FL 0002250

Royal College of Music
Graduate School
INTEGRATED MASTERS PROGRAMME

COURSE HANDBOOK 2007 2008
PGDip in Performance
PGDip in Advanced Performance
MMus in Advanced Performance
INSTRUMENTALISTS
and
CONDUCTORS
If you would like any material

from this Handbook in larger print,
please contact the Registry
Programmes Team
E-mail:
registryprogrammes@rcm.ac.uk
Contents
1. Introduction...5
Describes how the Integrated Masters Programme fits into the RCMs Graduate School, names courses and their
constituent pathways and provides instruction in the use of the Handbook.
2. Programme Aims and Learning Outcomes..7

These describe the skills you will expect to have developed, knowledge accrued and understanding gained upon
completion of the Programme.
2.2 Descriptors: Skills and other attributes:
Practical Skills
Cognitive Skills
Transferable skills
Knowledge and understanding
3. Course Structure.9
Shows available courses, the pathways within them and the units that constitute each pathway.
3.1 Overall structure
3.3 Unit structure
Overall PGDip/MMus Route Diagram
3.6 Pathways
3.7 Related or Second Study
3.12 Unit selection restrictions
PGDip/MMus Year Route Maps
3.16 Completing an MMus by taking the second MMus Core Unit separately
4. Part-time options19
4.1 Introduction
4.4 Parameters for part-time study
4.9 Typical plans of part-time study
5. Postgraduate Induction and starting the Programme.21

Describes how you enter your chosen course and determine its nature and units
6. Progression.24
Staying on for a second year, deferred assessments and reassessments
7. Assessment.24
Describes how practical and written examinations are conducted with the RCM and how these results are ratified.
7.2 Practical assessments
7.3 Written assessments
7.4 Assessment teams and panels
7.5 External Examiners
7.6 Masters Programme in Performance Board of Examiners
8. Unit Descriptions.26
This is a short introduction to the principles behind the Masters Programme unit structure.
9. Masters Programme Unit Descriptions....27

These describe the unit content, teaching contact time, modes of assessment, aims and learning outcomes for each
unit in the Programme.
9.1
Year 1 Performance Level Units...28

9.1.1
MMus Core Unit
9.1.2
Pathway Core Units
9.1.3
Principal Study Core Units
9.2
Year 2/Intensive Programme Advanced Performance

Level Units.42
9.2.1
MMus Core Units
9.2.2
Pathway Core Units
9.2.3
Principal Study Units
9.3
Elective units for both programmes..61

9.3.1
Exclusively-practical electives
9.3.2
Level M electives
9.3.3
Level 3 electives
10. Programme Management Arrangements.87

Appendices:
1. Programme Specification for the Integrated Masters Programme......88
2. Regulations and Overall Credit Framework for Taught Postgraduate Programmes....93
3. Procedures for the Submission and Marking of Postgraduate Written Work at the Royal
College of Music 2007-2008: A Guide for Professors and Students..105
4. RCM Guide to the Presentation of Written Work...115
5. General Regulations for Students and Important Sources of Information119
6. Integrated Masters Programme Team Biographies129
Introduction
Welcome to the Royal College of Music Graduate School.
1.1
The Graduate School contains nine programmes:
Integrated Masters Programme in Performance for Instrumentalists and

Conductors (incorporating PGDip and MMus qualifications);
Integrated Masters Programme in Composition including courses in
Composition and Composition for Screen (incorporating PGDip and MMus
qualifications);
Integrated Masters Programme in Vocal Performance, (incorporating PGDip and
MMus qualifications);
Graduate Diploma in Singing;
PGDip Programme in Creative Leadership
Artist Diploma in Performance;
Artist Diploma in Opera
Doctor of Music;
Royal College of Music/Royal Holloway University of London Joint MMus in
Performance Studies
1.2
The School has been conceived as the conceptual home for RCM postgraduates with the idea
that, within its framework, the many diverse activities undertaken by advanced students should
all provide paths for exploring new ideas in performance, composition and other modes of
practice-based research. We believe that this is most easily achieved in an environment that
facilitates the exchange of knowledge and skills, underpinned by programmes that give you
flexibility and inspire you to work to your full potential.
1.3
The Graduate School has as one of its central precepts the idea of the informed musician and it
aims to nurture not only students ability but also their musical intelligence. It is based on the
premise that students at postgraduate level are best served by programmes that can be adjusted
to individual needs. Accordingly, you will find that you have several choices to make in the
devising of your course of study. This Handbook is specifically designed as your guide in that
process for the Integrated Masters Programme in Performance. Other programmes within
the Graduate School have their own designated handbooks. All may be obtained from the
Registry or from the RCM Intranet information resource.
1.4
The Masters Programme in Performance has a range of course options designed to enable you
to employ your time at the RCM in ways that you feel most appropriate. The Masters
Programme comprises the Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) in Performance and Advanced
Performance, the two-year Masters Degree in Advanced Performance (MMus) and the one year
Intensive Masters Degree in Advanced Performance (MMus). There are part-time patterns for all
but the Intensive MMus.
1.5
The Masters Programme in Performance contains a number of pathways:
Solo/Ensemble Recitalist
Orchestral Musician
Historical Performance
Accompanist/Repetiteur
Conductor
Chamber Ensemble Musician
1.6
These pathways operate as free-standing one- or two-year programmes of study. The two
exceptions to this are the Repetiteur strand of the Accompanist/Repetiteur pathway and the
Chamber Ensemble pathway that are only available within the PGDip in Advanced Performance
or the MMus in Advanced Performance.
1.7
All the pathways of the Masters Programme in Performance are practical in their focus and
designed to help you reach the highest standards. They also aim to help you to become selfsufficient and self-critical and seek to equip you for the profession as it is now and to prepare
you for the changes that you will undoubtedly encounter in your career. If you choose a pattern
of study that leads to the MMus qualification, the practical focus of your study will be
complemented by relevant scholarly aspects.
1.8
Students normally enter Year One of the Masters Programme, electing to work towards the
PGDip or MMus following a process of induction. You will have to apply to stay on for a second
year of study, regardless of which qualification you are working toward. Once your application is
lodged, you will also need to complete the first year successfully to progress to the second.
Further details of this process appear later in the Handbook. If you are now entering your second
year, you should now have a clear idea of how the programme works and what to expect from
the PGDip in Advanced Performance or the MMus in Advanced Performance.
1.9
At the end of each year of study, you will receive a transcript showing the units you have
successfully completed. If you complete sufficient units successfully, your transcript will record
you as gaining the PGDip in Performance after the first year and the PGDip in Advanced
Performance or the MMus in Advanced Performance after the second. For the Postgraduate
Diploma, the actual award title, PGDip, is therefore the same in the second year, but the
transcript will show not only the greater number of units gained after two years but also the fact
that at least one of those taken in the second year is specifically designated as being at the
Advanced Performance level.
1.10
You will be studying on one of the pathways available, as listed above in 1.5. Depending on
which pathway you are following, you may be taking a specialist unit as part of your core study.
In addition, you will take some form of Principal Study to which you may apply to add one, or in
some cases two, additional studies. These are called Second Studies in the case of more
substantial provision, Related Studies where the provision is less, and Electives.
1.11
If you are undertaking MMus study, you will find three MMus Elective units, (Academic
Portfolio, Lecture Recital and Critical Evaluation Project). Two of these must be successfully
completed to gain the degree, and one of which, the Academic Portfolio, is mandatory for all
MMus candidates. The Academic Portfolio is normally taken in the first year of study. If you are
on the Intensive MMus, you must take the Academic Portfolio, and either the Lecture recital or
the Critical Evaluation Project during your one calendar year of study.
1.12
Once your pathway-core units and necessary Principal Study elements have been decided upon,
you may have some space left to take further units to bring you up to your full quota (normally
120 credits for each year of the PGDip or the MMus and 180 credits for the one-year Intensive
MMus). If so, you will choose from a range of other Elective units. When choosing Electives for
second-year study, these are normally different from those taken in Year 1, though differentiated
content in specific Electives may fulfil this requirement.
1.13
At the back of the handbook are six appendices. The first of these is what is known as a
Programme Specification. It is a useful summary of the programme, written in a standard format
used by many UK universities, including conservatoires. You may find it a useful portrait of your
studies; when you have finished your studies, it will also enable you to show someone unfamiliar
with the programme what you had to do to get the award and what kinds of qualities they
should expect to find in you.
1.14
The second appendix contains the regulations by which the programme operates. You will
probably only refer to them for specific information for example, how your overall result is
calculated or what happens if you fail a unit. All the same, it is a good idea to look through them
at an early stage so that they are not completely unfamiliar when you may need them urgently.
1.15
In the sections of the main handbook that follow, you will find the aims and learning outcomes
of the programme stated, its structure set out and the arrangements for induction, progression
and assessment described. Then there are descriptions of each of the units from which the
programme is made up. The final section deals with the management of the programme.
1.16
Included in this last section are details of how feedback about the programme is obtained. Your
views as a student are very important in this and can help to influence how the programme
develops and improves. Therefore, please take the time to engage fully with the various feedback
processes which you will encounter during your studies; even if you may not benefit directly,
those that come after you will.
Programme Aims and Learning Outcomes
2.1
The Masters Programme has the following overall aims:
To provide advanced musical training at postgraduate level in which a fundamental emphasis

upon practical attainment is complemented by the encouragement of critical self-awareness, a
capacity for reflective insight and the ability to formulate discriminating musical judgements;
To offer to graduate musicians of proven ability, and with the potential for further development,
the opportunity to enhance their skills, broaden their knowledge of repertoire, hone their
interpretational and/or creative abilities and thereby to develop their musical talents, both in
terms of maturity and of individualisation;
To provide a training whose own internal standards and, where applicable, whose actual
characteristics mirror as closely as possible those demanded within the profession. In doing so to
seek the fullest involvement of musicians active within the profession, whether professors of the
College or visiting individuals and groups;
To acknowledge, and reflect wherever applicable, the leading trends in musical thinking within
the profession;
2.2
To produce musicians capable of contributing to the development of the profession and of

participating in its future shaping through their insights and understanding, as well as their
practical abilities.
The PGDip in Performance and Advanced Performance and MMus in Advanced Performance
have been designed to generate the learning outcomes listed below. These outcomes are noted
numerically in each of the unit descriptions of the Programme, with each unit generating its own
profile of end results:
Skills and other attributes
Practical Skills on successful completion of the programme, you should be able to:
(1) perform at a level expected of a front-rank professional musician in terms of technique,
musical interpretation and communication
(2) apply personal research, analysis, reflection and listening to the process of forming a musical
interpretation
(3) use a thorough understanding of the components of music and its underlying structures to
inform musical performances
(4) memorise and reconstruct sound
(5) conceive, manipulate and develop musical ideas and apply aesthetic/stylistic principles to
performance
Cognitive (thinking) skills on successful completion of the programme, you should be able to:
(1) research, synthesise and evaluate information from a variety of sources, most of them not
text-based (e.g. the oral testimony of teachers and fellow-performers, information carried in
the sound of performances and recordings)
(2) use advanced levels of reasoning and logic to analyse this material and form relevant
performing strategies
(3) exercise significant judgement and apply artistic/intellectual perspectives
(4) carry out extended projects
Transferable skills on successful completion of the programme, you should be able to:
(1) approach and solve problems in a flexible, open and creative way
(2) work as part of a team, often in a leadership role, taking spontaneous decisions and
responding to the decisions of others
(3) improvise, manage risk and cope with the unexpected
(4) be self-motivated and disciplined, and promote projects/performances with self-critical
awareness
(5) understand work regimes and professional protocols
(6) work independently
Knowledge and understanding - on successful completion of the programme, you should have
knowledge and understanding of:
(1) the full range of technical and expressive capabilities of your instrument
(2) the instruments repertoire and that of its period or modern equivalent and of commonly
related instruments, as appropriate
(3) how to master less familiar repertoires and the performing conventions associated with
them
(4) the current state and likely direction of development of the profession, the range of
competencies needed to enter it and the ways in which your skills may be continuously
enhanced to keep pace with rising challenges in a developing career
8
Formatted: Bullets and

Numbering
2.3
These learning outcomes are derived from the standard Credit and HE Qualifications Guidelines
for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and are taken as applying to all units and pathways
within the Masters Programme. However, students obtaining the PGDip in Advanced
Performance or the MMus in Advanced Performance will have deepened their skills and
knowledge in their Principal Study area and broadened them in relation to the range of other
units taken.
2.4
As noted in 2.2, the unit descriptions later in this handbook refer back to these listed learning
outcomes for each unit and attempt to show how they contribute to the overall learning
outcomes of the programme. Descriptions for Principal Study show how the second-year units
build upon their equivalents in the first year, leading to the higher, Advanced Performance level
for the award.
Course Structure
3.1
Overall structure:
The overall structure of the courses has already been outlined in the introduction. This section
provides greater detail about how each year of study is built up, including diagrams of the
various units and how they may be put together.
3.2
The Masters Programme contains courses leading to the award of either a Postgraduate
Diploma (PGDip) or a Master of Music (MMus). The title of the award received depends upon
the pattern of units studied. Students who choose entirely practical units receive a PGDip and
those who include within their study certain key academic units receive the MMus. In general,
the first year of the programme is designated as being at the Performance level and the second
at the Advanced Performance level. Students on the Intensive MMus tackle units at Advanced
Performance level as part of a concentrated 12-month programme. Although two separate
courses, the PGDip in Performance and Advanced Performance function as a pair, the course in
Advanced Performance following on from that in Performance. The programme and its
constituent courses can be represented at its simplest level by the following diagram:
Masters Programme
Routes
SeptJune
1
PGDip in
Performance
JulyAug
SeptJune
2a
PGDip in
Performance
2b
PGDip in
Performance
(including
academic unit)
3
4
Intensive
PGDip in
MMus in
Performance
Advanced
(not including
Performance
academic
(including two
unit)
academic units)
PGDip in
Advanced
Performance
MMus in
Advanced
Performance
(including
further
academic unit)
Intensive
MMus in
Advanced
Performance
(including
two academic
units)
PGDip in
Advanced
Performance
MMus in
Advanced
Performance
JulyAug
Final
Award
Title
PGDip in
Performance
MMus in
Advanced
Performance
MMus in
Advanced
Performance
3.3
Unit structure:
All the courses within the Programme are built from a range of units, with many units shared
amongst them. These units are classified as Core Units, Principal Study Units and Elective Units.
Your choice of Core Units will determine the award title you receive and the specialist pathway
on which you will be studying. In particular, deciding whether or not you take the academic
units referred to in the diagram above (Academic Portfolio and Lecture Recital or Critical
Evaluation Project) will determine whether your course of study will be for an MMus or PGDip.
For this reason, these units are referred to as MMus Core Units, as opposed to the other type of
core unit Pathway Core Units.
3.4
Units are built up into patterns of study that normally occupy the period from September to
June (10 months) and correspond to 120 credits. The exception to this is the pattern for the
Intensive Masters, which lasts 12 months from September to September and contains 180
credits. The four routes shown in the diagram above are all built from just three basic patterns of
annual full-time study:
Pattern A:
Pattern B:
Pattern C:
3.5
Performance Level
Advanced Performance Level
Advanced Performance Level
120 credits
120 credits
180 credits
Adding some detail to the diagramme above, the various routes through the programme can be
shown in conjunction with the types of units which make them up, the total length of study and
number of credits accumulated and patterns of annual study from which they are assembled.
This expanded diagramme is shown on the next page:
10
Masters Programme in Performance

Overview showing the basic routes through the programme leading to PGDip or MMus qualifications
Masters Programme
Routes
SeptJune
1
Core
unit(s)
(need not
include
Academic
Portfolio)
Principal
Study unit at
Performance
level
2a
Elective
units
2b
Core
unit(s)
(need not
include
Academic
Portfolio)
Principal
Study unit
at Performance
level
Elective
units
Core
unit(s)
(must
include
Academic
Portfolio)
Principal
Study unit
at Performance
level
Elective
units
Core
unit(s)
(need not
include
any MMus
core unit)
Principal
Study unit
at
Advanced
Performance
level
Elective
units
Core
unit(s)
(must
include an
MMus
core unit)
Principal
Study unit
at
Advanced
Performance
level
Elective
units
July-Aug
SeptJune
Core
unit(s)
(must
include
Academic
Portfolio
plus one
further
MMus
core unit)
Principal
Study unit at
Advanced
Performance
level
4
Elective
units
July-Aug
Length
of study
Credits
Pattern
Type
Final
Award
Title
Core
unit(s)
(not
including
Academic
Portfolio)
Principal
Study unit at
Performance
level
Elective
units
Core
unit(s)
(must
include
Academic
Portfolio
plus one
further
MMus
core unit)
Principal
Study unit at
Advanced
Performance
level
Elective
units
I year (10 months)
2 years (22 months)
2 years (22 months)
1 year (12 months)
2 years (24 months)
120 Credits at level M
Pattern A
Patterns A + B
Patterns A + B
Pattern C
Patterns A + C
PGDip in
Performance
PGDip in
Advanced Performance
MMus in
MMus in
MMus in
11
3.6
Pathways:
The pathway within which a student studies is usually determined by his or her Principal
Study; for example, a student whose Principal Study is on a period instrument will take the
Pathway Core Unit which defines them as being on the Historical Performance pathway.
The two pathways that share Principal Study instruments are the Solo/Ensemble Recitalist
and the Orchestral Musician pathways. Students of instruments which feature in the
modern orchestra choose between these two pathways according to whether or not they
wish to give particular emphasis to orchestral performance. The full list of pathways
available across the two levels of the programme is as follows:
Performance level
Orchestral Musician
Accompanist
Conductor
Advanced Performance level

Orchestral Musician
Conductor
Chamber Ensemble (taken as a group)
3.7
Related or Second Study:

Because students may or may not elect to take Related or Second Studies, these are
grouped with the so-called Elective units of the programme. When taken in its PGDip
form, every pathway offers scope for students to elect to undertake Related or Second
Study. The Solo/Ensemble pathway retains some of these opportunities even in its MMus
form.
3.8
Correspondingly, in the Solo/Ensemble pathway in its PGDip version, there is even scope
for combining two of these studies in addition to the Principal Study. Such combinations
are only used where the Principal Study instrument has two recognised associated
instruments and where an individual professional musician might be expected to be
proficient on all three. Examples of this are most common among woodwind instruments
(e.g. Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Eb Clarinet; Flute, Piccolo, Baroque Flute) and, to a slightly
lesser extent, brass instruments (e.g. Trumpet, Natural Trumpet, Cornet; Trombone, Bass
Trombone, Sackbut). Triple combinations are not usually encouraged among string
instruments and are not normally available at all to Principal Study pianists.
3.9
Because one of the primary goals of the entire Masters programme is to achieve the
highest possible standard in the Principal Study, students may only select a Second Study
option if their mark in the Principal Study at audition is at least 60%. Similarly, students
wishing to take a Second Study in Year 2 must achieve at least 60% in their Principal Study
repertoire recital at the end of the year. For triple combinations, the Principal Study mark
must be at least 65%. In either case, the level already achieved in the proposed Second
Study must also be high enough to justify the time and attention allocated to it. This
normally means an audition or examination mark of 60%.
3.10
Related Study may be chosen without any of these restrictions, provided that it forms part
of one of the permitted patterns. None the less, students who wish to undertake Related
Study must first consult the appropriate Head of Faculty. The following table summarises
these requirements:
12
Second Study
permissible
Principal Study less than 60%
Principal Study 60%-64%;
Second Study less than 60%
Principal Study 60%-64%;
Second Study 60%+
Principal Study 65%+;
Second Study less than 60%
Principal Study 65%+;
Second Study 60%+
3.11
8
8
8
8
To summarise, all units are grouped into one of three overall categories, the first of these,
the Core Units, being subdivided into MMus Core and Pathway Core Units. Students
choosing their units need to do so by moving in sequence through these categories.
1a MMus Core units
1b Pathway Core units
2
3
3.12
Triple combination
permissible
Principal Study
units
Elective units
Unit Choice Steps

If one of these (two in Intensive Masters) is selected, the
pattern of studies will lead to the MMus award. If none is
selected, they will lead to a PGDip.
There is a Pathway Core unit for every pathway apart from
the Solo/Ensemble Recitalist. Students wishing to follow this
pathway move straight to step 2
All students must choose one of the four different lengths of
Principal Study unit
Include Related and Second Study units (see above) and a
range of other theoretical and practical units. In some cases,
students may take a Pathway Core unit from another
pathway as an elective. After a student has made choices in
categories 1,2 and 3, there may be no spare credits for elective
units (see 3.12 below)
Unit selection restrictions:

Students may broadly choose units as they wish within the programme. However, there
are some overall restrictions that must be followed. These are as follows:
Units for each year of the PGDip or MMus must normally be selected such that they
have a total credit value of neither more nor less than 120 (but see 3.14 below)
Units for the Intensive MMus must be selected such that they have a total credit value
of neither more nor less than 180
The maximum amount of 1-to-1 practical tuition (Principal, Second and/or Related
Study) which may be selected is 120 minutes per week
Units at Advanced Performance level may only be selected in the second year of study
or in the Intensive MMus
Related Study units are available in Year Two, but normally at Advanced level only.
Where there are compelling reasons why a student did not take a Related Study in
Year 1 and where it can be argued that doing so for just one year prior to entry to the
profession would be valuable, a student may be permitted to take a Related Study at
this stage, using one of the patterns for core units from Year 1 of the pathway
13
Units already taken in Year One may then be re-taken in Year Two but only if the
content of the unit is radically different. The choice of a repeated unit must be
authorised by the Head of Graduate School at the Induction sign-up stage. Pathway
Core units may be taken in two successive years because the repertoire for these is
cycled so as to avoid repetition from one year to the next
The MMus Core unit to be taken in Year One of the two-year MMus is the Academic
Portfolio unit
3.13
Elective units include units at Level 3 that form part of the Colleges BMus (Hons)
programme that may be taken as part of the PGDip or MMus.
3.14
Where Level 3 units are chosen, they must not amount to more than 25% of the credits
taken. This means that, for 120-credit courses, they must not amount to more than 30
credits and, for the 180-credit Intensive course, not more than 45 credits. Because the Level
3 units are 40-credits units, this means that the overall number of credits when they are
chosen as part of a 120-credit course must rise to 130 (i.e. with 90 Level M credits featuring
among the minimum of 120 required for the award). No such adjustment is required for
the 180-credit Intensive course.
3.15
On the next three pages there are diagrams showing the available units within each of the
three pattern types which were described in 3.4 and represented in the diagram at 3.5. In
each case, the Routes to which this pattern contributes are indicated. The next three pages
show the same patterns in what we hope may be a more accessible version. In Section 8,
unit descriptions are provided for each of the units contained in these diagrams.
14
Pattern A :
MMus Year One/PGDip in Performance, one year(10 months), 120 credits
Represents whole of Route 1 and first year of Routes 2a, 2b and 4
MMus Core Unit
(Level M)
Pathway Core Unit

