, flanked by freely combinable, project-related seminars, individual lessons and workshops by guest lecturers, students work on their Master's project in the second year of study. They may pick up on projects from the first year and continue them until the end of their studies: the final presentation of a performance and/or production - depending on their personal artistic profile.