(Level M)
Academic
Portfolio
30 credits
Orchestral Performance
(Orchestral Pathway)
30 credits
(Those electing to
do a PGDip only
will not have to
take an MMus Core
Unit).
(Historical Performance
Pathway)
30 credits
Accompaniment
(Accompanist Pathway)
30 credits
Conducting
(Conductor Pathway)
50 credits
(Solo/Ensemble Pathway
candidates do not take a
Pathway Core Unit).
Principal Study Unit

(Level M)
Principal Study 1
(Performance level)
(90 min/week)
80 credits
Principal Study 2
(Performance level)
(75 min/week)
70 credits
Principal Study 3
(Performance level)
(60 min/week)
60 credits
Principal Study 4
(Performance level)
(45 min/week)
40 credits
Elective Unit(s) (Level M

and/or 3)
Level M
Major Second Study
(45 min/week)
40 credits
Minor Second Study
(30 min/week)
30 credits
Related Study
(15 min/week)
20 credits
Concerto Competition *
10 credits
Contemporary Music in Action
10 credits
Continuo
10 credits
Historical Performance *
10, 20 or 30 credits
Performance Case History
10 credits
Professional skills
10 credits
Recital Accompaniment *
10 credits
Songwriting and Pop Music
Production
Sources of Performance History
10 credits
* when not taken as part of
Pathway Core or Principal Study
Level 3
Alexander Technique
40 credits
Chamber Music
40 credits
Choral Singing
20 credits
Composition
40 credits
Conducting
40 credits
Duo Performance
40 credits
Orchestration & Arrangement
40 credits
Total of 120 credits

Pathway Core units plus Principal Study units may not
add up to more than 100 credits
Total 1-to-1 provision (Principal Study unit plus Second and/or
Related Study units) may not add up to more than 2
hours/week)
Level 3 Units taken as electives
may only contribute 30 credits
(25%) to the 120 credits of the
PGDip. Therefore total credits
when these are chosen will be 130
15
Pattern B:
MMus Year Two/PGDip in Advanced Performance, one year (10 months), 120 credits.
Represents second year of Routes 2a and 2b
MMus Core Unit
(Level M)
Lecture Recital
OR
Critical Evaluation
Project
30 Credits
(Those electing to do a
PGDip only will not
have to take an MMus
Core Unit).
Pathway Core Unit (Level

M)
30 credits
Pathway)
30 credits
Advanced Principal Study

Unit (Level M)
Principal Study 1
(Advanced Performance
level)
(90 min/week)
80 credits
Accompaniment
30 credits
Principal Study 2
level)
(75 min/week)
70 credits
Orchestral or Choral
Conducting
(Advanced Conductor
Pathway)
50 credits
Principal Study 3
level)
(60 min/week)
60 credits
Repetiteur Experience
(Repetiteur Training
Pathway)
30 credits
Principal Study 4
level)
(45 min/week)
40 credits
Chamber Music (Group

Chamber Music Pathway)
50 credits
Pathway Core Unit).
Elective Unit(s) (Level M and/or 3)

Level M
Major Second Study
(45 min/week)
40 credits
Minor Second Study
(30 min/week)
30 credits
Related Study
(15 min/week)
20 credits
10 credits
10 credits
Continuo
10 credits
10 credits
Professional skills
10 credits
10 credits
Production
10 credits
Studio Experience
10 credits
* when not taken as part of Pathway
Core or Principal Study
Level 3
Alexander Technique
40 credits
Chamber Music
40 credits
Choral Singing
20 credits
Composition
40 credits
Conducting
40 credits
Duo Performance
40 credits
40 credits

Pathway Core units plus Principal Study units may not add
up to more than 100 credits
Total 1-to-1 provision (Principal Study unit plus Second and/or
Related Study units) may not add up to more than 2 hours/week)
Level 3 Units taken as electives may
only contribute 30 credits (25%) to
the 120 credits of the PGDip.
Therefore total credits when these
are chosen will be 130
16
Pattern C:
Intensive MMus in Advanced Performance, one year (12 months)
Represents whole of Route 3 and second year of Route 4
MMus Core Unit
(Level M)
Academic Portfolio
30 credits
Lecture Recital
OR Critical
Evaluation Project
30 Credits
Pathway Core Unit (Level

M)
30 credits
Pathway)
30 credits
Accompaniment
30 credits
Orchestral or Choral
Conducting
(Conductor Pathway)
50 credits
Pathway Core Unit).
Advanced Principal
Study Unit (Level M)
Principal Study 1
level)
(90 min/week)
80 credits
Principal Study 2
level)
(75 min/week)
70 credits
Principal Study 3
level)
(60 min/week)
60 credits
Principal Study 4
level)
(45 min/week)
40 credits
Elective Unit(s) (Level M and/or

3)
Level M
Major Second Study
(45 min/week)
40 credits
Minor Second Study
(30 min/week)
30 credits
Related Study
(15 min/week)
20 credits
10 credits
10 credits
Continuo
10 credits
10 credits
Professional skills
10 credits
10 credits
Production
10 credits
Studio Experience
10 credits
* when not taken as part of Pathway
Core or Principal Study
Level 3
Alexander Technique
40 credits
Chamber Music
40 credits
Choral Singing
20 credits
Composition
40 credits
Conducting
40 credits
Duo Performance
40 credits
40 credits

Pathway Core units plus Principal Study units may not
add up to more than 100 credits
Total 1-to-1 provision (Principal Study unit plus Second
and/or Related Study units) may not add up to more than 2
hours/week)
Level 3 Units taken as electives
may only contribute 45 credits
(25%) to the 180 credits total.
17
3.16
Completing an MMus by taking the second MMus Core Unit separately

Because it integrates the practical, PGDip, elements of postgraduate provision with those
specifically related to MMus study the MMus Core units - the Integrated Masters is able
to accommodate to a certain extent students who wish to change emphasis during the
course of their studies from PGDip to MMus or vice-versa.
If a student begins by focussing only on the practical elements, they will arrive at the end of
the first year without having taken the normal first-year MMus Core Unit, the Academic
Portfolio. This may be part of a pre-planned decision to focus first on the practical and
then turn to the theoretical. Alternatively, a student who had not previously been
interested in a Masters degree might at this point decide that they do, after all, wish to
work towards the MMus qualification. In either case, there are two ways in which the
student may proceed.
The first option is to take the Intensive version of the MMus in their second year ie to do
both MMus Core Units along with Principal Study Advanced Performance Level and
additional units adding up to 180 credits. Entry to the Intensive MMus is subject to the
approval of the Head of Graduate School and the course carries a higher fee because of the
extra units taken.
Where the Intensive option does not seem appropriate, the alternative route to the MMus
qualification consists of taking the Academic Portfolio as part of the pattern of Year-Two
units and then taking the second MMus Core Unit separately, after full-time study at the
College has been completed. In this scheme, the student initially graduates with a PGDip in
Advanced Performance and then converts this qualification into the MMus in Advanced
Performance at such point as they successfully complete the remaining MMus Core unit.
Because it is taken on its own and after full-time study has ceased, the remaining MMus
Core unit may be taken at a distance, attending the College only for stipulated parts of the
delivery of the unit chosen Lecture Recital or Critical Evaluation Project. If you are a
student who chooses to study at a distance in this way, everything will be done to make
your learning experience and what is required of you equivalent to the situation of
students taking the unit as part of their full-time study. There are some special aspects and
safeguards that therefore need to be observed. These are outlined in the paragraphs that
follow.
When you start your study, you will be given a clear schedule for the delivery of written
work, where appropriate, and for the assessment of your work. The Head, or Deputy Head,
of Graduate School will also explain to you what is expected from you as a distance learner,
especially the level of autonomy you will need to demonstrate. This will be set out in
writing for further clarity.
If you are going to be sending and/or receiving material by email or post, you must agree
with your supervisor a method that is secure and reliable and a means of confirming safe
receipt. You must also agree contingency plans in case the agreed method of delivery
should fail for any reason.
You will receive a timetable of learning activities taking place at the College which you
would be welcome to attend, if in London at that time. This timetable would also include
any web-based conferences or other e-learning activities taking place at specific times
which you might access.
18
You should discuss with your supervisor the learning resources that may be available to
you where you are based and those of the RCM that may be available to you remotely.
Both of you should be confident that your study needs will be met by some combination
of these.
Your supervisor will be available for contact by agreed means - email, telephone, or post and will be able to give you constructive feedback within a reasonable timescale on your
academic performance, and authoritative guidance on your academic progression.
Where appropriate, you will be offered opportunities to participate in student-student

discussions about the programme, both to facilitate collaborative learning and to enable
you to participate in the quality assurance of the programme. You will also be given
appropriate opportunities to provide formal feedback on your experience of the unit
when delivered in this way.
The Head of Graduate School will ensure that work you submit for formal assessment is
properly attributed to you. For your part, you will be required to sign the Colleges normal
declarations confirming that any material you submit to be assessed is your own original
work.
The educational aims and intended learning outcomes of the MMus Core Unit when
delivered at a distance, and its associated study materials, will be subject to the Colleges
usual approval, monitoring and review processes.
Integrated Masters Programme Part-time option
4.1
The Integrated Masters Programme already offers students the choice of studying for the
MMus over 12 months (Intensive Programme) or 2 academic years. In this sense, those
students attracted to part-time study as a means of spreading out the timescale over
which they need to complete the various elements of the course already have this option
built into the structure. However, the 2-year programme is still predicated on students
being able to devote themselves to their studies full time. It also carries a fee that is
commensurate with this.
4.2
Some students may not be able to afford to study full-time, or others may wish to balance
studies with existing commitments. For these students, a part-time option gives the
possibility of combining study and other activities, because they are taking fewer lessons
and classes per year. This also means that their annual costs are less than those for full-time
students. With this in mind, the College has designed a part-time configuration for its 2year programme. Rather than making this literally half-time, it has been found more
practical to configure the elements over 3 years, producing two-thirds of full-time course.
4.3
Although this configuration reduces the overall level of weekly commitment and lowers
the annual fee, the individual units taken are delivered identically as they would be to fulltime students and, pro rata, are charged at the same level.
Parameters for part-time study:

4.4
Students take units totalling 80 credits in each of the three years of study. This totals 240
credits the same as the 2-year full-time course.
19
4.5
Non-Principal Study units totalling at least 30 credits must be taken in at least two of the
three years.
4.6
A Principal Study unit should normally be taken in each year. The first Principal Study unit
must be at Performance level; the second Principal Study unit is taken in the third year at
the full-time weekly lesson allocation and must be at Advanced Performance Level.
4.7
The first Principal Study unit is assessed by a diagnostic examination at the end of the first
year and by the examination pattern laid out in the syllabus at the end of the second year.
The credits associated with the Principal Study type chosen (1, 2 or 3) are apportioned
equally between the two years (for PS 2, the allocation is 30 credits to Year 1 and 40 to
Year 2). They are awarded on successful completion of the examination at the end of the
second year. For this reason, the diagnostic exam, although it does not affect the final mark
gained, is important because it will be used to judge whether it is in the students interests
to proceed to the second year of study.
4.8
Students wishing to achieve the MMus qualification must take the Academic Portfolio
unit in their first year of study and must take either the Lecture Recital or the Critical
Evaluation Project in one of the other two years.
4.9
Typical plans of part-time study for an MMus student:
Year
MMus Core unit
Academic
Portfolio
(30 credits)
Lecture Recital/
Critical Evaluation
Project
(30 credits)
PS 1 Performance Level
(40 credits allocated to Year
1)
2)
3
not applicable
PS 1 Advanced Performance
Level
(80 credits)
Year
MMus Core unit
Academic
Portfolio
(30 credits)
Lecture Recital/
Critical Evaluation
Project
(30 credits)
1)
2)
3
n/a
PS 2 Advanced Performance
Level
(70 credits)
20
Other
units
10 credits
10 credits
n/a
Other
units
20 credits
10 credits
10 Credits
Credits
80
(40 awarded at end of
year)
80
year including remaining
40 from Year 1)
80
Credits
80
year)
80
30 from Year 1)
80
Year
MMus Core unit
1
Academic Portfolio
(30 credits)
2
Lecture Recital/ Critical

Evaluation Project
(30 credits)
3
n/a

(30 credits allocated to
Year 1)
(40 credits allocated to
Year 2)
PS 3 Advanced
Performance Level
(80 credits)
Other units
10 credits
10 credits
Credits
80
year)
80
30 from Year 1)
80
20 credits
5.
Postgraduate Induction and starting the Programme:
5.1
All Postgraduate students, new and returning, are urged to make the most of the RCM
Postgraduate Induction.
5.2
In order to help new students to become full participants in College life, and to help all
students on the Integrated Masters Programme to make the best possible course choices
for the year, the first term will begin with a six-week period of Induction. During this time,
students will be able to attend a series of lectures providing a grounding for the years
work, receive advice about designing the course of study from Pathway Leaders and the
Head of Graduate School, meet with Faculty Heads and Pathway Leaders for orientation
and practical activities, hear Lunchtime Concerts which will show what returning students
in both Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes have accomplished in their
Principal Study work in the first year, learn about RCM resources such as the Woodhouse
Centre and engage in social activities run by the RCM Student Association.
5.3
The Induction Lecture Series is important for all students in the instruction provided for
writing of Programme Notes and delivery of spoken introductions to performances; the
completion and delivery of one or the other of these is now an obligatory Principal Study
performance requirement for all PGDip and MMus candidates. The Induction Lecture
Series is also intended to help those students who are undecided about the PGDip or
MMus option, by providing a sense of the issues that are current in practice-based
scholarship, working with the ideas that emerge in discussion, debate and study and
contextualising these through performance.
5.4
The Induction Lecture Series for Performers and Composers will be organised in the
following way:
AUTUMN TERM 2007
Induction Lecture Series for Instrumentalists, Conductors, Singers, Composers and
Screen Composers
Mondays 6-7.30pm and Thursdays 11.30am-1pm, Recital Hall, commencing Monday 17
September 2007
LIBRARY SEMINAR (please sign-up for one session only)
Monday 17 Sept. 2008: 4.30-5.30pm
Monday 17 Sept. 2008
The Integrated Masters Programme (incl. Using the Internet)
Darla Crispin, Ingrid Pearson, Ivan Hewett
21

Thursday 20 Sept. 2008: 10.20-11.20am
Thursday 20 Sept. 2008
Writers Workshop: Musicians and Research - Some Whys and Hows
Natasha Loges

Monday 24 Sept. 2008: 4.30-5.30pm
Monday 24 Sept. 2008
The Unanswered Question: Practice-based Research
Ivan Hewett and William Mival

Thursday 27 Sept. 2008: 10.20-11.20am
Thursday 27 Sept. 2008
Rights / Studio Visit
Michael McEvoy and Augustos Psillas?

Monday 1 Oct. 2008: 4.30-5.30pm
Monday 1 Oct. 2008
Tools of the Trade I: Research Craft in Music
Meredith McFarlane

Thursday 4 Oct. 2008: 10.20-11.20am
Thursday 4 Oct. 2008
Spoken Introductions (incl. Making your Pitch)
Ingrid Pearson and Michael McEvoy
Monday 8 Oct. 2008

Tools of the Trade II: Research Resources in Music
Meredith McFarlane and CPH (Paul Banks and Jenny Nex)

Programme Notes
Meredith McFarlane
Monday 15 Oct. 2008

Authority in Source Materials
Ingrid Pearson

Diagnostic Portfolio (and assignment) Clinic
Darla Crispin and Ingrid Pearson
Diagnostic Portfolio Due: Friday 19 October 2008, 1.00pm

NO LECTURES: P&R Week 22 Oct. 2008 + 25 Oct. 2008
Thursday 25 October Diagnostic Portfolio Marking Session
Autumn Lecture Series for Instrumentalists, Conductors, Composers and Screen
Composers
Interdisciplinary Perspectives (combined cohort of composition and performance students)
Monday 29 Oct. 2008

Perspectives and Approaches in Music Psychology
Aaron Williamon
22
Thursday 1 Nov. 2008

Writing about Music: Process and Product
Ingrid Pearson
Monday 5 Nov. 2008

Writing in Context
Ivan Hewett

Concepts of Notation I
Jeremy Cox
Monday 12 Nov. 2008

Concepts of Notation II
Jeremy Cox

Improvisation Workshop
Stephen Preston
Monday 19 Nov. 2008

Building a Coherent Concert Programme
Ivan Hewett

A Few Thoughts about Music Analysis
Darla Crispin
Monday 26 Nov. 2008

Workshop
Michael McEvoy

Objectivity and Collaboration: In Each Others Shoes
Michael McEvoy
Assignment One Due: Friday 30 November, 1.00pm

(Compulsory Extended Programme Note Assignment)
In the Spring and Summer terms, lectures become specifically performer-focussed, and
may include external guest speakers. Academic Portfolio assignments will also be
generated from these discipline-specific lectures, for inclusion in the end of year Academic
Portfolio.
5.5
All students on the Masters Programme, whether opting for the PGDip of MMus, are
urged to attend this series, as this will comprise the formal training for the required
programmes notes or spoken introductions for Repertoire Recitals.
5.6
Having completed the Induction, students will be required to complete a Masters

Programme Declaration form, to be returned to the Registry Programmes Team by the last
day of Planning & Review Week of Term 1. This form will confirm the choice of
qualification sought, the Pathway selected, the type of Principal Study selected, and the
choice of Electives. The form must be signed by the Head of Graduate School and the
Pathway Leader. Individual sessions offering advice on the completion of the form will be
provided.
23
Progression:
6.1
Students enrolled upon the PGDip in Performance must inform the Registry by November
of their first term if they wish to stay on for a second year, progressing to the PGDip or
MMus in Advanced Performance, through filling out a designated form of notification. On
submitting this notification, they are given a conditional offer of a place. To fulfil the
conditions of this conditional offer, they must successfully complete the PGDip in
Performance. If they do so with a mark in the Principal Study unit of 60% or above, their
place will be confirmed; if their Principal Study mark is between 50% (the pass mark) and
59%, they will be offered a reserve place in their chosen course.
6.2
Immediately after the June Board of Examiners, when results for the PGDip in Performance
are known, students in the 50-59% category are considered and a decision reached upon
whether they can be given a confirmed place or must remain on the reserve list. The
students are then informed of their progression outcome along with their results for the
PGDip in Performance. As a result, some students with Principal Study marks of 50-59%
will nevertheless be given confirmed places straight away. For those who are placed on a
reserve list, a final decision will be made by the second week in July.
6.3
Students wishing to progress who fail a unit or who have to defer assessment in a unit until
September must pass the unit before the start of the new academic year. Provided that
they do pass, they are then treated as above. Those with a mark of 60% or over in the
Principal Study will have their place for the Advanced Performance year confirmed
immediately; those with a mark between 50% and 59% will be offered a reserve place. This
place will be confirmed or otherwise as soon as possible, and by Monday of Induction
Week at the latest, so as to permit the student to register for the PGDip/MMus in
Advanced Performance in the normal way if successful.
6.4
The Regulations at Appendix 2 contain further statements about progression, deferred

assessments and reassessments.
7.
Assessment
7.1
Each unit of the Masters Programme has its own assessment element associated with it. In
each case, the mode of assessment is tailored to the activity with which the unit is
concerned. The majority of units are assessed by a single assessment event.
7.2
Practical assessments:
Where units are of a practical nature, assessments also take the form of practically-based
events. These range from specially-organised repertoire examinations to public
performance events at which an examining panel is present. In the latter case, normal
performance conditions and normal expectations of performance presentation apply.
These same conditions are replicated as closely as possible in the various repertoire
examinations that take place.
7.3
Written assessments:
Some units employ written submissions for their assessed component. These may take the
form of portfolios or a single extended assignment. The Performance Case History unit is
assessed by a written submission for which a template is available to students in electronic
format.
24
7.4
Personal Development Plans (PDPs)

All students are required to keep their own record of composition activity, including
performances of their compositions, which is submitted at the end of the academic year.
This Performance Profile document is contained with the Personal Development Plan,
which is kept by each student throughout the year. Students must pass the Performance
Profile and submit the completed PDP to gain their qualification.
7.5
Assessment teams and panels:

Written assessments usually have two markers. Major practical assessments usually have at
least three examiners, a generalist Chair and two specialists. Usually one of the two
specialists is internal and one external. Where this is not the case, two external specialists
are employed.
7.6
External Examiners:
The Masters Programme in Performance shares two External Examiners with the Masters
Programme in Vocal Performance. These External Examiners moderate the work of the
examining panels, rather than participating directly in the examining process.
7.7
Masters Programme in Performance Board of Examiners:

Results are ratified, and any necessary moderating adjustments made by the Masters
Programme in Performance Board of Examiners. This meets in full session twice a year, in
June for the main set of results and in September to consider deferred assessments, reassessments and October for assessments submitted at the end of the Intensive Masters.
In addition to these meetings, there are various interim and internal meetings of the Board
to consider interim results and students proposals for various elements of the course.
7.8
A students result in each unit is weighted according to the credit volume of the unit and
the results combined to arrive at an overall mark. Where a 40-credit Level 3 unit has been
taken as part of a 120-credit course, all the available Level M credits (90) are calculated first
and the mark for the Level 3 unit is weighted by the number of credits left out of 120 (i.e.
30). The surplus credits show on the students transcript but do not influence the overall
mark.
7.9
The Colleges Regulations and Overall Credit Framework for Taught Postgraduate
Programmes (see Appendix 2) describe the three routes by which a student may obtain an
overall Distinction. Essentially, they are as follows:
An aggregate mark of 70% or above

A mark of 70% or above in 75% of the credits for the award
A mark of 70% or above in 50% of the credits for the award and an overall aggregate
mark of at least 68%
25
Unit Descriptions
8.1
On the pages that follow are unit descriptions for each of the units that make up the
PGDip in Performance, the PGDip in Advanced Performance, the MMus in Advanced
Performance and the Intensive MMus in Advanced Performance. They are set out in the
following order:
Year 1 Performance Level Units

" MMus Core Unit
" Pathway Core units
Year 2/Intensive Programme Advanced Performance Level Units

" MMus Core Unit
" Pathway Core units
" Principal Study Units
Elective units for both programmes

Exclusively practical electives
Level M electives
Level 3 electives
8.2
Where a unit description has been provided before, it is cross-referenced, rather than being
repeated.
8.3
Each unit description begins with statistics about the unit. It then provides brief details of
unit objectives and learning outcomes, content and assessment. Unit descriptions are
deliberately broad in their description of content. The information that they contain is
supplemented, where appropriate, by syllabus booklets that enable the detail of the unit
content and, for 1-to-1 practical units, the examination requirements (repertoire, etc) to
be varied from year to year within the parameters defined by the unit description.
26
Masters Programme Unit Descriptions

Contents
9.1
9.1.1
MMus Core Unit
9.1.2
Pathway Core Units
9.1.3
Principal Study Units
9.2
9.2.1
MMus Core Units
9.2.2
Advanced Principal Study Units
9.3
Elective Units
9.3.1
Exclusively-practical electives
9.3.2
Level M electives
9.3.3
Level 3 electives
27
9.1
9.1.1
MMus Core Unit

If you are planning to study for an MMus over two years you will select this MMus core
unit as part of your first years study. Similarly, if you are taking the Intensive Masters
course, you will take this unit along with one of the two Advanced Performance Level
MMus core units.
The Performance Level MMus core unit takes the form of a Lecture Series and is assessed
through the submission of an Academic Portfolio. Details of the unit are given in the Unit
Description which follows.
The first five weeks of study on this unit take the form of an Induction Course. The course
consists of three weeks containing two lectures per week, tutorial sign ups and an initial
diagnostic task requirement to be submitted by Friday of the fifth week.
All first year students are encouraged to attend at least this element, whether or not they
have selected this MMus core unit. The induction course addresses issues such as the
preparation of programme notes or spoken introductions for recitals tasks that all
students on the Masters programme will need to fulfil. Taking the induction course may
also help you to decide whether a programme of study leading to the MMus is right for
you or whether a PGDip would be more appropriate. You may alter your selection of units
at any time up to the Planning & Review week of the Autumn Term. All students receive
counselling about continuing with MMus core unit choices around the sixth week of the
Autumn Term.
The shape of the lecture series across the remainder of the academic year consists of topicbased, twice weekly lectures rounded off by tutorial sign ups on the essay topics. In the
Spring Term, some of your weekly sessions will consist of attending sessions at which
Advanced Performance level students deliver the Lecture Recitals which they are preparing
for assessment. If you are studying on the Intensive Masters and have selected the Lecture
Recital as your Advanced Performance level MMus core unit, you yourself will actually be
giving one of these presentations.
28
ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO
Unit Leader: MMus Pathway Leader
Level
M
Credit Rating
30
Delivery
6-week induction phase of lectures in study/research

skills, then joint lectures with Composers for
remainder of 1st term. Term 2 and first 6 weeks of
Term 3, lectures for both composition pathways.
Tutorial support by group sessions, e-mail and
appointment.
Core/Elective
MMus Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M3A01
Unit objectives and learning outcomes

Successful completion of this unit means that you will have:
enhanced your research and writing skills, broadened your knowledge of repertoire, honed your
interpretational abilities, and related these to specific issues in music scholarship
enriched your understanding of musical structure and style and of the ways in which these
impinge upon the formation of a performance
developed your identity as an informed performer
deepened your awareness of the current state of the profession and developed your contacts
with your future professional colleagues.
This unit contributes to the following learning outcomes of the programme (see programme
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
2, 3 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
Participation in MMus Lecture series

group tutorial support on MMus Academic Portfolio projects
independent research to support all these activities
auditing of Lecture Recital rehearsal events and feedback sessions.
Method of assessment
Satisfactory completion of Diagnostic Portfolio at end of induction course

Completion of minimum 4 assignments generated from the MMus Lecture Series
Completion of programme notes for the Principal Study Recital
Students choose three of the four completed assignments to be submitted as an Academic
Portfolio, together with programme notes for the Principal Study Recital
30 credits
See also Appendix 3: General Procedures for the Submission and Marking of Postgraduate Written
Work and Appendix 4: RCM Guide to Presentation of Written work for further guidance on the
preparation, submission and assessment of this unit. Students will also be supplied with a Syllabus at
the beginning of the academic year.
29
9.1.2
Pathway Core Units

These units have been specially designed to provide opportunities for advanced study,
usually in a small group situation, of repertoire or performance situations particularly
associated with a given instrument or genre. They complement the 1-to-1 Principal
Study that all students undertake, covering ground directly relevant to the Principal
Study but in ways that are felt to be more effective. For example, ensemble-based work
for Historical Performance specialists develops a range of skills fundamental to the
repertoire in ways that independent 1-to-1 study cannot.
In general terms, students taking a Pathway Core Unit are likely to take one of the lower
credit-weighted Principal Study Units. This is partly for the reasons outlined above but
also because of what may be accommodated within the available credits. In particular, a
student wishing to take and MMus Core Unit and a Pathway Core Unit will find that 60
of the 120 credits available are taken up by this choice. They will therefore select the
Principal Study 3 (60 credits) to make up the remaining credits.
If a student does not choose any Pathway Core Unit, this effectively means that they are
designated as being on the Solo/Ensemble Pathway. Solo/Ensemble Pathway students
have more credits available either for the Principal Study itself or for Elective Units. This
flexible pathway students to create their own timetable utilising the many and varied
performance opportunities the RCM provides. A crucial aspect of the pathway is the
seminars led by the pathway leader.
Accompanists, conductors and instrumentalists specialising in a period instrument will
be expected to select the relevant Pathway Core Unit for their specialism. Similarly, solo
pianists, organists, guitarists and some others are almost certainly going to take the
Solo/Ensemble pathway. The only area where there is real choice concerns modern
instrumentalists whose Principal Study is a mainstream orchestral instrument. These
students need to choose whether they wish to take the Pathway Core Unit in
Orchestral Performance or not. Doing so will categorise them as being on the
Orchestral Pathway; otherwise they will be designated as being on the Sole/Ensemble
Pathway. Neither pathway entirely excludes students from activity in the other area.
Because of the intensive nature of the training in the Orchestral Musician Pathway Core
Unit and the need to provide sufficient orchestral opportunities for all students on this
pathway, entry by string, wind and brass instrumentalists has to be strictly controlled.
Every effort will be made to accommodate such students wishing to take this pathway
but it may be necessary from time to time to limit numbers. Under these
circumstances, a student accepted onto the programme is free to choose the
Solo/Ensemble pathway option.
As Pathway Core Units are assessed through examinations of a practical nature, the
assessment criteria for these are to be found in Practical Examinations Procedure at the
Royal College of Music 2007-08, available from the Registry.
30
PATHWAY CORE UNIT: ORCHESTRAL PERFORMANCE

Unit Leader: Orchestral Musician Pathway Leader
Level
M
Credit Rating
30
Delivery
10 x 2 hour seminar plus
general College ensemble
and orchestral activity
(sectionals, performance
platforms, concerts)
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year membership of the Pathway is usually
limited to two students on each instrument, due
to the practicalities of scheduling some of the
elements of the course
Students wishing to join the Orchestral Pathway
need to apply by e mail to Florence Ambrose,
Performance Manager (fambrose@rcm.ac.uk),
by the end of the second week of the Autumn
Term. The decision as to who is admitted to the
Pathway will be based on the September
orchestral audition results.
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M3B01

enhanced your skill and confidence as a performer in some breadth and depth
studied the orchestral repertoire of your instrument in some breadth and depth
developed your rehearsal skills and ability to work quickly and professionally with conductors,
section coaches and performing colleagues.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 3 and 4
1, 2, 3 and 4
1, 2, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
The core content of this unit is provided through repertoire seminars, usually in small groups, where
orchestral repertoire is explored and the necessary interaction between and within orchestral sections
discussed and practised.
In addition to this, students are expected to draw upon the more general activities organised by
Performance Management to develop their experience and understanding of orchestral performance.
In a given year, these might include the following, or equivalent, provision:
Sectional coaching sessions and orchestral rehearsals

Side-by-side, sit-in or outreach experiences with professional musicians
College orchestral concerts
Assessed Orchestral Rehearsal early in Summer Term
30 credits
The Assessed Orchestral rehearsal may alternate with a Mock Audition examination, with each form of
examination taking place every other year the mode of assessment will be advertised at the end of the
Autumn Term. This unit is also taken by students on the Orchestral Musician pathway of the PGDip in
Advanced Performance. The repertoire studied in the seminars is arranged in a two-year cycle so that
students taking both years do not duplicate repertoire.
31
PATHWAY CORE UNIT: HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE

Unit Leader: Historical Performance Pathway Leader
Level
M
Credit Rating
30
Delivery
2 x 15 hours project
work and attendance at
classes
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M3B02

enhanced your skill and confidence as an ensemble performer of early music, especially the
Baroque repertoire
studied this repertoire in some breadth and depth, including discussion of sources, editions and
performance treatises
developed your rehearsal skills and ability to work quickly and professionally, directed or
undirected, with performing colleagues.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 3 and 4
1, 2, 3 and 4
1, 2, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
Classes where repertoire is explored and the necessary interaction between instruments,
including the role of continuo, discussed and practised
Preparation of ensemble projects
Side-by-side experiences with visiting professional musicians
College Baroque Orchestra concerts
Assessed participation in two performance projects during year

10 credits each
A 1,4001,600 word written project or spoken presentation on a historical performance
practice topic. (Choice of topic to be approved by the unit leader).
10 credits
30 credits total
This is to be closely based on original sources, and can either be an evaluation and discussion of
a single treatise, or a comparison between two or more treatises dealing with similar material.
You should include a bibliography of all material consulted, as well as including musical
examples, comparative tables, etc.
Note: This unit is also taken by students on the Historical Performance pathway of the PGDip in
Advanced Performance. The repertoire to be studied is arranged in a two-year cycle so that
students taking both years do not duplicate repertoire.
32
PATHWAY CORE UNIT: ACCOMPANIMENT

Unit Leader: Accompanist/Repetiteur Pathway Leader
Level
M
Credit Rating
30
Delivery
14 x 3 hour class
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M3B03

enhanced your skill and confidence as an accompanist of singers and instrumentalists

studied the repertoire in some breadth and depth, including developing an understanding of
languages in relation to the vocal repertoire
developed your rehearsal skills and ability to work quickly and professionally with performing
colleagues, offering guidance and advice where appropriate.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3 and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
Repertoire classes, in small groups, where vocal and instrumental repertoire is explored and the
necessary interaction between piano and voice or melody instrument discussed and practised
Preparation of themed projects
Participation in Song Classes
Assessed participation in 2 themed performance projects at various times during year

30 credits
Note: This unit is also taken by students on the Accompanist/Repetiteur pathway of the PGDip in
Advanced Performance. The repertoire to be studied is arranged in a two-year cycle so that students
taking both years do not duplicate repertoire.
33
PATHWAY CORE UNIT: CONDUCTING

Unit Leader: Conducting Pathway Leader
Level
M
Delivery
28 x 2 hour class
Credit Rating
50
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M5B04

enhanced your skill and confidence as a conductor

studied the orchestral repertoire in some breadth and depth
developed your rehearsal skills and ability to work quickly and professionally with performing
colleagues
acquired the ability to prepare scores quickly and reliably.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3 and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
Repertoire classes, with piano accompaniment, where repertoire is explored and feedback
offered both by the tutor and by fellow conducting students
Guidance in the preparation of scores
The opportunity to learn from the experiences of fellow students and to offer constructive
criticism on their performance
A performance of one work with a College ensemble as part of a public concert
34
50 credits
9.1.3

Every student on the programme, whether studying for the MMus or PGDip, selects a
Principal Study unit. If you have opted for one of the specialist Pathway Core units, you
will have already used up some of the credits available to you and this will limit the
range of choice you may have among the Principal Study units, especially if you also
wish to take an Elective unit.
If you have not selected a Pathway Core unit this effectively defines you as being on the
Solo/Ensemble Pathway. You are likely to be able to select any of the four types of
Principal Study unit available, although again this may be limited if you wish to take one
or more elective units (for example, Related or Second Study)
You will see that the four different types of Principal Study unit are ranged in
descending order of credit value. In each case, the amount of weekly provision
decreases, as does the length of the examination you are expected to take.
The fourth Principal Study unit is for conductors and follows a slightly different format.
Personal Development Plans (PDPs)
All students on the Integrated Masters Programme are required to complete a Personal
Development Plan during the course of study. This is a record of the aims for the
academic year and provides a place to systematically log such information as repertoire
covered and performances completed. The mandatory Performance Profile is contained
within the PDP. Individual assistance in completing PDPs will be provided by the
Programme Team.
Programme Notes/Spoken Presentations in PG Recital Examinations
Todays professional performers are expected to be well-informed about the works they
perform and to be able to communicate relevant information about them in writing
and, increasingly, through clear and engaging spoken presentations. The RCM expects
its postgraduate performers to take these professional standards of presentation as
seriously as they do their quest for excellence in their actual performing. All
postgraduate recital examinations must therefore be accompanied either by wellprepared programme notes or by accomplished spoken introductions.
Programme notes must be the work of the student and should avoid plagiarism in
exactly the same way as other written assignments. They should aim to be informative
and may by all means reflect personal scholarship on the part of the student. However,
they should be sufficiently accessible in style to facilitate reading as an adjunct to
listening. Above all, they should give the reader information which will help to focus
and enrich his or her listening experience by contributing to an aural understanding of
the works performed.
Spoken introductions should be delivered without a written text and should be clearly
communicated in a lively and interesting manner. The tone of a spoken introduction
may well be less formal than that of a programme note but what is said should again
aim to focus and enrich the listening experience of the audience member.
35
Tuition for these elements

It is assumed that postgraduate students will already have acquired some experience of
writing programme notes and/or introducing their recitals. In addition, guidance in
programme note writing/delivering spoken presentations is given as part of the
induction course of the Induction Lecture Series. The Diagnostic Portfolio undertaken
just before Planning & Review Week contains assignments dealing with writing about
music. Although not every student will take the whole Lecture Series, all are encouraged
to take at least these induction sections.
All students will be assigned a tutor who will give assistance in the drafting of
programme notes for the final recital. Students who fail to avail themselves of this
assistance must take personal responsibility for their preparation for the production of
suitable programme notes/spoken introductions when the time comes for their recital.
Examination of these elements
As Principal Study Units are assessed through examinations of a practical nature, the
assessment criteria for these are to be found in Practical Examinations Procedures at the
Copies of programme notes must be submitted to the Registry Programmes Team at
least two weeks before the date of the recital. Where a student has chosen to deliver
spoken introductions, a form confirming this must be submitted to the Registry
Programmes Team by the same deadline.
An Academic Panel will judge the effectiveness of the programme notes, setting them
in the context of the performances that they are intended to enhance. The panel will
award a separate percentage mark for the programme notes. This mark will be
communicated afterwards to the student along with the mark for the performance
itself.
Students wishing to present spoken introductions instead of programme notes must
request permission in writing from the Head or Deputy Head of Graduate School no
later than 1 February 2008.
In the normal way, the mark awarded for the programme notes/spoken introductions is
not given a distinct weighting within the recitals overall assessment i.e. the student is
credited with the mark as awarded simply for the performance. However, where a mark
of less than 50% (i.e. the pass threshold) is awarded for the programme notes/spoken
introductions, a student may not be awarded a Pass with Distinction even if their actual
performances merit this (i.e. the mark is capped at 69%).
A recital which is not accompanied at all by programme notes or introductions must
fail (i.e. it will be capped at 49%). A student who finds him- or herself in this situation
will normally be permitted to submit programme notes retrospectively. Provided that
notes are submitted within the timeframe stipulated for the particular case (normally
within two weeks of permission being granted) the students result will be altered to a
Pass but the mark will remain capped at 49%.
36
PRINCIPAL STUDY UNIT: PRINCIPAL STUDY 1

Unit Leader: Heads of Faculty
Level
M
Credit Rating
80
Delivery
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
6 x 60 minute 1:1 lessons

followed by 22 x 90 minute
1:1 lessons supported by
faculty classes, masterclasses
and other events
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M8P01

enhanced your performing skills, broadened your knowledge of repertoire, honed your
interpretational abilities
acquired maturity and an individual voice as a performer
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
1-to-1 guidance tailored to individual needs this may reflect some finishing work on technical
aspects but is more likely to focus upon the exploration of new repertoire and preparation for
specific performances
participation in faculty classes, masterclasses, College chamber concerts and other concerts of
similar standard outside the College
performance as appropriate in duos, chamber ensembles and orchestras
independent practice to support all these activities
continued exploration of Principal Study repertoire, not only in performance but also through
self-directed listening at concerts and to recordings
Repertoire Recital (42-50 minutes, except for Early Music Singers , 38-45 minutes)
Summer Term
80 credits
Evaluation of programme notes (must be completed to pass unit)
Mock audition; Stylistic/Special Skills Exam; Fulfilment of one from list of requirements
The type of examination/required activity and its timing during year varies according to faculty
and instrument. This examination is not allocated separate credits but must be passed for the
unit as a whole to be passed. Please consult syllabus document for details of the examination
method for each Principal Study
Performance Profile (showing at least two College concerts or their equivalent to have been
undertaken across year) completed as part of the Personal Development Plan (PDP)
The Performance Profile is not allocated separate credits but must be submitted and found
acceptable for the unit as a whole to be passed
37

Level
M
Credit Rating
70
Delivery
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year

and other events
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M7P02

specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
Repertoire Recital (33-40 minutes, except for Early Music Singers, 30-35 minutes)
Summer Term
70 credits
undertaken across year) completed as part of the Personal Development Plan (PDP). The
Performance Profile is not allocated separate credits but must be submitted and found
acceptable for the unit as a whole to be passed.
38

Level
M
Credit Rating
60
Delivery
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year

supported by faculty
classes, masterclasses and
other events
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M6P03

specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
Summer Term
60 credits
39
PRINCIPAL STUDY UNIT: PRINCIPAL STUDY 4 (INSTRUMENTALISTS)

Level
M
Credit Rating
40
Delivery
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year

supported by faculty
classes, masterclasses and
other events
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M4P04

specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
Summer Term
40 credits
40
PRINCIPAL STUDY UNIT: PRINCIPAL STUDY 4 (CONDUCTORS)

Unit Leader: Conducting Pathway Leaders
Level
M
Credit Rating
40
Delivery
28x 45 minute 1:1
lessons
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M4P04

reinforced your conducting skills, acquired a technical fluency, broadened your knowledge of
repertoire, honed your interpretational abilities
acquired the beginnings of an individual character as a conductor
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
1-to-1 guidance tailored to individual needs this is likely to concentrate on technical aspects
but may also include the study of new scores and preparation for specific performances
attendance at College orchestral rehearsals and concerts
independent practice of technique and study of scores to support all these activities
continued exploration of repertoire through self-directed listening at concerts and to
recordings
Rehearsal/play-through with College orchestra (60 minutes)

Summer Term
40 credits
acceptable for unit to be passed
41
9.2
Most units for the Masters Programme are available in both years, however, the units given
below are either not available in Year 1, or are presented in Year 2 with the assessment criteria
altered.
9.2.1
Year 2 MMus Core Units/Year 1 Intensive MMus Core Units
If you are planning to study for an MMus over two years you will need to select one of the two
MMus Core Units which follow as part of your second years study. Similarly, if you are taking
the Intensive Masters course, you will be taking one of these units along with the Performance
Level MMus Core Unit.
The Advanced Performance Level MMus Core Units are the Lecture Recital and the Critical
Evaluation Project. Details of these units are given in the Unit Descriptions that follow.
In the Spring Term, students who are taking the Lecture Recital unit will present their lecture
recital to Performance Level students. These presentations are useful preparation opportunities
but they also give Year 1 students a flavour of the kind of tasks they may be attempting when
they too reach the advanced performance level. If you are studying on the Intensive Masters
and have selected the Lecture Recital as your Advanced Performance level MMus Core Unit,
you will be giving one of these presentations whilst also attending other students
presentations.
A plan of the year for the Lecture Recital and the Critical Evaluation Project was provided at the
beginning of the section on Year 1 Performance Level units, showing how these are coordinated
with the Year 1 Lecture Series.
42
EITHER the Critical Evaluation Project or the Lecture Recital is chosen
Year 2 MMUS CORE UNIT: CRITICAL EVALUATION PROJECT

Unit Leaders: Ingrid Pearson and Timothy Salter
Level
M
Credit Rating
30
Core/Elective
MMus Elective
Delivery
3 x 1.5 hour Induction Lectures followed by
30 minute 1-to-1 supervision to prepare
topic submission, then 8 hours 1-to-1
supervision
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M3A02

displayed a mastery of a complex and specialised area of knowledge and skills

impinge upon the formation of a performance in relation to your specialist topic
employed advanced skills to conduct research
attained a high degree of fluency in written expression.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
2, 3 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
3 and 4
Indicative content
1-to-1 supervision tailored to individual needs

development of research skills intrinsic to topic development
linkage of research work to Principal Study repertoire, not only in performance but also
through self-directed listening at concerts and to recordings.
Completion of a 5,000 7,500 word Critical Evaluation on a specialist topic which has been
agreed by the MMus Board of Examiners in the previous Autumn term.
(Students with borderline results may be called for a viva voce exam).
30 credits
TWO COPIES of the CEP must be submitted to the Registry by the published deadline. CEPs that
achieve a Distinction level mark will be archived in the Library.
See also Procedures for the Submission and Marking of Postgraduate Written Work for further
guidance on the preparation, submission and assessment of this unit.
43
Year 2 MMUS CORE UNIT: LECTURE RECITAL

Unit Leaders: Ingrid Pearson and Timothy Salter
Level
M
Credit Rating
30
Core/Elective
MMus Elective
Delivery
3 x 1.5 hour Induction Lectures followed by
30 minute 1-to-1 supervision to prepare topic
submission, followed by 6 hours 1-to-1
supervision and twelve lecture recital dryrun sessions with 6 x 1.5 hours tutorial
feedback
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M3A03

Demonstrated that you can work effectively and flexibly across the areas of performance and
scholarship
enhanced your fluency of presentation and effective communication skills in addition to those
you have as a performer
broadened your knowledge of repertoire, honed your interpretational abilities
focussed upon a specific topic to be presented through a composite of approaches.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
participation in classes devoted to appropriate research methodologies and modes of

presentation for the Lecture Recital
1-to-1 tutorial support tailored to individual needs this may reflect some finishing work on
technical aspects but is more likely to focus upon the exploration of new repertoire and
preparation for specific performances
Principal Study performance as appropriate
independent practice and research to support all these activities
continued exploration of Principal Study repertoire and its applicability to the Lecture Recital
as a mode of presentation, not only in performance but also through self-directed listening at
concerts and to recordings
Method of approval
Proposed topics for Lecture Recitals must be approved by the Course Team Sub Board. Proposals must
be submitted to the Registry Programmes Team by the advertised date.
Lecture Recital (25 minutes, plus 5 minutes for open questions from Panel and audience)
(Students with borderline results may be called for a viva voce exam).
44
30 credits
Criteria for assessment

The examiners will look for the following:
a strong quality of presentation and sense of communication with the audience
assurance and professionalism in the spoken commentary and the performance of examples.
clear handout sheets, including a bibliography/discography, as appropriate.
Good defence of your argument in the question session, with explanation of decisions taken in the
lecture recital itself, as required
The Lecture Recital should be marked according to the criteria below. The three categories of outcome
should each be awarded a nominal mark. An overall mark should then be selected which seems best to
represent a balance of these elements. It is not necessary for this mark to be a literal average of the
preceding three.
Category
Percentage
Range
Outcomes
Quality of musical
performance and of
spoken
presentation
Breadth of
background research
and its reflection in
the performance
Quality of discussion and

coherence of supporting
arguments in viva voce
80 - 100
Outstanding
Outstanding
Outstanding
70 - 79
Excellent
Excellent
Excellent
65 - 69
Extremely Good
Extremely Good
Extremely Good
60 - 64
Very Good
Very Good
Very Good
55 - 59
Good
Good
Good
50 - 54
Fairly Good
Fairly Good
Fairly Good
45 - 49
Marginally
Unsatisfactory
Marginally
Unsatisfactory
Marginally Unsatisfactory
40 - 44
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
26 - 39
Seriously
Unsatisfactory
Seriously Unsatisfactory Seriously Unsatisfactory
0 - 25
Grossly
Unsatisfactory
Grossly Unsatisfactory
Distinction
Pass
Fail
45
9.2.2
Pathway Core Units

These units, most of which are also available in Year 1, have been specially designed to
provide opportunities for advanced study, usually in a small group situation, of
repertoire or performance situations particularly associated with a given instrument or
genre. They complement the 1-to-1 Principal Study that all students undertake,
covering ground directly relevant to the Principal Study but in ways that are felt to be
more effective. For example, ensemble-based work for Historical Performance
specialists develops a range of skills fundamental to the repertoire in ways that
independent 1-to-1 study cannot.
Most Pathway Core units run every year but the repertoire covered is changed to
ensure that there are no duplications across two consecutive years. As a result, students
are free to take the same Pathway Core unit in Year 2 as they did in Year 1 and will
receive credit for it as part of their second year of study.
There are four Pathway Core Units, which are unique to Year 2 and are therefore
designated at Advanced Performance level. These are as follows:
Repetiteur Experience
Chamber Music
Conducting
Conducting students who have take the Year 1 Pathway Core unit in Conducting select
one or other of the two Advanced performance level Pathway Core units for their
second year.
Unit descriptions for the Advanced Performance level Pathway Core units are provided
on the following pages. For Performance level Pathway Core units, students should refer
to the earlier section of this handbook.
As Pathway Core Units are assessed through examinations of a practical nature, the
assessment criteria for these are to be found in Practical Examinations Procedure at the
46
PATHWAY CORE UNIT: ORCHESTRAL CONDUCTING

Pathway Leader for Conducting
Level
M
Credit Rating
50
Core/Elective
Core
Prerequisite
Year 1 on Conducting
Pathway, or
equivalent
experience as
demonstrated by
audition
Availability
Each year
Unit Code
M5B05
Delivery
14x 150 min Analysis classes, 28 x 120 minute
Conducting classes, 28 x 60 minute Specialist
Techniques and Repertoire classes, plus
orchestral and/or choral rehearsals and
performances
Unit Objectives and Learning Outcomes

developed advanced knowledge of the techniques of orchestral and/or choral conducting,

paying particular attention to gestural communication
developed advanced skills and knowledge required for directing rehearsals and performances,
extended your knowledge of orchestral and large ensemble repertoire
gained significant experience of directing performers both within College and outside, and
continued to learn from attending rehearsals and performances directed by more experienced
conductors
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2 and 3
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
2, 3 and 4
Indicative Content
Specialist technique and repertoire sessions in conducting

1-to-1 conducting coaching
Work with orchestra
Classes in repertoire with other disciplinary Pathways within the RCM
Analysis sessions for Conductors
Method of Assessment
Assessed Orchestral Concert Performance
47
50 credits
PATHWAY CORE UNIT: CHORAL CONDUCTING

tbc
Level
M
Credit Rating
50
Core/Elective
Core
Prerequisite
Year 1 on Conducting
Pathway, or
equivalent experience
as demonstrated by
audition
Availability
Each year
Unit Code
M5B06
Delivery
14 x 150 min Analysis classes, 14 x 90 min
Choral Repertoire classes, 14 x 30 minute
voice lessons, 14 x 60 minute Oratorio classes,
plus choral rehearsals and performances

developed advanced knowledge of the techniques of orchestral and/or choral conducting,

paying particular attention to gestural communication
developed advanced skills and knowledge required for directing rehearsals and performances,
extended your knowledge of orchestral and large ensemble repertoire
gained significant experience of directing performers both within College and outside, and
conductors
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2 and 3
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
2, 3 and 4
Indicative Content
Specialist technique sessions in conducting

1-to-1 conducting coaching
Work with RCM Chamber Choir
Classes in choral and oratorio repertoire with other disciplinary Pathways within the RCM
Voice lessons for Choral Conductors
Analysis classes for Conductors
Assessed Choral Concert Performance
50 credits
48
PATHWAY CORE UNIT: REPETITEUR EXPERIENCE

Unit Leader: Learning Adviser, Accompanist/Repetiteur Pathway
Level
M
Credit Rating
30
Delivery
14 x 3 hour class and
conducting experience
with Head of Opera (by
agreement)
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M5B07

enhanced your skill and confidence as an accompanist of singers

studied the operatic repertoire in some breadth and depth, including developing an
understanding of languages in relation to this repertoire
developed your rehearsal skills and ability to work quickly and professionally with opera
singers, offering guidance and advice to help them in their preparation
developed the skill of working with a conductor and providing authoritative pianistic
support in the preparation of operatic performances.
participated in the preparation of opera scenes and College opera productions.
specification):
Practical skills
1, 3 and 4
Cognitive skills
1, 2, 3 and 4
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Knowledge and understanding 3 and 4
Indicative content
Work in the Benjamin Britten International Opera School guided by the Director of
Opera and Assistant Director of Opera and supporting their work
Participation in the preparation of opera scenes
Participation in the preparation of College opera productions
Overall evaluation of performance by the Director of Opera

Assessment of participation in at least one opera scene
30%
70%
The marks will be combined in this weighting and then applied to all 30 credits for the unit.
49
PATHWAY CORE UNIT: CHAMBER MUSIC

Unit Leader: Chamber Music Pathway Leader
Level
M
Credit Rating
50
Delivery
28 x 2 hours coaching sessions,
or equivalent
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
In any year, subject to group
fulfilling criteria
Prerequisites
An established group,
the majority of whom
should be taking this
unit
Unit Code
M5B08

demonstrated that you can achieve a high level of rapport with the other members of your
ensemble, working towards the creation of a unified, well-blended and balanced performance
in which the subtle nuances of ensemble playing are evident
explored significant examples from the repertoire in close detail and developed a wellresearched and sophisticated awareness of the overall extent and character of this repertoire
shown advanced inter-personal skills and the organisational and entrepreneurial initiative
required to secure external engagements
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative Content
selection, under the guidance of the coaching tutor, of appropriate repertoire for detailed work
at M level
coaching on issues of chamber playing such as balance, intonation, ensemble, interaction,
rehearsal protocols, etc. as prompted by the repertoire covered
exploration of wider repertoire: study of scores and some extended play-through exercises
provision of 1-to1 instrumental provision to support the core Chamber Music work
The above to be supplemented by a schedule of regular and committed rehearsal subscribed to by
all members of the group
Repertoire Examination normally taken as a mid-year examination Assessed Rehearsal near the end of the third term Repertoire Examination scheduled according to concert calendar-
50
20 credits
10 credits
20 credits
9.2.3
The first three Year 2 Advanced Performance-level Principal Study units are all assessed through
a Repertoire Recital only.
The fourth Principal Study unit is designated for both Conductors (Orchestral and Choral) and
Chamber Music.
Programme Notes/Spoken Presentations in PG Recital Examinations
Todays professional performers are expected to be well-informed about the works they
perform and to be able to communicate relevant information about them in writing and,
increasingly, through clear and engaging spoken presentations. The RCM expects its
postgraduate performers to take these professional standards of presentation as seriously as
they do their quest for excellence in their actual performing. All postgraduate recital
examinations must therefore be accompanied either by well-prepared programme notes or by
accomplished spoken introductions.
Programme notes must be the work of the student and should avoid plagiarism in exactly the
same way as other written assignments. They should aim to be informative and may by all
means reflect personal scholarship on the part of the student. However, they should be
sufficiently accessible in style to facilitate reading as an adjunct to listening. Above all, they
should give the reader information which will help to focus and enrich his or her listening
experience by contributing to an aural understanding of the works performed.
Spoken introductions should be delivered without a written text and should be clearly
communicated in a lively and interesting manner. The tone of a spoken introduction may well
be less formal than that of a programme note but what is said should again aim to focus and
enrich the listening experience of the audience member.
Tuition for these elements
It is assumed that postgraduate students will already have acquired some experience of writing
programme notes and/or introducing their recitals. In addition, guidance in programme note
writing/delivering spoken presentations is given as part of the induction course of the
Induction Lecture Series. The Diagnostic Portfolio undertaken just before Planning & Review
Week contains assignments dealing with writing about music. Although not every student will
take the whole Lecture Series, all are encouraged to take at least these induction sections.
All students will be assigned a tutor who will give assistance in the drafting of programme notes
for the final recital. Students who fail to avail themselves of this assistance must take personal
responsibility for their preparation for the production of suitable programme notes/spoken
introductions when the time comes for their recital.
Examination of these elements
As Principal Study Units are assessed through examinations of a practical nature, the
assessment criteria for these are to be found in Practical Examinations Procedures at the Royal
College of Music 2007-08, available from the Registry.
Copies of programme notes must be submitted to the Registry Programmes Team at least two
weeks before the date of the recital. Where a student has chosen to deliver spoken
introductions, a form confirming this must be submitted to the Registry Programmes Team by
the same deadline.
An Academic Panel will judge the effectiveness of the programme notes, setting them in the
context of the performances that they are intended to enhance. The panel will award a
separate percentage mark for the programme notes. This mark will be communicated
afterwards to the student along with the mark for the performance itself.
51
Students wishing to present spoken introductions instead of programme notes must request
permission in writing from the Head or Deputy Head of Graduate School no later than 1
February 2008.
In the normal way, the mark awarded for the programme notes/spoken introductions is not
given a distinct weighting within the recitals overall assessment i.e. the student is credited
with the mark as awarded simply for the performance. However, where a mark of less than 50%
(i.e. the pass threshold) is awarded for the programme notes/spoken introductions, a student
may not be awarded a Pass with Distinction even if their actual performances merit this (i.e. the
mark is capped at 69%).
A recital which is not accompanied at all by programme notes or introductions must fail (i.e. it
will be capped at 49%). A student who finds him- or herself in this situation will normally be
permitted to submit programme notes retrospectively. Provided that notes are submitted
within the timeframe stipulated for the particular case (normally within two weeks of
permission being granted) the students result will be altered to a Pass but the mark will remain
capped at 49%.
52
ADVANCED PRINCIPAL STUDY UNIT: PRINCIPAL STUDY 1

Level
M
Delivery
and other events
Credit Rating
80
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M8P05

with your future professional colleagues
brought all of these qualities to the level of full professional readiness
demonstrated the ability to act in complex, unpredictable and/or specialised contexts
demonstrated the ability to adapt acquired skills indecently and develop new ones for new
situations.
specification):
Practical skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Cognitive skills
1, 2, 3, and 4
Transferable skills
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Knowledge and understanding 1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
1-to-1 guidance tailored to individual needs this may reflect some final finishing work on
Summer Term
80 credits
Performance Profile (showing at least two College concerts or their have been undertaken
across year) completed as part of the Personal Development Plan (PDP). The Performance
Profile is not allocated separate credits but must be submitted and found acceptable for the
unit to be passed.
53

Level
M
Credit Rating
70
Delivery
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year

and other events
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M7P06

situations.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
Summer Term
70 credits
acceptable for the unit to be passed.
54
ADVANCED PRINCIPAL STUDY UNIT: PRINCIPAL STUDY 2 (REPETITEURS)

(subject to approval)
Level
M
Credit Rating
70
Delivery
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year

and other events
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M7P06R

situations.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
1-to-1 guidance tailored to individual needs this may reflect some final finishing work on technical
aspects but is more likely to focus upon the exploration of new repertoire and preparation for specific
performances
participation in faculty classes, masterclasses, College chamber concerts and other concerts of similar
standard outside the College
continued exploration of Principal Study repertoire, not only in performance but also through selfdirected listening at concerts and to recordings
Pianist in (non-orchestral) Dress Rehearsalfor an Opera Performance, normally in the Summer

Term
70 credits
(NB: Examination by standard Advanced PS unit if Dress rehearsal option is not possible).
acceptable for the unit to be passed.
55

Level
M
Delivery
supported by faculty classes,
masterclasses and other
events
Credit Rating
60
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M6P07

situations.
specification):
Practical skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Cognitive skills
1, 2, 3, and 4
Transferable skills
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Indicative content
Summer Term
60 credits
56
ADVANCED PRINCIPAL STUDY UNIT: PRINCIPAL STUDY 4 (INSTRUMENTALISTS)

Level
M
Delivery
supported by faculty classes,
masterclasses and other
events
Credit Rating
40
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M4P05

situations.
specification):
Practical skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Cognitive skills
1, 2, 3, and 4
Transferable skills
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Indicative content
Summer Term
40 credits
57
ADVANCED PRINCIPAL STUDY UNIT: PRINCIPAL STUDY 4 (CONDUCTORS)

Unit Leader: tbc
Level
M
Credit Rating
40
Delivery
28 x 45 minute 1:1
lessons
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M4P08

situations.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
recordings
Rehearsal/play-through with College orchestra (60 minutes)

Summer Term
40 credits
58
ADVANCED PRINCIPAL STUDY UNIT: PRINCIPAL STUDY 4 (CHORAL CONDUCTORS)

Unit Leader: tbc
Level
M
Credit Rating
40
Delivery
28 x 45 minute 1:1
lessons
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M4P09

situations.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
recordings
Rehearsal/play-through with College Chamber Choir (60 minutes)

Summer Term
40 credits
59
ADVANCED PRINCIPAL STUDY UNIT: PRINCIPAL STUDY 4 (CHAMBER MUSICIANS)

Unit Leader: tbc
Level
M
Credit Rating
40
Delivery
28 x 45 minute 1:1
lessons
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M4P10

reinforced your solo instrumental skills, acquired a technical fluency, broadened your
knowledge of repertoire, honed your interpretational abilities
situations.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
1-to-1 guidance tailored to individual needs

independent practice of technique and study of scores to support core Chamber Music
activities
recordings
Repertoire Recital (20 minutes)

Summer Term
40 credits
60
9.3
Elective Units
Students who have credits available after making their Core and Principal Study choices can
choose from a range of further units on offer. These units are collectively known as Elective
Units. Elective Units come in three categories:
Second/Related Study Units
Other units at Level M
Units at Level 3
Second/Related study Units
Pursuing a Second or Related Study may be an important part of students postgraduate
training. This is particularly the case where an orchestral instrument has one or more
common doublings. Students may also find it useful to gain or develop experience of the
period equivalent of their instrument.
There are certain restrictions on which Studies may be taken and under what
circumstances. These are listed in Section 3 of this handbook
Other units at Level M
Five units are unique to the Elective category; Contemporary Music in Action, Performance
Case History, Professional Skills, Sources of Performance History and Studio Experience. All
these units carry 10 credits and there may be circumstances where they are useful from the
purely technical standpoint of making up the 120 credits for 1 year of study. Additionally,
they both address important areas to be covered by postgraduate performance students.
The remaining units in this category also appear elsewhere in the Core categories, whether
as Pathway Core Units or as elements of certain Principal Study Units. As well as those
students taking them in these contexts, it is possible for other students to select them as
Elective units. This means, for example, that a Principal Study violinist taking Second Study
Baroque Violin may, providing the credit totals add up correctly, take the Pathway Core
unit in Historical Performance as an Elective.
Elective units at Level 3
Elective units include units at Level 3 that form part of the Colleges BMus (Hons)
programme but may be taken as part of the PGDip or MMus.
Where Level 3 units are chosen, they must not amount to more than 25% of the credits
taken. This means that, for 120-credit courses, they must not amount to more than 30
credits and, for the 180-credit Intensive course, not more than 45 credits. Because the Level
3 units are 40-credits units, this means that the overall number of credits when they are
chosen as part of a 120-credit course must rise to 130 (i.e. with 90 Level M credits featuring
among the minimum of 120 required for the award). No such adjustment is required for
the 180-credit Intensive course.
Choosing Electives in year 2
Elective units available for study in a second year (ie PGDip Advanced or MMus Year 2) are
the same as for year one. Major and Minor Second Study in Year 2 are assessed through
Recitals only; there are no technical examinations. For those who opt to do a Second Study
for the first time in Year 2, the Year 1 rubric must be followed; that is, the Technical
Examination must be completed. Please note that Contemporary Music in Action and
Studio Experience are open to a limited number of students, usually those in their second
year or on the Intensive MMus.
61
Criteria for assessment of exclusively-practical Electives

For those Elective Units assessed through examinations of a practical nature, the
assessment criteria are to be found in Practical Examinations Procedures at the Royal College
of Music 2007-08, available from the Registry.
Criteria for assessment of other Electives
The examiners will look for the following, as appropriate to each Elective:
a strong quality of presentation
assurance and professionalism in any written commentary or recorded material.
submissions revealing sound research methodologies and scholarly probity, including a
bibliography/discography, as appropriate.
Non-practical Electives should be marked according to the criteria below. As many as
appropriate of the three categories of outcome should each be awarded a nominal mark.
An overall mark should then be selected which seems best to represent a balance of these
elements. It is not necessary for this mark to be a literal average of the preceding three.
Category
Percentage
Range
Outcomes
Quality of presentation
Breadth of background
Quality and coherence of
research and/or preparation,
expressed ideas, whether
and its reflection in the
recorded or written
project outcome
(not applicable to Performance
Case History)
80 - 100
Outstanding
Outstanding
Outstanding
70 - 79
Excellent
Excellent
Excellent
65 - 69
Extremely Good
Extremely Good
Extremely Good
60 - 64
Very Good
Very Good
Very Good
55 - 59
Good
Good
Good
50 - 54
Fairly Good
Fairly Good
Fairly Good
45 - 49
40 - 44
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
26 - 39
Seriously Unsatisfactory
0 - 25
Distinction
Pass
Fail
62
ELECTIVE UNIT: MAJOR SECOND STUDY

Level
M
Delivery
28 x 45 minute 1:1
lessons
Credit Rating
40
Core/Elective
Elective
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M4E01

enhanced your performing skills on a second instrument relevant to your Principal Study,
mastered its distinctive technical demands and acquired fluency in transferring between
instruments
broadened your knowledge of repertoire of this instrument
gained performing experience on this instrument
developed contacts with your future professional colleagues.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 3 and 4
1, 2 and 3
1, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
1-to-1 guidance tailored to individual needs this is likely to focus upon those technical
aspects which are distinctive to the instrument but will also be concerned with the exploration
of new repertoire and preparation for specific performances
continued exploration of the instruments repertoire, not only in performance but also through
Technical Exam
Repertoire Recital (20 minutes)
Spring Term
Summer Term
10 credits
30 credits
If Major Second Study is taken for the first time in Year Two, then the examination format in the
Year One unit description is followed, which includes a Spring Term Technical Examination.
63
ELECTIVE UNIT: MINOR SECOND STUDY

Level
M
Credit Rating
30
Delivery
28 x 30 minute 1:1
lessons
Core/Elective
Elective
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M3E02

largely mastered its distinctive technical demands and acquired fluency in transferring between
instruments
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 3 and 4
1, 2 and 3
1, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
of new repertoire and preparation for specific performances
continued exploration of the instruments repertoire, not only in performance but also through
Combined technical and repertoire exam (see individual syllabus for duration details)
Spring or Summer Term
30 credits
Note: This unit is also available as part of the PGDip in Advanced Performance (ie year 2) to
students who have taken Related Study as part of the PGDip in Performance (year 1). Exceptionally,
it may be taken for a second time as part of the PGDip in Advanced Performance. In either case, the
repertoire studied must be different in the two years.
If Minor Second Study is taken for the first time in Year Two, then the examination format in the
Year One unit description is followed, which includes a Spring Term Technical Examination. In this
case, the Repertoire Examination is only 15 minutes long.
64
ELECTIVE UNIT: RELATED STUDY

Level
M
Credit Rating
20
Delivery
14 x 30 minute 1:1
lessons
Core/Elective
Elective
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M2E03
Please note that students intending to take Related Study must first consult the appropriate
Head of Faculty
learning its distinctive technical demands and gaining some fluency in transferring between
instruments
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 3 and 4
1, 2 and 3
1, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
of new repertoire and preparation for the examination
continued independent exploration of the instruments repertoire
Combined Technical & Repertoire Exam (see individual syllabus for duration details)
Summer Term
20 credits
This Related Study unit is designed to be taken at Performance Level, ie in year one of their studies.
For those who have not, and who wish to take Performance Level Related Study in Year 2, a special
case must be made to the relevant Head of Faculty and the Head of Graduate School, as students
would normally be directed to Minor Second Study.
65
ELECTIVE UNIT: CONCERTO COMPETITION

Unit Leaders: Heads of Faculty
Level
M
Credit Rating
10
Delivery
3 hours coaching
Core/Elective
Both
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M1E06
NB this unit is available to most students as an elective. However, in their first year Principal Study
pianists either this unit or that in Recital Accompaniment (see below) are normally taken as part of the
pathway core of the PGDip in Performance.
Performed a concerto in a faculty Concerto Competition

Shown the potential, in a performance with piano accompaniment, to deliver a performance as
a soloist in an orchestral context which would carry conviction and authority
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
The coaching for this unit is intended to complement and augment preparation undertaken as part of
the Principal Study lesson. It may be given by the Principal Study professor or by a different teacher
offering a complementary view. Content will focus upon the special performing qualities required of
concerto soloist. Wherever possible, it will be conducted in one of the Colleges larger performing
spaces.
The assessment is carried out as part of the faculty-stage round of the Concerto Trials. It may be
undertaken in the Autumn, Spring or Summer Terms, although the Spring Term is recommended.
To achieve a pass mark, students taking this unit should achieve a result that would be judged good
enough to send them forward to the second round. This may or may not mean that they actually
progress to the second round, given that in some Trials the standard is such that potentially suitable
performers have to be turned down at the first-round stage.
10 credits
Please note that you may only be examined on your performance in one
Concerto Competition during the academic year. The Registry will
assume that you wish to be assessed in the first competition you enter
during this academic year. It is your responsibility to notify the College if
you do not wish to have your first entry into the Concerto Competition
used for your assessment.
66
ELECTIVE UNIT: CONTEMPORARY MUSIC IN ACTION

Unit Leaders: Timothy Salter and Ingrid Pearson
Level
M
Credit Rating
10
Delivery
Coaching as required, up to a
maximum of 3 hours
Core/Elective
MMus Elective
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M1E12

gained experience of collaboration in the creation of new repertoire
explored possibilities in extending your technique and the capabilities of your instrument
gained experience in articulating the detailed processes involved in performing on your

instrument
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 5
3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
1, 3, 4
Indicative content
This Unit involves collaboration between solo or ensemble performers and composers. Initial
introductions between performers and composers and their work will be given if needed. Your work as
performer or composer will be monitored, but you will also work independently with your composer(s)
or performer(s). The unit leaders will be available for advice.
Your activities will comprise:
meeting your assigned or chosen composer(s) and performer(s) in preparatory sessions
advising each other in approaches to writing for the medium
writing the work(s)
rehearsing the work(s)
performing the work(s)
recording the work(s)
writing a 1000-word commentary on a collaboration*
* if you are involved in more than one collaboration you will need to choose one upon which to comment
67
There are two parts to the assessment, 2 copies of each component to be submitted to Registry by the
advertised date:
submission of a short written account, of at least 1000 words reporting on the collaborative
process
30 %
your performance(s), live in concert and recorded (on CD), of the works that are the products
of your collaboration, totalling a minimum of 5 minutes. Where possible, performances will be
assessed live. For composers: your work is assessed by score-reading supported by the
performance
70%
10 credits
Please note: Whilst this unit is chosen mainly by performers on the Integrated Masters Programme,
composers may take it as either a composer or performer.
68
ELECTIVE UNIT: CONTINUO ACCOMPANIMENT

(harpsichord, continuo organ, cello, viola da gamba, bassoon, theorbo)
Level
M
Credit Rating
10
Delivery
Core/Elective
Elective
Availability
Each year
6 hours
1:1 lessons plus group
lessons as appropriate
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M1E14
This elective is available to pianists and organists (working on harpsichord or continuo organ), cellists, viola
da gambists, bassoonists, guitarists (playing modern or period instruments) and lute/theorbo players.
Shown the ability to complement the performance of a soloist colleague, adopting a

prominence appropriate to the nature of the repertoire
Demonstrated the reliability, sensitivity and musical awareness essential to a fine accompanist
(keyboard players only): Developed the ability to play a continuo realisation from a realised
continuo part as a starting point, in a stylistic informed manner appropriate to the national
style and period of the work performed.
(keyboard players only) Practised figured bass reading using historical source material.
Enhanced your skill and confidence as an ensemble performer of early music, especially the
Baroque repertoire
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3 and 4
1, 2, 3 and 4
1, 2, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
The lessons will be given by a specialist keyboard, wind or string professor: these may form a
proportion of a pooled lesson shared by two or more students.
th
th
Participation in selected repertoire classes or coaching sessions where 17 and 18 century
repertoire is explored and the necessary interaction between instruments, including the role of
continuo, discussed and practised
Participation in selected rehearsals and performances including :Baroque Orchestra, MMus
Historical Performance Core Unit Assessed Performances, chamber orchestra, chamber concert,
recital examination, masterclass or prize competition
The assessment is carried out as part of the event during which it takes place. A continuo
accompaniment specialist will either be included in the examining panel or concert reporting team
or will join them for Assessed participation in 2 performance projects at various times during year.
(Keyboard players may perform a work for obbligato keyboard and melody instrument or voice.)
You will be required to bring scores or parts to your assessment for the examiners
Keyboard players must submit a Keyboard Instrument Request Form to Performance Management at least three
weeks before the assessment.
69
ELECTIVE UNITS: HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE

Level
M
Credit Rating
10, 20 or 30
Delivery
Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
1 or 2 x 15 hours project
work and attendance at early
music classes
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M1E08, M2E15, M3E08

enhanced your skill and confidence as an ensemble performer of early music, especially the
Baroque repertoire
studied this repertoire in some breadth and depth, including discussion of sources, editions and
performance treatises
developed your rehearsal skills and ability to work quickly and professionally, directed or
undirected, with performing colleagues.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 3 and 4
1, 2, 3 and 4
1, 2, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
Classes where repertoire is explored and the necessary interaction between instruments,
including the role of continuo, discussed and practised
Preparation of ensemble projects
Side-by-side experiences with visiting professional musicians
College Baroque Orchestra concerts
Assessed participation in either one, or two, performance projects during year (10 credits each)
A 1,4001,600 word written project or spoken presentation on a historical performance
practice topic. (Choice of topic to be approved by the unit leader).
(10 credits)
This is to be closely based on original sources, and can either be an evaluation and discussion of
a single treatise, or a comparison between two or more treatises dealing with similar material.
You should include a bibliography of all material consulted, as well as including musical
examples, comparative tables, etc.
Note: This unit is also taken by students on the Historical Performance pathway of the PGDip in
Advanced Performance. The repertoire to be studied is arranged in a two-year cycle so that
students taking both years do not duplicate repertoire. You will be required to specify the
repertoire you will be performing on your assessment request form, with changes reported to
Registry by email no less than 48 hours before the exam. Copies of all music must be provided
to Registry in a manner similar to Principal Study exam requirements.
70
ELECTIVE UNIT: IMPROVISATION

Unit Leader: Area Leader for Stylistic Studies: David Graham
Level
M
Credit Rating
30
Delivery
Core/Elective
Core
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M3E09

enhanced your improvising and performing skills on your Principal Study,

broadened your knowledge of different styles associated with this skill
gained performing experience in this activity
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2 and 3
1, 3, 4, and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
1-to-1 guidance tailored to individual needs this is likely to focus upon those technical and
theoretical aspects which are distinctive to this activity but will also be concerned with the
exploration of the ways this skill and can be used in a wide variety of musical situations and
how it can be used for educational purposes
performance as appropriate
continued exploration of this skill , not only in performance but also through self-directed
listening at church services,, concerts and to recordings as appropriate
Practical Exam (20 minutes)
Summer Term
71
30 credits
ELECTIVE UNIT: PERFORMANCE CASE HISTORY

Unit Leader: Darla Crispin
Level
M
Delivery
3 hours 1:1
supervision
Credit Rating
10
Core/Elective
Elective
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M1E04

mapped the history of one musical composition in great detail and, in the process, gained
knowledge and confidence in researching the background to musical works in general
enriched your understanding of the relationship between the identity of a work and any one of
its published editions or recorded performances
developed the ability to make interpretational judgements based on this knowledge and
understanding
experienced the impact of this approach upon your preparation of a performance of the work
in question.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
2
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 4, 6 and 7
3 and 4
Indicative content
Three supervisions at the initial, interim and final stages respectively of a project based upon a work to
be performed in a Principal Study examination. Guidance will cover:
Gathering information on sources, publications, recordings, etc

Collating and evaluating this information
Presenting the material (an electronic template is provided)
Providing a rationale for performance decisions based upon this material.
Submission of a completed template setting out the works history under the headings provided in as
much detail as possible. The examiners will be looking for thoroughness of research, clarity of layout of
information and, in the two sections where this is relevant, coherence of the rationale given for value
judgements. The case history must be submitted no later than the Friday of Week 24 of the teaching
year.
10 credits
72
ELECTIVE UNIT: PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

Unit Leader: Sebastian Scotney
Level
M
Credit Rating
10
Delivery
10 x 90 minute seminars and
3 hours 1:1 supervision
Core/Elective
Elective
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M1E05

developed an understanding of classical music in its widest context, including consideration of

quality, value and access
gained an understanding of how to plan, manage and develop your career
acquired the necessary communication skills, both oral and written, to promote yourself and
your ideas in many areas of work
gained knowledge of the necessary business and financial skills to work in music.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
N/A
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 4, 5, 6 and 7
4
Indicative content
A series of lectures on themes to include:
the structure and funding of arts in the UK, and the general characteristics of the musicians
labour market
managing and developing a portfolio career
writing proposals, business plans and media releases
negotiating, networking and making links with business
using IT to develop your career.
Preparation of an assignment supported by three hours supervision. The assignment must relate to one
of the themes covered in the lectures but will be on a specific topic chosen by the student in
consultation with the supervisor.
Project-style assignment. If in a traditional, text-based format, this project should be of c. 4,000 words.
Other formats (e.g. numerical tables, publicity material) should be calculated accordingly.
The assignment must be submitted no later than the Friday of Week 24 of the teaching year.
10 credits
73
ELECTIVE UNIT: RECITAL ACCOMPANIMENT

Unit Leader: Learning Adviser, Accompanist/Repetiteur Pathway
Level
M
Credit Rating
10
Delivery
3 hours coaching
Core/Elective
Both
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M1E07
NB this unit is available to most students as an elective. However, for Principal Study pianists either
this unit or the Concerto Competition unit (see above) are taken as part of the pathway core of the
PGDip in Performance, instead of the Principal Study Technical Exam. Principal Study accompanists
take this unit as the pathway core.
Performed as an accompanist at a College Chamber Concert, Recital examination or Concerto

Competition
Shown the ability to complement the performance of a soloist colleague, adopting a
prominence appropriate to the nature of the repertoire
Demonstrated the reliability, sensitivity and musical awareness essential to a fine accompanist
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative content
The coaching for this unit is intended to complement and augment preparation undertaken as part of
the Principal Study lesson. It may be given by your own Accompaniment professor, by the soloists
Principal Study professor or by a different teacher offering a complementary view. Content will focus
upon the special performing qualities required of the pianist in duo and chamber situations.
The assessment is carried out as part of the event during which it occurs. An accompaniment specialist
will either be included in the examining panel or concert reporting team or will join them for the
relevant performance(s). There should be a minimum of 12 minutes accompanimental material to be
assessed. You will be required to specify the repertoire you will be performing on your assessment
request form, with changes reported to Registry by email no less than 48 hours before the exam. Copies
of all music must be provided to Registry in a manner similar to Principal Study exam requirements.
10 credits
74
ELECTIVE UNIT: SONG WRITING AND POP MUSIC PRODUCTION
Unit Leader: Michael J McEvoy

Level
M
Credit Rating
10, 20 or 30
Delivery
22 sessions, of which13 are 75
minute seminars (taught and
peer reviews) and 9 are 1 to 1
sessions.
Core/Elective
Elective
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
L2 Composition
with Sequencer or
comparable
computer skills
Unit Code
M1E18, M2E17, M3E16

Successful completion of this unit means that you will be able to:
Demonstrate a sound working and practical knowledge of song writing practice and music
sequencing techniques as they are currently applied in popular music production.
Identify and apply a range of digital effects and instrumental techniques utilised in the
arrangement and construction of pop songs.
Recognise and re-create stylistic variations as they occur in popular song writing and arranging.
Prepare lead sheet for musicians and/or singers using notation tools within the Logic
sequencer software.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 4, 5
1, 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
1, 3, 4
Indicative content
Group seminars, predominantly earlier on in the year, focused on the craft of song writing and
pop music production techniques using Logic software.
Individual supervision, largely responsive to individual plans and projects
Feedback on early drafts and continuing 1-to-1 support tailored to individual needs
Song Critiquing session with leading music industry figure.
Assessment is based entirely on a portfolio containing one, two or three contrasting songs with at least
one of them being collaborative. All of the songs must include the corresponding lyric and lead sheet.
The recordings should demonstrate a range of song writing styles, arrangements and recording
techniques and must be submitted on audio CD and mastered to the correct industry standard db
level. A separate CD-R data disc must be submitted which contains the final arrangement of each song
created and mixed in Logic.
Examiners will take into account your awareness of stylistic conventions, lyric structure, instrumental
arrangement and techniques, and overall presentation.
The assessment is based on 10 credits per song submitted, to a maximum of 30 credits.
75
ELECTIVE UNIT: SOURCES OF PERFORMANCE HISTORY

Unit Leader: Head of Centre for Performance History
Level
M
Delivery
7 x 1.5 hour
introductory lectures
followed by 3 hours 1to-1 supervision
Credit Rating
10
Core/Elective
Elective
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
N/A
Unit Code
M1E20

This unit will offer an introduction to aspects of the history of music performance from 1700, and to
some of the unique items in the CPH and Library collections that provide evidence of that history. The
lectures will cover four broad areas: organology, iconography, concert programmes and sound
recordings. This will be followed by a specialised project in a chosen area. Both theoretical and practical
issues surrounding the interpretation of such objects and documents will be explored, and you will have
opportunities to use them in your own work. You will develop your verbal and written presentational
skills, and will gain experience in self-directed individual research working with unique historical
documents or objects.
gained an overview of the main collections in the RCM Centre for Performance History
displayed a mastery of a complex and specialised area of knowledge and skill
employed advanced skills to conduct research
have developed awareness of best practice in handling rare documents and/or objects
gained insights into the ways in which documents and artefacts can enhance our understanding
of performance history
attained a high degree of fluency in written expression
The unit contributes to the following learning outcomes of the programme (see programme
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
2 and 5
1, 2, 3 and 4
1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2 and 3
Indicative content
1-to-1 supervision tailored to individual needs

development of research skills intrinsic to topic development
76
Completion of a project on a specialist topic related to the collections of the Centre for Performance
History. It might take the form of a description and finding aid for an archival collection of documents, a
study of one of the instruments or paintings in the CPH collections and its significance for performance
history, an essay or a small exhibition (either real or virtual) drawing on material from the CPH
collections.
Project presentation (15 mins presentation, 15 mins questions)

Written project report (4000-6000 words) or equivalent
25%
75%
The examiners will be looking for thoroughness and accuracy of research, clarity and elegance of
presentation and coherence of the rationale given for value judgements.
The project must be submitted no later than the Friday of Week 24 of the teaching year.
77
ELECTIVE UNIT: STUDIO EXPERIENCE

Unit Leader: Timothy Salter
Level
M
Credit Rating
10
Delivery
6 hours studio time for
recording, producing
and editing, plus
introductory session
and 1-1 support
Core/Elective
Elective
Availability
Each year
Prerequisite
PGDip in
Performance
Unit Code
M1E11

gained some first-hand recording experience in the roles both of performer and producer
acquired an insight into the requirements and pressures of these roles and an understanding of
the way in which they interact.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 4 and 5
3, and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
4
Indicative content
Supervised work in the studio environment, complemented by unsupervised access to complete tasks.
Activities will include:
Performing in the studio environment

Acting as the producer for other student performers
Selecting takes for inclusion in the final submission
Preparing clear labelling for the finished CD
The assessment is based a mark agreed between the professor teaching the unit and the studio producer
who is the sound engineer at the recording sessions. It reflects your attainment as a recording artist as
evidenced by the CD that is the product of this unit as well as your performance during your session, as
a producer and as an editor in your post-session work.
10 credits
78
ELECTIVE UNIT: ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE

Unit Leader: Peter Buckoke
Level
3
Credit Rating
Core/Elective
Prerequisite
Elective
Level 2 Alexander
Technique or equivalent
Availability
Unit Code
Available each year, if taken

by a minimum of 5 students
32A28
40 credits (double unit)
Delivery
75-minute weekly lectures and group seminars over
22 weeks

Successful completion of this unit means that you will be able to:
recognise performance anxiety and know how to deal with it

apply the Alexander technique to playing your instrument and decision making
identify habitual emotional responses to everyday stimuli through awareness of verbal and
body language
understand how to achieve real spontaneity in performance
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2 and 3
1, 3, 4, and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative Content
performing to the group on video with supportive group analysis

techniques for dealing with performance anxiety
good use of the eyes in performance
presentation skills for auditions and the concert platform
awareness of the moment of choice in decision making
exploration of the use of language and body language in communication
a cooperative research project
individually appropriate hands-on Alexander work from the professor
Three written assignments:
1) research project: working initially with one or two other students in the group, a topic of mutual
interest to be selected (e.g. technique, practice, communication in performance, performance
anxiety) and all issues relating to this topic explored. A questionnaire should be formulated by
the group which allows its authors to explore, with the RCM student body, student perceptions
in relation to the topic and the issues arising from this. Individually, each student will then write a
written report (2,000 words excluding appendices) formulating the Alexander strategies
identified as appropriate for dealing with the topic addressed.
Submission deadline: end of Teaching Week 5 (Spring Term)
40%
2) 4,000-word essay on a topic agreed with the unit professor.
Submission deadline: end of Teaching Week 1 (Summer Term)
40%
3) 2,000-word reflective report: critical evaluation of the effects of having followed the course (with
particular reference to any changes in instrumental technique, practice strategies, presence and
spontaneity in performance and interpersonal interactions, understanding of teaching and
learning).
Submission deadline: Summer Term deadline for Level 3 portfolio submissions.
20%
79
ELECTIVE UNIT: CHAMBER MUSIC

Area Leader for Ensemble Activities: Elisabeth Cook (Head of Undergraduate Programmes)
Level
3
Credit Rating
40
Delivery
14 hours coaching
Core/Elective
Elective
Availability
In any year, subject to group
fulfilling criteria
Prerequisites
Part of an established
group, the majority of
whom should be
taking this unit
Unit Code
M4U01

demonstrated that you can achieve a high level of rapport with the other members of your
ensemble, working towards the creation of a unified, well-blended and balanced performance
in which the subtle nuances of ensemble playing are evident
explored significant examples from the repertoire in close detail and developed a wellresearched awareness of the overall extent and character of this repertoire
shown good inter-personal skills and the beginnings of the organisational and entrepreneurial
initiative required to secure external engagements
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative Content
selection, under the guidance of the coaching tutor, of appropriate repertoire for detailed work
at this level
coaching on issues of chamber playing, balance, intonation, ensemble, interaction, rehearsal
protocols, etc. as prompted by the repertoire covered
supervised preparation of c30 minutes of music to concert standard
The above to be supplemented by a schedule of regular and committed rehearsal subscribed to by all
members of the group
Repertoire examination (Summer Term Examination Period)

Report from Chamber Music coach
100%
see box below
In order for the mark achieved in this examination to be carried forward and the credits for the unit earned the
group must present a report from their Chamber Music coach. The format of this report will ask the coach to outline
the repertoire covered, the regularity of coaching sessions and the progress made over the course of the year. For full
details of the significance of the coachs report and the impact of this on the overall mark for this unit, please consult
the Level 3 Chamber Music syllabus.
80
ELECTIVE UNIT: CHORAL SINGING

Area Leader for Ensemble Activities: Elisabeth Cook (Head of Undergraduate Programmes)
Unit Leader for Choral Singing:
Level
Credit Rating
Core/Option
Prerequisites
20 credits
Elective
Successful audition
with RCM Chamber
Choir
Delivery
Availability
Unit Code
Rehearsal and Concert schedule for RCM Chorus

(Autumn Term) and RCM Chamber Choir
(Spring Term)
Each year
M2U06
NB: Enrolment on this unit is subject to successfully completing a short, informal audition during
the Induction period with the Director of the RCM Chamber Choir.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this unit you should be able to:
recognise the challenges presented by singing in a demanding choral situation

identify quickly the problems associated with particular styles or individual composers, and
be able to carry out a scheme of practice in order to improve your skills in overcoming
problem areas
with particular regard to diction, blend and characterisation, carry out an agreed scheme of
practice to strengthen these
demonstrate knowledge of the various stages of preparation required in order to perform
effectively in a choral concert: study of the text of the works to be sung; appreciation of the
stylistic issues with regard to performance practice; ability to work with a conductor (and
accompanist/orchestra) to the mutual benefit of the group; rehearsal process (group and
individual); interaction with other singers in a supportive and creative way
Indicative Content
Autumn Term rehearsals and concert(s) with the RCM Chorus

Spring Term rehearsals and concert(s) with the RCM Chamber Choir
20-minute examination at the end of the Autumn term to include: (i) assessment, in small
ensemble, of extracts from the current repertoire of the RCM Chorus; (ii) sight-reading;
(iii) viva voce
50%
One assessed public concert with the RCM Chamber Choir. Assessment will be
undertaken by the conductor (and a second internal specialist who will also attend at
least one rehearsal) and will reflect: (i) your initial state of preparedness when rehearsals
begin and your capacity to make subsequent musical adjustments required by the
conductor; (ii) their ability to work effectively within the group and with the conductor;
(iii) your awareness of style and its performance implications
50%
81
ELECTIVE UNIT: COMPOSITION

Unit Leaders: Timothy Salter, William Mival
Level
3
Credit Rating
40
Delivery
1:1 Supervision (nominal 22.5 min/week over 24
weeks) sometimes combined into group seminars
(numbers permitting)
Core/Elective
Elective
Prerequisites
Level 2 Composition or
its equivalent
Availability
Each year
Unit Code
M4U04

acquired fluency in writing for at least one medium (possibly connected with your Principal
Study) and confidence in writing for other groups outside your own specialist area of
performance
continued the critical development of a harmonic and rhythmic language, and demonstrated
the ability to extend the duration of a composition and show a sure sense of pacing
developed skills in creating a palette of musical textures as part of your technique
demonstrated the ability and self-confidence to manage and evaluate projects, and to take
initiatives (i) with other performers and (ii) with relevant persons within an organisation in the
interests of procuring performances of your compositions
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
2, 4 and 5
1, 3, and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
4
Indicative Content
exploration of developmental techniques in extended composition

awareness of a range of contrapuntal techniques in association with a developed harmonic
language
orchestration based on a historical perspective
practical responsibilities of performance preparation in scores, parts and rehearsal requirements
By a portfolio, containing at least three pieces for a variety of media, submitted no later
than the Summer Term deadline for Level 3 portfolio submissions (the precise date for
this will be published annually). One piece should be for a medium of at least four instruments
(instruments/voices). The total duration of your portfolio should be normally not less than seven
minutes. At least one piece will be assessed by performance as well as score reading
100%
82
ELECTIVE UNIT: CONDUCTING

Unit Leader for Conducting
Level
3
Credit Rating
40
Delivery
72-minute weekly class for 24 weeks, plus
observation of orchestral rehearsals
Core/Elective
Elective
Prerequisite
Level 2 Conducting or
its equivalent
Availability
Each year, if chosen
by 5-8 students
Unit Code
M4U03

produced and implemented a programme of individual practice to improve particular areas of

weakness
strengthened your knowledge of the fundamental techniques of conducting, paying particular
attention to gestural communication
understood and developed further the skills and knowledge required for directing rehearsals
and performances, extended your knowledge of orchestral and large ensemble repertoire and
improved your ability to read scores
gained further experience of directing performers both within College and outside, and
conductors
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2 and 3
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
2, 3 and 4
Indicative Content
time beating, including irregular beat patterns and irregular bar patterns; setting tempi, the
indication of tempo variation and pauses
score reading, including a knowledge of transposing instruments; instrumental capabilities
including details of bowing, phrasing and articulation; instrumental balance and intonation
rehearsal preparation, planning and techniques; consideration of the role of a conductor in
rehearsals and performance; practical experience of conducting
comparison of recorded interpretations
Practical test: rehearsal and performance of an ensemble in a prepared work

Continuous assessment of class work
Viva voce
83
60%
30%
10%
ELECTIVE UNIT: DUO PERFORMANCE

Area Leader for Ensemble Activities: Elisabeth Cook (Head of Undergraduate Programmes);
Unit Leader for Duo Performance: John Blakely
Level
Credit Rating
Core/Elective
Prerequisites
40
Elective
Part of an established
duo, both of whom
should be taking this
unit
Delivery
Availability
Unit Code
14 hours coaching *
In any year, subject to

duo fulfilling criteria
M4U02
* Coaching provision for this option is on the basis of both participants contributing 15 minutes per week from their
Principal Study allocation in the Autumn and Spring Terms only, College then contributing a further 4 hours over the
course of the year.

demonstrated that you can achieve a high level of rapport with your partner, working towards
the creation of a unified, well-blended and balanced performance in which the subtle nuances
of duo playing are evident
explored significant examples from the repertoire in close detail and developed a wellresearched awareness of the overall extent and character of this repertoire
shown good inter-personal skills and the beginnings of the organisational and entrepreneurial
initiative required to secure external engagements.
specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
1, 2, 3, and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
1, 2, 3 and 4
Indicative Content
selection, under the guidance of the duo tutor, of appropriate repertoire for detailed work at
this level and the refinement of a study plan for the year already provisionally determined as
part of the Level 2 work
coaching on issues of duo playing, balance, ensemble, interaction, rehearsal protocols, etc., as
prompted by the repertoire covered
supervised preparation of c30 minutes of music to concert standard
The above to be supplemented by a schedule of regular and committed rehearsal subscribed to by
both members of the duo.
84
Repertoire examination (Summer Term Examination Period)

Report from Duo Performance coach
100%
see box below
In order for the mark achieved in this examination to be carried forward and the credits for the unit earned the group must present a
report from their Duo Performance coach. The format of this report will ask the coach to outline the repertoire covered, the regularity of
coaching sessions and the progress made over the course of the year.
For full details of the significance of the coachs report and the impact of this on the overall mark for this unit, please consult the Level3 Duo
Performance syllabus. There should be no duplication of repertoire between the Duo Performance unit and the Principal Study recital
examination in the year in which both units are taken.
85
ELECTIVE UNIT: ORCHESTRATION AND ARRANGEMENT

Area Leader for Stylistic Studies: David Graham;
Unit Leader for Orchestration and Arrangement: William Mival
Level
Credit Rating
Core/Elective
Prerequisites
40 credits
Elective
Level 2 Orchestration
and Arrangement or its
equivalent
Availability
Each year
Unit Code
M4U05
Delivery
1:1 Supervision (nominal 22.5 min/week over 24
weeks) sometimes combined into group seminars
(numbers permitting)

increased your working and practical knowledge of the main orchestral and other instruments in
terms of their ranges, technical strengths and limitations, as well as their individual qualities
developed further your resources in terms of arranging and instrumental technique, enabling the
effective and idiomatic transfer of musical material between instrumental media
demonstrated understanding of different instrumental and orchestral styles allowing for their
effective imitation
acquired the means to input a musical score using appropriate computer software.
This unit contributes to the following learning outcomes of the programme (see programme specification):
Practical skills
Cognitive skills
Transferable skills
2, 4 and 5
1, 3, and 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
4
Indicative Content
group seminars, predominantly earlier on in the year, covering advanced techniques

individual supervisions, largely responsive to individual plans and projects
feedback on early drafts of work
brief introduction to appropriate computer software
Assessment is based entirely on a portfolio, containing at least four separate orchestrations or

arrangements (or a combination of these). This portfolio must include a recording of one of your
submitted pieces, which must be a recording of a live performance: midi or synthesized recordings
are not acceptable and their submission in lieu of a live performance will result in the overall
failure of the portfolio.
Examiners will take into account your awareness of instrumental technique, the skills demonstrated and
your general presentation. Your portfolio should be submitted by the Summer Term deadline for Level 3
portfolio submissions (the precise date for this will be published annually).
100%
86
10
Programme Management Arrangements
10.1
The Masters Programme is managed through a team led by the Head of Graduate School.
Key members of this team are the Deputy Head of Graduate School and the Pathway
Leaders for the various pathways. In addition, the Heads of Faculty have considerable
input into the running of these courses, including oversight of the instrumental syllabuses
for the practical examinations, coordinating the processes whereby students are allocated
to professors for 1-to-1 instrumental lessons and, where appropriate, transferred from one
professor to another during the course of their studies.
10.2
Administrative support for management of the Masters Programme is provided by the

Registry Programmes Team.
10.3
Two key committees deal with matters relating to the running of the Masters
Programme. The Artistic and Academic Management Group, which meets every fortnight,
deals with issues such as admissions, the management of student numbers at admissions,
and the annual review of guidelines for auditioning and examining panels. It also acts in
the role of a steering committee when periodic reviews take place. The Graduate School
Committee deals with all operational matters relating to the PGDip and MMus courses
and Masters Programme as a whole, including minor modifications that arise as part of
the process of ongoing curriculum development. It meets once a term and receives
reports from Pathway Leaders. It also receives and approves annual monitoring reports.
There is student representation on the Committee.
10.4
The membership and terms of reference of these two committees have been revised as
part of a wholesale review of the committees of the College which report to the Board of
Professors. Details of membership and terms of reference are available on the RCM
intranet. The same information is available in hard copy in the new version of the Colleges
Committee Handbook. Copies of this are readily available, including a reference copy kept
in the Library.
10.5
The results of students assessment and their final awards are approved by the Masters
Programme in Performance Board of Examiners. This Board meets twice a year to consider
such matters, in addition to further internal meetings to consider students project
proposals, etc. At its meeting in July, it deals with the majority of results; in September, it
considers Intensive MMus completions, deferred results and reassessments. The
membership and terms of reference of this Board are published in the same manner as
indicated above.
10.6
As well as being represented on the Graduate School Committee, students have regular
access to Pathway Leaders and their feedback informs the reports made by Pathway
Leaders to that Committee. The primary opportunity for student feedback, however,
comes through the questionnaire which is linked to the Personal Development Plan
completed by all students as part of their Principal Study unit requirements. Because the
return of the form is a prerequisite for successful completion of the unit, the proportion of
students providing feedback is high. As well as contributing to ongoing modifications to
the Masters Programme, this feedback is used to set some of the key agenda issues for
periodic review.
87
APPENDIX 1
Royal College of Music, London
Programme Specification for the Integrated Masters Programme
PLEASE NOTE: This specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the programme and
learning outcomes that a typical student might reasonably be expected to achieve and demonstrate if s/he
takes full advantage of the learning opportunities that are provided. More detailed information on the
learning outcomes, content and teaching, learning and assessment methods can be found in the programme
handbook. The accuracy of the information contained in this document is reviewed by the College and may
be checked by the Quality Assurance Agency.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Awarding Body
Teaching Institution
External Accreditation by
Final Award
Programme Title
UCAS code
Relevant QAA Subject Benchmarking Group
Date of production/revision

n/a
Postgraduate Diploma (RCM), Masters Degree
in Advanced Performance (RCM)
Integrated Masters Programme
N/A
March 2003
Educational Aims of the Programme

The programme aims to:
provide advanced musical training at postgraduate level in which a fundamental emphasis upon
practical attainment is complemented by the encouragement of critical self-awareness, a capacity
for reflective insight and the ability to formulate discriminating musical judgements;
offer to graduate musicians of proven ability, and with the potential for further development, the
opportunity to enhance their skills, broaden their knowledge of repertoire, hone their
interpretational and/or creative abilities and thereby to develop their musical talents, both in
terms of maturity and of individualisation;
provide a training whose own internal standards and, where applicable, whose actual
characteristics mirror as closely as possible those demanded within the profession. In doing so to
seek the fullest involvement of musicians active within the profession, whether professors of the
College or visiting individuals and groups;
acknowledge, and reflect wherever applicable, the leading trends in musical thinking within the
profession;
produce musicians capable of contributing to the development of the profession and of

participating in its future shaping through their insights and understanding, as well as their
practical abilities.
88
10.
Programme Outcomes the programme provides opportunities for students to develop and
demonstrate knowledge and understanding, qualities, skills and other attributes in the following
areas.
Skills and other attributes
Practical Skills able to:

(1) perform at a level expected of a front-rank
professional musician in terms of technique,
musical interpretation and communication
(2) apply personal research, analysis, reflection
and listening to the process of forming a
musical interpretation
(3) use a thorough understanding of the
components of music and its underlying
structures to inform musical performances
(4) memorise and reconstruct sound
(5) conceive, manipulate and develop musical
ideas and apply aesthetic/stylistic principles to
performance
Teaching/learning methods and strategies

Practical skills are developed through individual
instrumental lessons, specialist seminar-style
classes, ensemble and orchestral coaching, faculty
performance classes, masterclasses and College
concerts.
Formative feedback is provided throughout the
programme of study for example, advice from
visiting specialists giving masterclasses. Most
formal assessments are summative, however. They
are largely concentrated in the Summer Term and
mostly take the form of recital-style examinations.
In many cases, the assessment event is an actual
performance, at which an examining panel is
present, rather than a separately-organised
examination
Cognitive (thinking) skills able to:

(1) research, synthesise and evaluate
information from a variety of sources, most of
them not text-based (eg the oral testimony of
teachers and fellow-performers, information
carried in the sound of performances and
recordings)
(2) use advanced levels of reasoning and logic
to analyse this material and form relevant
performing strategies
(3) exercise significant judgement and apply
artistic/intellectual perspectives
(4) carry out extended projects

Cognitive skills are promoted through individual
instrumental lessons, small group seminars and a
range of solo, ensemble and orchestral
performance opportunities. The optional
Performance Case History unit is the most
obvious example of how this approach is
explicitly articulated but the same approach is
implicitly encouraged by all the elements of the
programme. Even the degree of choice offered
within the programme structure itself encourages
students to use reasoning to select the most
advantageous pattern for their personal needs
and professional aspirations
Transferable skills able to:

(1) approach and solve problems in a flexible,
open and creative way
(2) work as part of a team, often in a leadership
role, taking spontaneous decisions and
responding to the decisions of others
(3) improvise, manage risk and cope with the
unexpected
(4) be self-motivated and disciplined, and
promote projects/performances with selfcritical awareness
(5) understand work regimes and professional
protocols
(6) work independently

Acquisition of these skills is, once again,
encouraged in elements of the programme but
also through private practice/study for individual
and collective performance projects (practical
examinations, solo appearances in concerts,
masterclasses and competitions, and appearances
with chamber groups and orchestras).
89

Knowledge and understanding of:
(1) the full range of technical and expressive
capabilities of ones instrument
(2) the instruments repertoire and that of its
period or modern equivalent and of commonly
related instruments, as appropriate
(3) how to assimilate less familiar repertoires
and the performing conventions associated
with them
(4) the current state and likely direction of
development of the profession, the range of
competencies needed to enter it and the ways
in which ones skills may be continuously
enhanced to keep pace with rising challenges in
a developing career

Core knowledge and understanding of the
instrument and its repertoire is communicated
primarily through the individual lessons. The
pattern of these lessons reflects the importance or
otherwise of related instruments to a given
principal instrument. Repertoire seminars,
chamber coaching, orchestral sectionals and
concert programmes in general all contribute to
the expansion of repertoire knowledge. A
proportion of these deal specifically with less
familiar repertoire and the assimilations
techniques required. Side-by-side experiences
bring the realities of the profession into close
proximity while Professional Skills lectures offer
specific insights into the profession. These latter
are for all Postgraduate Diploma students but
students may additionally undertake an assessed
unit arising out of the lectures
11. Programme structure and features; curriculum units, credit and award requirements
The Postgraduate Diploma is offered as a full-time, 1 to 2-year programme, leading to the award of PGDip(RCM).
Students successfully completing Year 1 obtain a PGDip in Performance; those successfully completing two years of
study additionally receive a PGDip in Advanced Performance. The Master of Music in advanced Performance is
offered as a full-time, 1 year intensive or 2-year programme, leading to the award of MMus(RCM).Both the PGDip and
MMus courses are organised into pathways as follows:
Solo/ensemble Recitalist
Orchestral Musician
Early Music Performer
Conductor (available only at Performance level; 2nd Year Conductors take MMus)
Chamber Music (for dedicated groups)
There are core units for the various pathways and a range of elective units that may be selected to build up the
required number of credits. Unit sizes vary but are based on multiples of 10, this being the smallest unit size. The
standard number of credits in each year is 120 at Level M. However, students may select from a range of Level 3 units
as part of their elective choice. These units are all 40-credit units. Where this happens, students must obtain at least
90 credits at Level M (i.e. of the 120 credits). They are therefore permitted to take units totalling 130 or 140 credits
of which 90 or 100 are at Level M.
Year 1
All students enter the Masters Programme, applying for a
particular pathway of the programme and select from patterns
of possible core units accordingly. These core units consist of
special pathway units, Principal Study units and Related and
Second Study units. Students intending to obtain an MMus
qualification must take the MMus Core Unit, the Academic
Portfolio, in Year 1. Many students may choose to focus on
Principal Study alone. Where Second and Related Study
combinations are selected, these should reflect common
patterns in the profession (egg orchestral doubling
instruments and/or period instruments). Principal Study units
range from 90 to 60 minutes per week; Related Study is 15
minutes per week; Second Study may be 30 or 45 minutes per
week. Exceptionally, students may take a Joint principal Study
of 60 minutes each per week. All these individual study units
are examined by a
repertoire-based exam in the Summer Term. Where there is
separate technical exam, this takes place at the end of the
Spring term.
Core units take up a minimum of 80 credits and a maximum
of the full 120 credits. Elective units, if taken, account for the
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All units undertaken must be passed for the

award to be obtained and, if appropriate, for
the student to progress to year 2.
Reassessment opportunities are offered in
September. Where a technical exam has been
failed in the Spring Term, reassessment is
normally possible in June.
All students successfully completing Year 1
will be awarded a PGDip in Performance.
Students may make an inward transfer to
Year 2 if they have gained a minimum of 120
credits elsewhere in subjects correlating to
the RCM Year 1 programme of study.
remaining credits. Some core units from one pathway are

available as electives for others. Many elective units are Level 3
units drawn from the BMus (Hons) programme. Most
electives are also practical in nature and examined in the
Summer Term. Elective options for performers include
Conducting, Composition and Orchestration & Arranging.
Year 2
Students usually progress to the second year of the same
pathway on which they were enrolled in the previous year. In
some circumstances a student may change in either direction
between the Solo/ensemble and Orchestral pathways and (for
pianists) between the Solo/ensemble and the
Accompanist/Repetiteur pathways.
Specialist pathway units may be taken in two consecutive
years since they are repertoire-based and designed to avoid
duplication between one year and the next. Principal Study
units may similarly be taken in both years; their final
assessment varies slightly in the second year. Students taking a
Related Study in Year 1 are normally expected to progress to
the next level for Year 2 or focus on their Principal Study.
Students must select different elective units from those
undertaken in Year 1.
As a result of the above, students are deemed to have
achieved greater depth in their core units at the end of Year 2
and greater breadth in their electives. These two qualities are
felt to justify their award at the end of the second year being
designated as at an Advanced Performance level.
All units undertaken must be passed for the

award to be obtained.
Reassessment opportunities are offered in
September.
All students successfully completing Year 2
will be awarded a PGDip in Advanced
Performance.
Students successfully completing all
components including two MMus Core Units
(one of which must be the Academic
Portfolio) will be awarded an MMus in
Advanced Performance.
12. Support for students and their learning

RCM Integrated Masters Programme Handbook
Individual syllabuses for all instruments covering examination requirements for Principal, Second and
Related Studies at first and second year levels
Induction talks, meetings, lectures and 1-to-1 programme advice in the first six weeks
Pathway Leaders for each pathway
A Student Counsellor and Welfare Manager
The Woodhouse Centre, a support unit offering advice in career and professional development,
publicity, teaching and external engagements, contact with RCM alumni and with external advisors
Access to lecturers in office hours
A Library (containing over 300,000 items), the Museum of Instruments (housing 600 instruments), the
RCM Studios (providing digital recording, post-production and editing facilities and a composers
studio) and the Department of Portraits and Performance History (housing 340 original paintings,
10,000 prints/photographs and 750,000 concert programmes)
The Centre for the Study of Music Performance (CSMP) and the Centre for Screen Music Studies
(CSMS)
IT facilities with access to email and the world-wide web
A student common room/bar
Student Association representatives
Facilities for photocopying and printing
A centralised Registry open 95 throughout the year
13. Criteria for admission
Applicants for Year 1 of the Masters Programme should have a first degree or equivalent. While this will
normally be in music, applications from graduates of other disciplines are considered
All eligible applicants are invited for audition in December. They must pass the audition. Because in many
cases demand exceeds the number of places available, the cut-off point for offers of places may be
significantly higher than the pass mark for the auditions.
Programme and Pathway confirmation takes place in Week 6 of the first term.
First-year students indicate towards the end of the Autumn Term whether they wish to be considered for a
second year of study. Provided that they meet the deadline for this notification, they will be given a
provisional acceptance for the second year, subject to their successfully completing Year 1 and gaining a
mark of at least 60% in their Principal Study unit.
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14. Methods for evaluating and improving the quality and standards of learning and teaching
Mechanisms for review and evaluation of teaching, learning and assessment, the curriculum
and outcome standards
Annual Monitoring report

reports from RCM External Examiners
five-year programme review and validation by a panel of internal and external specialists
a team of pathway Learning Advisers who monitor their particular areas of the course and assist in
course and examination preparation
an annual programme of staff development
peer observation and mentoring
periodic review by [HEQC]/QAA
Committees responsible for monitoring and evaluating quality and standards

Postgraduate Programmes Committee
Academic Management Group
Masters Programme Board of Examiners
Quality & Standards Group (reporting to Board of Professors)
Mechanisms for gaining student feedback on the quality of teaching and their learning experience
student course evaluation questionnaires
student representation on College committees
annual meeting of students with RCM External Examiners
meetings between Student Association postgraduate and faculty representatives and the Head of
Postgraduate Programmes
15. Regulation of assessment

The pass mark is 50% for all units. The overall marks required for the various classifications are as follows:
70100%
5069%
049%
Distinction
Pass
Fail
Role of External Examiners

The two External Examiners (from conservatoires and universities in the UK) are nominated by the Academic
Management Group, scrutinised by the Quality & Standards Group and approved by the Board of Professors. External
Examiners normally serve for four years. Their role is that of moderator and in order to do this they:
Attend at least one third of Principal Study practical examinations observing the operation of examining panels
and, where appropriate, suggesting possible moderation of the panels verdicts
Approve examination papers (where applicable)
Review coursework (where applicable)
See, or have access to, all examination scripts and coursework assignments (where applicable)
Attend the Postgraduate Board of Examiners
Complete a report to College
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APPENDIX 2
Regulations and Overall Credit Framework
for Taught Postgraduate Programmes
(MMus, PGDip, PGCert and Grad Dip)
Introduction
1.1
These regulations cover full and part-time students undertaking postgraduate study at the
RCM.
1.2
The regulations, and the course and pathway handbooks for the programmes to which
they apply should be read in conjunction with the General Academic Regulations, as from
time to time amended or substituted. These latter cover aspects such as student
complaints, appeals, regulations concerning student conduct, cheating, plagiarism and
collusion.
1.3
Each programme within the framework shall have a handbook* which will set out any
specific requirements. Individual units may have additional, separately published,
syllabuses. Any mention of handbooks in these regulations also applies to separately
published unit syllabuses.
*
Handbooks in some cases cover an entire programme; in other cases, there are
separate handbooks for each course or even each pathway. Where the general term
programme handbook is used in these regulations, it is taken to stand for all three
types.
Glossary of terms
In these regulations and in the handbooks of all programmes within the scheme, the
following expressions shall have the meanings assigned as follows:
Programme:
A validated pattern of study leading to an award. A single

programme may have more than one exiting award according to
the pattern and/or total volume of units studied
Course:
A validated pattern of study within a defined area of activity (e.g.

performance, composition) forming part of a recognised
programme.
Pathway:
A validated pattern of study tailored to a particular specialism (e.g.

orchestral musician, accompanist, composer for screen) forming
part of a recognised course and programme.
Unit:
The standard component into which a programme is divided and

from which students build up their chosen pattern of study. Each
unit has its own specified learning outcomes, content and
assessment scheme.
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Programme of
studies
An individual student's approved selection of units within a

programme, sufficient to satisfy the programme requirements on
successful completion.
Student transcript:
A document produced at the end of students studies which

details all the units making up their programme of studies, the
credit values of these units and the results achieved in each of
them, together with the overall result and qualification achieved.
Credit point:
A number representing the quantity of time and effort expended

by a student in part of the programme. Unit of the programme
are allocated credit points according to their size. When a unit is
passed, all the credits associated with it are awarded. Credit point
ratings are recognised by many institutions in the United Kingdom
and the rest of Europe, thus facilitating student transfer. The
National Credit Framework for the UK assigns a minimum of 180
credits to a Masters degree, 120 credits to a Postgraduate Diploma
and 60 to a Postgraduate Certificate. The College's framework
conforms to this pattern.
Level:
The standard of challenge of the work involved in a particular unit.

Credits at postgraduate level are described as being at Level M,
although, in the National Credit Framework for the UK, up to 25%
of the credits for a given award may be at undergraduate Level 3.
Where educationally appropriate, the Colleges programmes make
use of this latter mechanism.
ECTS credits:
The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) is becoming widely

adopted across European institutions, making it easier to compare
a students achievement in one institution with another
institutions requirements for entry, transfer, etc. The credit
system used by the RCM (which is the national UK system) is
compatible with the ECTS system. One ECTS credit point
corresponds to 2 credit points within the UK system. Therefore,
for example, the minimum ECTS credit points for a Masters
Degree is 90.
Component of
Assessment:
Reassessment:
An individual part of the assessment for the programme, such as

repertoire examination, written project or final recital. Each
component of assessment will constitute all or part of the
assessment associated with a given unit. Where there is more than
one component of assessment in a given unit, their relative
weighting is specified. Passing the component(s) of assessment
means that the number of credit points associated with the unit
will be awarded, contributing to the credits required for the final
award.
The requirement for a student to be wholly or partly assessed on a
further occasion without further study. This might involve
undertaking a new examination, giving a fresh recital performance
and/or submitting new work. The method(s) of reassessment
determined by the Board of Examiners should be the same or
equivalent to the original assessment. The mark achieved in a
reassessment is usually capped. A flag will be placed against the
mark on the student transcript to indicate that it is a capped
reassessment.
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Retake:
In certain circumstances, the Board of Examiners may determine

that a student needs to study a component of assessment again
before being reassessed. This is described in these regulations as a
retake. The mark achieved in a retake is not usually capped. A flag
will be placed against the mark on the student transcript to
indicate that it is a reassessment.
Compensation:
A Board of Examiners may permit a student's overall performance

to compensate for marginal failure in a unit or units.
Compensation does not turn a fail into a pass, rather it allows a
student to progress, without having to be reassessed in the unit(s)
failed. A flag will be placed against the mark on the student
transcript to indicate that it has been compensated.
Types of award and credit ratings
3.1
The following awards and credit ratings shall apply to programmes that are part of the
framework scheme. Not all programmes will offer the full range of awards.
Masters degree:
a minimum of 180 level-M credits
Postgraduate Diploma:
Postgraduate Certificate:
Generally only used as a lesser award when a student has credit towards the
Diploma or Masters but insufficient for either of these awards
Graduate Diploma
a minimum of 120 level-3 credits
A course taken by a student who already possesses a first degree, or equivalent,

and which is therefore postgraduate in time, though not in level
3.2
The overall credit framework for postgraduate taught programmes ascribes credit values
to all of the constituent programmes and courses. These are general credit values,
reflecting the duration of study, the quantity and the quality of work contained within the
awards. The general credits associated with one programme shall have no specific value in
relation to admission to another. Similarly, the credits associated with the first-year levels
(performance or composition) shall have no specific value in relation to the second-year
(advanced performance or advanced composition) levels.
3.3
Certain of the general credits associated with the PGDip in Advanced

Performance/Composition carry a corresponding specific value in respect of precisely
related elements of the MMus in Advanced Performance/Advanced Composition. Any
such allocation and its effect upon a students subsequent admission to MMus study shall
be in accordance with section 5 below, relating to the admission and transfer of students.
3.4
In addition to the awards listed above, the RCM offers a programme of study entitled an
Artist Diploma. This programme is open only to performers who have completed at least
one year of postgraduate study and who have achieved a pass with distinction or
equivalent. Results of the public recitals which take place at the end of the Artist Diploma
are considered by the Masters Programme in Performance Board of Examiners (see
section 7.1). In all other respects, the Artist Diploma functions outside the regulations
and credit framework set out here.
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The structure of taught postgraduate programmes
4.1
Each programme within the framework scheme shall be based on a teaching year which
shall comprise three terms. In the intensive version of the Masters programme, the
summer period, ie the difference between the academic session and the calendar year,
shall be included within the period of study. Hence, 180 level M credits will represent 12
months of postgraduate study. Postgraduate Diploma programmes, carrying a minimum
of 120 credit points, will typically occupy the period of the academic session,
corresponding to roughly two thirds of the duration and volume of study for a Masters
programme but with their emphasis concentrated in practical areas. Versions of the
Masters programme taken across two full academic sessions are ascribed 240 credits in
total, included within which must be the 180 credits essential for the Masters
qualification. The precise structure of postgraduate taught programmes varies from
course to course but all conform to these broad principles.
4.2.1
For flexibility, units in the taught postgraduate programmes are ascribed a variety of sizes.
However, all units are built out of 10 credit blocks or multiples thereof. In all cases,
irrespective of their size, units have a description setting out learning outcomes, content
and assessment scheme and they contribute one overall assessment mark.
4.3
The normal minimum duration of a programme leading to an award shall be:
4.4
Masters degree:
12 months of full-time study or equivalent
30 weeks of full-time study or equivalent
15 weeks of full-time study, or equivalent
Graduate Diploma:
30 weeks of full-time study or equivalent
The maximum period within which a student shall normally complete a particular
postgraduate programme shall be:
Masters degree:
four years
three years
two years
Graduate Diploma:
three years
4.5
The Course handbook may specify the order in which programme units must be taken as
part of a particular programme.
4.6
The Course handbook may specify that some programme units are prerequisites for
others.
Students individual programmes of study
5.1
Each student shall have an approved programme of studies. The approved programme of
studies will specify which units a student will study during the year. Students may only be
assessed in those units included in their approved programme of study. They may attend
other units as observers, but only in so far as this is compatible with their commitment to
their own programme of study and convenient to the teaching staff concerned. Students
will, however, be actively encouraged to attend masterclasses in subjects other than their
96
principal study instrument and other open teaching and performance sessions from time
to time arranged. Study beyond that stipulated for the fulfilment of the requirements of
the award, for example additional individual tuition, may be permitted at the discretion of
the Head of Graduate School and for an additional fee.
5.2
Unit borrowing
Unit borrowing between programmes in the scheme or, indeed, with appropriate
postgraduate level programmes outside the scheme (including at another institution) will
be permitted, subject to the approval of the inclusion of such units in an approved
programme of studies. Exceptionally, study on some programmes may expressly require a
period of study at another institution.
5.3
Unit borrowing from undergraduate programmes

Unit borrowing from undergraduate programmes is permitted by the scheme. However,
such unit borrowing may not be approved on an ad hoc basis and shall be subject to
validation. Proposals for such unit borrowing, including the credit points to be awarded
to such units, will be carefully considered at validation. Undergraduate level units which
are to be taken as part of a Postgraduate Diploma or Masters programme should be at
Level 3. In addition, these units should not comprise more than 25% of the normal credits
required for the award.
5.4
Prerequisites
The course handbook shall specify any units which are prerequisites for the study of other
units.
The admission and transfer of students
6.1
The general requirements for initial entry to a programme within the framework scheme
are that students should hold a minimum of a UK or overseas undergraduate degree, or its
equivalent. For the intensive version of the Masters programme, this should be an
honours degree in Music, related to the specialism of the programme, of at least Upper
Second Class standard. Where programmes have more specific or more general
requirements, these will be set out in the programme handbook. Admission will be
guided by the College's admissions and equal opportunities policies.
6.2
Overseas applicants whose first language is other than English are required to
demonstrate their linguistic proficiency by production of a certificate of the International
English Language Testing Service (IELTS) at level 6 or higher (qualifications deemed to be
equivalent to this are published in the prospectus). Overseas applicants for the intensive
version of the MMus should have achieved level 7 or higher.
6.3
In exceptional cases, interview panels shall have the discretion to recommend to the
admissions committee that a candidate lacking the requisite formal language qualification
should nevertheless be considered for admission on the grounds that his or her level of
linguistic ability is equivalent to that normally represented by these qualifications. Special
attention will be paid to the specific requirements of the proposed programme of study
and the candidates likely success in meeting these.
6.4
An applicant may be admitted to a programme with credit for appropriate prior learning
(including experiential learning) provided that there is a reasonable expectation that the
applicant will be able to fulfil the objectives of the programme by its completion.
6.5
Normally, an applicant shall not be admitted with the credit of more than half the credit
points required in order to qualify for the award which that applicant is seeking unless
there is an exceptionally close match between the applicant's prior learning and the
requirements of the programme.
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6.6
Subject to 6.5. above, the number of units for which credit on entry is given shall be
determined by the Head of Graduate School, in liaison with members of the course team
for the programme to which the applicant is to be admitted. The grade(s) to be given shall
be determined by the board of examiners for that programme, at the earliest opportunity.
6.7
It may be determined that applicants with a particular qualification are to be admitted

regularly with a standard amount of credit. Where this is the case, the arrangement shall
be specified in the programme handbook.
6.8
Where credit is given for experiential learning, the student may be required to undertake
assessment in order for the appropriate grade to be determined.
6.9
Readmission with credit

A student who has exhausted all the opportunities for reassessment may, at the discretion
of the Head of Graduate School, be readmitted to a programme in the scheme to study
new units, as part of a new approved programme of studies. In such circumstances the
student will retain credit for those units which had already been passed, subject to the
Head of Graduate School satisfying him- or herself that the units are an appropriate
foundation for the programme to which the student has been readmitted. The student
shall not be allowed to take again a component of assessment for which the opportunity
for reassessment has been exhausted.
6.10
Interruption of studies
At the discretion of the Head of Graduate School, a student with a valid reason for wishing
to interrupt his or her studies may be permitted to do so. Interruption shall normally be
for a period of one, two or three terms. A student wishing to interrupt for a longer period,
or to extend an existing period of interruption, must normally obtain fresh permission
before the end of their final term of approved interruption.
6.11
Interruption of studies will not normally be approved where it would extend beyond two
authorised periods totalling five terms. A student requiring further time before resuming
their studies will normally be required to apply formally for readmission at the point
where they are ready to return to the College. A student readmitted in this way may still
carry forward any credits earned prior to interruption.
6.12
Similarly, if the period of interruption required by a student means that he or she would
be unable to complete their overall studies within the maximum period allowed for that
programme (see Section 4) they will normally be required to apply formally for
readmission at the point where they are ready to return.
6.13
During the period of interruption, a student shall normally cease to have access to College
services and facilities enjoyed by current students.
7.
The assessment of students
7.1
There shall be a Board of Examiners to oversee the conduct of examination and other
assessment and to ratify its outcomes on behalf of the Board of Professors. Terms of
reference and membership details for the Board of Examiners shall be included in the
Colleges Committee Handbook and published on the RCM Intranet.
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7.1
Internal members of the board of examiners shall meet as appropriate to consider

proposals for Lecture Recitals, Critical Evaluation Projects etc. In some cases, interim
boards, which may include the external examiners where convenient but need not do so,
shall meet after assessment events during the course of the year. After these boards, the
results shall be published to students but with a standard accompanying rubric indicating
that they are provisional until ratified by the meeting of the board of examiners to
consider final awards. The same rubric shall be used where there is a long delay between
an assessment event and the next meeting of the board of examiners and results are
published by Chairs action.
7.2
The meeting of the board of examiners after the last assessment event to be taken within
a programme of study shall also constitute the final awards board. The presence of the
external examiners shall normally be required at this meeting of the board.
7.3
The precise form and content of examinations shall be determined in the documentation
referring to individual programmes, courses and pathways. The level of challenge, both
quantitative and qualitative, between an element of assessment in one pathway and its
equivalent in another must be demonstrably comparable in overall terms, but should take
account, where appropriate, of specialist factors in a given area which might call for
detailed variation in order to achieve this comparability.
7.4
All assessment shall be carried out on behalf of the board of examiners by assessment
panels. The procedures for practical examining are set out in a guide for examiners and
students which is reviewed annually.
7.5
Each student shall be awarded a grade for the components of assessment taken, in
accordance with the scale set out below. These grades shall always be used to report
achievement to a student regardless of the size of the unit concerned.
Percentage
70 +
50-69
49 or less
Grade/level of attainment
Distinction
Pass
Fail
Where a unit of study is borrowed from an undergraduate programme, the grading scale
used for assessment shall be consistent with the unit in its normal context. In cases such
as the Graduate Diploma where such units may form the totality of the programme of
study, the undergraduate percentage scheme shall be employed but the grading system of
Honours classifications shall not. A mark of 40% or above shall attract a pass grade.
7.6
A student is required to achieve a passing grade in the assessment task(s) specified for
each unit in his or her programme of studies in order to fulfil the requirements for the
award (see section 8 below). Unless the unit description states otherwise, a subsidiary
element of assessment within a unit may be failed, provided that the overall mark for the
unit is a pass.
7.7
Deferral
7.7.1
Any deferral of final recitals, repertoire or technical examinations must be

approved in advance by the Head of Graduate School. Such deferral will be
permitted only where a student can offer compelling academic reasons or serious
mitigating circumstances.
In all circumstances, other than mitigating
circumstances related to sudden illness, for which a medical certificate must be
provided, students must seek approval for a deferral at least two weeks in advance
of the examination date. External engagements will not usually be accepted as
justifiable mitigating circumstances other than, exceptionally, when the nature of
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the external engagement is, in the opinion of the Head of Graduate School, of
sufficient importance to override the examination schedule.
7.8
7.7.2
In circumstances where the above conditions have not been met or where a
student has not gained permission and nevertheless fails to present themselves for
an examination, the deferred examination will normally be treated as a
reassessment. The mark will thus be capped at a maximum of 50% (40% for the
Graduate Diploma) and a reassessment fee will be charged (see 8.2).
7.7.3
Deferred recital examinations will always take place in one of the RCMs
recognised performance venues where this would have been the case with the
original assessment. However, given the complexity of examination scheduling,
the college cannot guarantee that the particular performance venue used in the
earlier assessment period will be the same for the deferred assessment.
7.7.4
In the case of assessments based upon the submission of substantial quantities of

written text or music (portfolios, written projects, etc), students who fail to
submit by the prescribed date may, at the discretion of the Head of Graduate
School, be allowed to hand in their work up to two calendar months late. The
granting of an extension is only made in circumstances where a strong case has
been established and where a student given such flexibility is not felt to be unfairly
advantaged thereby compared with other students on the course.
7.7.5
Where deferral of a portfolio or written project is granted, the new submission

date and date for examination shall be determined by the Head of Graduate
School and communicated to the student and to external examiners. Whilst every
reasonable effort will be made to ensure that candidates deferring by no more
than the prescribed period are examined according to a timetable which will
permit them to graduate, along with the rest of their cohort, assessment will
necessarily have to be coordinated with the scheduled visits of external examiners
to the College.
7.7.6
Under exceptional circumstances, the Head of Graduate School may recommend

to the board of examiners that a deferral of more than two months is warranted.
If this is the case, a written justification by the student, accompanied by a written
supporting statement from the professor most closely involved shall be presented
to an internal meeting of the Board of Examiners. If approved by the Board of
Examiners, the deferred submission shall operate under the same conditions as in
7.8.4 above.
7.7.7
Where deferral of a portfolio or written project is not granted, a late submission

will normally be treated as a reassessment under the same terms as in 7.8.2 above.
Mitigating Circumstances
7.8.1
Students who believe they have mitigating circumstances which have affected
their performance or caused them to miss deadlines should follow the guidance
on mitigating circumstances /late submission of coursework laid out in the
General Academic Regulations. This indicates that they must submit mitigating
circumstances either in writing to the Head of Graduate School, or by discussing
their circumstances confidentially with the Counsellor. Only mitigating
circumstances submitted in this way will be considered.
7.8.2
Extensions to deadlines will not be offered. Any mitigating circumstances which

are provided by a student will be considered by a sub-group of the Board of
Examiners which will meet shortly before the Board. The sub-group will make
recommendations to the Board on whether the mitigating circumstances
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submitted in writing or through the Counsellor are valid and whether they should
affect the marks for particular units or individual elements of assessment,
including whether capped marks should be lifted.
7.8.3
There are two circumstances in which the Counsellor can submit mitigating
circumstances on a students behalf: (i) where the circumstances are of an
exceptionally personal nature and the student prefers that only the Counsellor
knows about them (in this situation, the Counsellor will require evidence in order
to form a view); (ii) where the Counsellor has been working with a student for a
period of time in a counselling relationship. So that an accurate assessment of the
circumstances can be made, the Counsellor will need to have a certain amount of
knowledge of the student, over a period of time, and not just to have met on one
occasion. The current guideline is that the Counsellor will need to have met the
student on at least three occasions, close to period of time for which the student
wishes to establish that the study was affected. However, this does not guarantee
that the Counsellor will be able to provide evidence that the students
circumstances have affected their ability to study.
Decisions of the Board of Examiners
8.1
Compensation
8.2
8.1.1
The Board of Examiners for a programme may, having due regard to the standard
of the award and to the objectives of the programme, allow a student's overall
performance to compensate for a partial failure in one component of assessment
only within a total student programme for any award. A Board is not required to
make use of this provision but may use it when, in its considered judgement, such
compensation is fair and reasonable in relation to the objectives of the
programme and the standard of the student's performance as a whole.
8.1.2
Compensation should not be applied to a component of assessment that forms a

substantial proportion of the assessment for the award, nor to a component of
assessment that is central to the fulfilment of programme objectives.
Reassessment
8.2.1
Students who fail in their first attempt to satisfy the Board of Examiners in the
assessment for the award or individual components of assessment may be
reassessed once only, at the discretion of the Board of Examiners. A reassessment
fee is charged.
8.2.2
If successful in a reassessment, the student shall be notified of their actual result

but shall be awarded a capped pass mark of 50% (40% for the Graduate Diploma).
If unsuccessful in a reassessment, the student shall retain the higher grade
obtained at either of the two attempts.
8.2.3
The Board of Examiners may, at its discretion, require a student to retake a unit (ie
undertake further study) before reassessment takes place. In these circumstances,
an additional fee will be charged for the further studies undertaken, including the
reassessment taken at the end of them. The mark achieved in a reassessment
following retake is not usually capped. Because a retake is a form of reassessment,
there will not normally be an opportunity for a student who is unsuccessful in a
retake to be offered further reassessment.
101
8.3
Progression
8.3.1
Many postgraduate courses last one academic year or one calendar year and
therefore the issue of progression from one academic year to another does not
arise with these. However, there are four cases where progression from one year
to the next does take place. These are as follows:
PGDip in Performance
MMus/PGDip in
to
PGDip in Composition
MMus/PGDip in
Advanced Composition
Integrated Masters in Vocal
Performance
MMus/PGDip in
Advanced Vocal Performance
Graduate Diploma, Singer

PGDip in Vocal Performance
8.3.1
Within the academic year, progression is, in some cases, controlled at the points
where students must submit proposals concerning specific units of the course for
the approval of the Board of Examiners (see 7.2 above). Success or failure in these
submissions may determine whether the qualification finally obtained is an MMus
or a PGDip.
8.3.2
All students undertaking units which entail the submission of proposals must
submit by the deadlines stipulated. A timetable of deadlines for each individual
pathway is published at the beginning of the academic year.
8.3.3
If a students proposal is approved, he or she may still alter or redefine it, subject
to the approval of the Board, up until a further deadline which will be included on
the published timetable.
8.3.4
A student whose proposal is not acceptable will normally be given the

opportunity to resubmit a modified proposal to the board of examiners by a
subsequent deadline. If yet again unsuccessful, they will not normally be
permitted to pursue that particular unit any further. In programmes where there
is choice among a range of units, the student may select another more
appropriate unit; in programmes with a fixed pattern of units, the student will
normally pursue only the units remaining available to them and, as a result, be
considered for a lesser award at the conclusion of their studies.
8.3.5
Students who are required to withdraw entirely from a programme but who have
already successfully completed certain of its earlier elements of assessment will
receive a transcript indicating the elements passed, with marks, and the number of
Level M credits earned thereby.
8.3.6
Students whose resubmitted proposals are accepted by the board of examiners

will normally proceed through all remaining elements of the programme. If they
are subsequently unsuccessful in any of the elements of assessment, they will still
normally be permitted to complete the programme, whilst following the
procedures for reassessment laid down in the regulations.
102
8.4
Overall failure
The Colleges guiding principle shall be to permit reasonable opportunity to redeem
failure where the student has demonstrated firm commitment to the course or where
they have justifiable mitigating circumstances which have been reported to the board of
examiners. Therefore, where the extent of failure is too great to allow reassessment or
retaking as in 8.2 above, the following will be the usual options considered:
retaking the entire year, in which case all units must be taken again, with or
without capping at the discretion of the board. All units retaken in this manner
must be passed at the first attempt;
termination of the students studies. The student will be awarded the credits
for all units passed and will be eligible to receive any award of the College to which
these credits entitle him/her.
Criteria for awards
9.1
Masters Degree (MMus) In order to qualify for the award of a Masters degree, a student
shall have gained a minimum of 180 credit points, at least 135 of which must be at Level
M, and successfully completed his or her approved programme of study.
9.2
Postgraduate Diploma In order to qualify for the award of a Postgraduate Diploma a

student shall have gained a minimum of 120 credit points, at least 90 of which must be at
Level M, and successfully completed his or her approved programme of study.
9.3
Postgraduate Certificate In order to qualify for the award of a Postgraduate Certificate a

student shall have gained a minimum of 60 credit points, at least 45 of which must be at
Level M, and successfully completed his or her approved programme of study.
9.4
Graduate Diploma
In order to qualify for the award of a Graduate Diploma a student shall have gained a
minimum of 120 Level 3 credit points and successfully completed his or her approved
programme of study.
9.5
Certificate of Credit
The College's Certificate of Credit may be awarded to a student for credit gained from
successful completion of units on a programme, on the basis of the credit obtained by the
student at the point of withdrawal, for whatever reason. The Certificate of Credit will
indicate that the individual named on the Certificate has satisfactorily achieved general
credit points for assessed learning according to the nationally recognised Credit
Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS). The Certificate will not be titled unless the
course handbook makes specific provision for a title.
9.6
Award of Distinction
In the case of Masters degrees and Postgraduate Diplomas, a Board of Examiners shall
make an award with distinction where at least one of the following three conditions has
been met:
The student has obtained marks yielding an overall aggregate of 70% or higher;
The student has achieved a grade of 70% or above in at least 75 % of the credits
required for the award (ie usually 135 credits for the Masters degree, at least 100 of
which should be at Level M, and 90 credits for a Postgraduate Diploma, at least 60 of
which should be at Level M);
103
The student has achieved a grade of 70% or above in at least 50% of the credits
required for the award (ie usually 90 credits for the Masters degree, at least 60 of
which should be at Level M, and 60 credits for the Postgraduate Diploma, at least 40
of which should be at Level M) and has additionally obtained marks yielding an
overall aggregate of 68% or higher.
The award of distinction is not available for Postgraduate Certificates or Graduate

Diplomas.
9.7
9.8
Offer of Lower Awards

9.7.1
A candidate who fails to qualify for an award but who has, in the judgement of the
Board of Examiners, satisfied the requirements for a lower award, shall be offered
the opportunity of accepting the lower award.
9.7.2
If the candidate is also offered the opportunity of a further attempt at the higher
award the offer of that opportunity shall be as an alternative to the offer of the
lower award. If, however, the candidate accepts the offer of a further opportunity
but fails to qualify for the higher award, the candidate may then claim the lower
award previously offered.
9.7.3
A student who has accepted an award shall not have an automatic right to
re-enter the programme in order to study for a higher award. A student must
apply for readmission to the programme.
Aegrotat awards
Where there is insufficient evidence to determine the recommendation of an award but
the board of examiners is nevertheless satisfied that the student would have qualified for
the award for which he or she was a candidate had it not been for illness or other valid
cause, an Aegrotat pass award may be recommended.
104
APPENDIX 3
Procedures for the Submission and Marking of Postgraduate Written
Work at the Royal College of Music 2007-08: A Guide for Professors and
Students
This Guide has been compiled in order to provide students and staff with clear information on
the various stages of the submission and marking process. Some of the sections that follow apply
only to students, some to staff alone and others to both.
Presentation of Work
1
Format
All written material at postgraduate level should be typed or word-processed on A4
paper, double-spaced, and on one side of the paper only. There should be ample margins
and, in the case of Critical Evaluation Projects, 1.5 inches allowed on the left hand side to
facilitate subsequent binding. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively in Arabic
numerals. Numbering may either run throughout the document, with the footnotes
presented separately at the end of the main text or, where word processing allows
footnotes to be entered at the foot of relevant page, may be recommenced with each new
chapter or equivalent structural division of the text. Music examples, figures, tables, etc
should be incorporated in the text and reduced to A4 size as necessary. Page numbers
should be given throughout.
Style
2.1 Students should follow the house style used in the second edition of The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 2000), except in the preparation of
bibliographies, where the format set down in the Royal Musical Associations Research
Chronicle 28 (1995) should be employed.
2.2 Use of The New Grove II house style will assist in matters such as the spelling (including
accents) of names (people, places, institutions) as well as in the presentation of work
titles, numbers, music contexts (e.g. time signatures), possessives and abbreviations.
2.3 Material submitted for examination (including any cassette, compact disc, video or
CD ROM recordings) should be securely held together and may be presented in A4
clip files. Submissions should include a title page showing the students name, the unit,
the title of the piece of work (where appropriate), and the name of the degree for
which it has been submitted.
2.4 For the Critical Evaluation Project, students should include a single-page summary of
the submitted work, forming an abstract of about 300 words in length. It should bear
the candidates name and the full title of the work at the head of the page.
Binding
The Board of Examiners may select some Critical Evaluation Projects for deposit in the
College Library. If a students work is selected, they will be required to submit, at their own
expense, one bound copy of the approved document for retention by the College. It is to
be bound according to the directive of the College Reference Librarian in a blue buckram
case, with gold lettering up the spine showing the candidates initials and surname, the
words Exercise for MMus RCM, and the year of submission. The material is to be bound
in a single volume. Tape/disc/disk pockets should be incorporated as necessary.
105
Submission of Work
4
Written work should always be handed in to the Registry so that a receipt can be issued.
Students should retain this receipt until the end of the academic year: in the rare event of
written work being mislaid once it has been submitted, the receipt for the work will need
to be produced.
The submission deadline for each piece of work is indicated in the unit syllabuses which
are provided at the start of the academic year (spare syllabuses are kept in the Registry
No extensions to deadlines are offered. If a student has a valid reason for being unable to
meet a publicised deadline they should see the Head of Graduate School prior to the
submission date and read the relevant sections in the Masters Programme Handbook
(Regulations Section, sections 7.67.7). Any mitigating circumstances that are provided
by a student will be considered by a sub-group of the Board of Examiners, which will meet
shortly before the Board. The sub-group will make recommendations to the Board on
whether the mitigating circumstances submitted in writing or through the Counsellor are
valid and whether they should affect the marks for particular units or individual elements
of assessment, including whether capped marks should be lifted.
Students whose illness or other mitigating circumstances are of a sensitive nature may
discuss the circumstances confidentially with the Counsellor.
There are two
circumstances in which the Counsellor can present mitigating circumstances on a
students behalf:
1. where the circumstances are of an exceptionally personal nature and the student
prefers that only the Counsellor knows about them (in this situation, the
Counsellor will require evidence in order to form a view);
2. where the Counsellor has been working with a student for a period of time in a
counselling relationship. So that an accurate assessment of the circumstances can
be made, the Counsellor will need to have a certain amount of knowledge of the
student, over a period of time, and not just to have met on one occasion. The
current guideline is that the Counsellor will need to have met the student on at
least three occasions, close to the period in time for which the student wishes to
establish that the study was affected. However, this does not guarantee that the
Counsellor will be able to provide evidence that the students circumstances have
affected their ability to study.
First-marking of Work
8
Feedback should be as detailed as the allocated time allows although the extent to which
this is given on the script or on the report sheet provided by Registry is a matter for
individual markers. It should include, wherever appropriate, an indication of where and
how improvement might be made. Comments made should accord with the mark
suggested.
Errors of spelling, syntax, academic style and poor presentation should be corrected in the
early stages of the work and then subsequently highlighted for the attention of the
student. Common errors made by non-native speakers include: article use (the/a) and
prepositions, which are hard concepts to grasp and not trivial errors; tenses; subject/verb
and plurals agreement (final s on words); and syntax (particularly for Asian speakers).
Where errors made by non-native speakers are numerous, and it is apparent that these
stem from three or four different causes only, it is recommended that the script does not
highlight each and every instance. Persistent errors may form part of the specific written
106
Formatted: Bullets and

Numbering
feedback given to the student. Specialist in-house support is available to deal with these
problems and to encourage confidence in writing.
10
It is helpful to students for handwritten comments to be as legible as possible. Electronic

copies of the report sheet are available from the Registry, if markers wish to word-process
their feedback.
11
First-marked work should be returned to the Registry by the date indicated, with the mark
sheet completed and signed. Where relevant, work can then be circulated to countermarkers To help the Registry keep track of each marking batch, work should not be passed
on directly to counter-markers by first-markers
Counter-marking of Work
12
Counter-marking involves the sampling of previously marked scripts to determine that

the rank order and marks/classifications awarded accord with the counter-markers own
sense of marks and standards elsewhere in the postgraduate programmes. Countermarkers are not asked to second mark (which involves the re-marking of all scripts, usually
without access to the first marks). In particular, they are requested to scrutinise all
Distinctions, Fails and marks close to classification borderlines (eg 68/69%). Any potential
adjustments, whether to individual marks or to all marks uniformly, should be discussed
with the first marker.
13
Counter-marking arrangements are identified on the marksheet. Counter-markers should

feel free to add comments, sparingly, on the scripts they see.
14
Counter-marker and first-marker should liaise directly over any differences of opinion and,
in such instances, both agree a final mark. It is the counter-markers responsibility to
convene this meeting with the first marker. Final, agreed marks should be added in pen to
the report sheet and to the mark sheet before any work is returned to the Registry.
15
Mark sheets are important documents and are frequently referred to, particularly during
the lead-in to Boards of Examiners meetings when spreadsheets for individual units are
scrutinised carefully. All markers should ensure that mark sheets are signed and returned
to the Registry, together with the work, once marking of the assignment has concluded.
Return of Work
16
The College aims to guarantee the return of coursework to students after three working
weeks from the deadline submission (working weeks do not include vacations, Audition
Weeks and Planning & Review Weeks). Major projects may have longer turnaround times
or, where relevant, be retained until the holding of a viva voce examination.
17
Work may be collected by the student from the Registry. Work submitted by the Summer
Term portfolio deadline may be scrutinised by External Examiners and is available for
collection during the final week of the academic year. Unclaimed work is kept for one full
term after the academic year in which it was submitted and then destroyed.
18
Examples of coursework are copied for scrutiny by External Examiners and by other
external auditors, and for archiving purposes. Anonymised copies are available on request
to course teams and individual professors as teaching resources and for benchmarking
purposes.
107
The RCMs Policy on Plagiarism

19
Plagiarism is taking the words or ideas of someone else and making it appear that these
are your own. Some people refer to this as intellectual theft. Postgraduate students
would normally be expected to be familiar with what constitutes plagiarism and why and
how it should be avoided. However, for claritys sake it is worth emphasising the following
points:
1. If you copy out any section (no matter how small) from any published source, you
must acknowledge this source in a footnote (or endnote). Copying out material
word-for-word without acknowledgement makes you guilty of plagiarism.
2. If you summarise the content of someones work and include that summary in
your own work, you must acknowledge this as a footnote (or endnote). Failure to
make such an acknowledgement means you have plagiarised another persons
ideas.
20
The College views plagiarism as a serious academic offence, liable to disciplinary action.
The current edition of the Colleges General Academic Regulations contains a section on
cheating, plagiarism and collusion which explains the procedures followed by the College
once a formal allegation of plagiarism has been made.
21
Before reaching the formal processes described in the General Academic Regulations, an
initial allegation of suspected plagiarism is usually made by the first marker and referred
for confirmation to the counter-marker. Where there is no direct counter-marking of
work, the marker should consult the Head of Graduate School for the equivalent
confirmatory opinion. In cases where the possibility of plagiarism is first identified by a
counter-marker, he or she should refer the work back to the first marker for confirmation.
22
If it is the shared conviction of first marker and counter-marker (or equivalent) that the
work is plagiarised, a formal written allegation is prepared at this point. The allegation
should normally identify the source used for at least some portion of the plagiarised text.
It is not necessary to identify a source for every suspect passage nor, indeed, to identify
every source that may have been plagiarised. The presentation of a written allegation to
the Director of Academic & Administrative Affairs triggers the procedure described in the
General Academic Regulations.
108
ACADEMIC PORTFOLIOS: SUBMISSION & ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

_____________________________________________________
1
Contents
i.
Lecture-based assignments
The Academic Portfolio is made up of your choice of three of the maximum five course
work assignments that have been first marked by those who set the questions, plus
programme notes for your Final Recital (NB you must complete this element even if, for
the recital itself, you choose to deliver spoken introductions). The three assignments must
be presented in exactly the form that they were submitted to the first marker, with no
revision, together with the first markers report sheet.
The intention is that you should offer a balance of work across the areas that have been
available. In many cases this is likely to consist of your best three pieces, but you should
feel able to include a piece which you feel contributes positively to the balance of your
portfolio, even though it might not have been marked especially highly by the first marker.
ii.
Programme notes
The following points are intended to assist you in the preparation of the Programme
notes.
Who are you writing these notes for?:
Students are asked to prepare programme notes as for a Wigmore Hall recital - in other
words you are writing notes for an informed, but non-specialist audience as might be
found in any serious concert event.
How long should they be?:
The total text should be a maximum of 1,200 words.
What will the marker be assessing you on?:
1.
Whether you have shown thought as to the potential reader (perhaps in the
assumptions made in terms of approach and the language used) and the function
that these notes are intended to serve.
2.
How clearly the notes themselves indicate their purpose. Is the writing coherent in
its approach, or is the presentation something of a jumble of loose facts? Some
examples of a clear sense of purpose might be:
3.
an intention to give the reader some sense of the experience of the music
as it unfolds, as related to its structure and thematic organisation
a constructive attempt to relate a biographical aspect of the composer to
the work in question
an attempt to give the listener a sense of the works musical/social/
intellectual context.
Quality of the information

This would cover issues of accuracy and appropriateness.
109
4.
5.
Category
Quality of the writing and ability to communicate

is it likely to engage the intended audience?
is it well written with a clear prose style?
is the vocabulary widely drawn and imaginative/sophisticated
narrow/confined and predictable?
or
Assessment criteria for programme notes:

Percentage
Range
Outcomes
Quality of information Clarity of purpose
supplied
80 100
Readability of style
Outstanding
Outstanding
Outstanding
70 - 79
Excellent
Excellent
Excellent
65 - 69
Extremely Good
Extremely Good
Extremely Good
60 - 64
Very Good
Very Good
Very Good
55 - 59
Good
Good
Good
50 - 54
Fairly Good
Fairly Good
Fairly Good
45 49
Marginally
Unsatisfactory
Marginally
Unsatisfactory
Marginally
Unsatisfactory
40 - 44
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
26 - 39
Seriously Unsatisfactory Seriously

Unsatisfactory
Seriously
Unsatisfactory
0 25
Distinction
Pass
Fail
110
Grossly
Unsatisfactory
2.
Submission of Academic Portfolio

i Format
Your portfolio should be submitted with the following passage included on the title page:
Academic Portfolio submitted by [your name] in partial fulfilment of the
requirements of the MMus degree in Advanced Performance at the Royal
College of Music, summer 2xxx.
The portfolio must include a table of contents that sets out the work by title and
sequence. Material should be securely fastened within a binder, and this binder should be
clearly labelled with your name and the title Academic Portfolio.
ii Number of copies
You must submit two copies of your Portfolio to the Registry Programmes Team. You are
also strongly advised to keep a copy of your own.
iii Declaration and Receipt
On submission you will need to sign a declaration that this is your own work and that the
material you have submitted is in the same form in which it was submitted to the first
marker. You will then be given a receipt for your Portfolio.
3.
Assessment Criteria
The individual pieces of coursework and the Academic Portfolio as a whole should be
marked according to the criteria below. The three categories of outcome should each be
awarded a nominal mark. These marks will be subject to moderation by a panel comprised
of members of the Masters Programme teaching team, led by the Head of Graduate
School.
The final Academic Portfolio mark will be an aggregate of the three moderated
coursework assignment marks and the Programme Notes mark, marked by an Academic
Panel. Each of the four pieces of work will comprise 25% of the final mark.
111
Academic Portfolio assessment criteria
Category
Percentage
Range
Outcomes
Breadth of background
research
Coherence of
arguments
Quality of
presentation
80 - 100
Outstanding
Outstanding
Outstanding
70 - 79
Excellent
Excellent
Excellent
65 - 69
Extremely Good
Extremely Good
Extremely Good
60 - 64
Very Good
Very Good
Very Good
55 - 59
Good
Good
Good
50 - 54
Fairly Good
Fairly Good
Fairly Good
45 - 49
Marginally
Unsatisfactory
Marginally
Unsatisfactory
40 - 44
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
26 - 39
Seriously
Unsatisfactory
Seriously
Unsatisfactory
0 - 25
Grossly
Unsatisfactory
Grossly
Unsatisfactory
Distinction
Pass
Fail
112
CRITICAL EVALUATION PROJECTS (CEPs): SUBMISSION & ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

___________________________________________________________________
1.
Submission
The project material must be the product of your own work, and not previously
submitted for examination at any institution, and you must confirm this by signing the
appropriate form when submitting the work. The material must be securely held together,
and the quality of its presentation will be taken into account.
i Format
Your project should be submitted with the following passage included on the title page:
Critical Evaluation Project submitted by [your name] in partial fulfilment of
the requirements of the MMus degree in Advanced Performance at the Royal
College of Music, summer 2xxx.
ii Number of copies
You must submit two copies of your CEP to the Registry Programmes Team. You are also
strongly advised to keep a copy of your own.
iii Declaration and Receipt
On submission you will need to sign a declaration that this is your own work. You will
then be given a receipt for your Portfolio.
2.
The assessment process

The CEP is double marked, first by the students own supervisor and then by an
independent second marker.
The final mark for the CEP is agreed by the first and second markers. In the unlikely event
that markers fail to agree a final mark, the External Examiner will be asked to read the
work and confirm or adjust this final mark.
3.
Marking criteria
The Critical Evaluation Project should be marked according to the criteria below. The
three categories of outcome should each be awarded a nominal mark. An overall mark
should then be selected which seems best to represent a balance of these elements. It is
not necessary for this mark to be a literal average of the preceding three.
113
Marking criteria for Critical Evaluation Project

Category
Percentage
Range
Outcomes
Breadth and
depth of
background
research
Quality of
evaluations and
coherence of
supporting
arguments
Quality of
presentation and
rigour of citations,
bibliography, etc.
80 - 100
Outstanding
Outstanding
Outstanding
70 - 79
Excellent
Excellent
Excellent
65 - 69
Extremely Good
Extremely Good
Extremely Good
60 - 64
Very Good
Very Good
Very Good
55 - 59
Good
Good
Good
50 - 54
Fairly Good
Fairly Good
Fairly Good
45 - 49
Marginally
Unsatisfactory
Marginally
Unsatisfactory
Marginally
Unsatisfactory
40 - 44
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
26 - 39
Seriously
Unsatisfactory
Seriously
Unsatisfactory
0 - 25
Grossly
Unsatisfactory
Grossly
Unsatisfactory
Distinction
Pass
Fail
114
APPENDIX 4
The RCM Guide to the Presentation of Written Work
1. ASSESSMENT OF WRITTEN WORK

All students are expected to have developed effective written communication skills. Your written
work at the RCM may include essays, projects, dissertations, concert reports, programme notes.
Markers will annotate texts and make suggestions to inform and improve your subsequent work
so you should leave room for these in your scripts.
2. LAYOUT AND PRESENTATION
Written work should be word-processed and suitably bound. Text should be on one side of the
paper only, double-spaced, with a further blank line left between each paragraph. Each page
should be numbered. Written work should conclude with a bibliography of all sources consulted,
1
and all quotations included in the text must be acknowledged in a footnote (such as this) . The
following sections explain how to present bibliographies (and discographies), how to cite quoted
material and how to prepare footnotes.
3. PRESENTING A BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bibliographies should list all published (and unpublished) material consulted during the
preparation of your written work. They should be set out alphabetically, by authors surname
(though the order for the authors name is initial(s) followed by surname). Bibliographies should
follow the models cited below in punctuation and italicisation.
3.1 Citing a book
M. Bent, Dunstaple (London, 1986)
[authors initial(s) and surname / comma / title in italics (underlined if your script is handwritten)
/ open brackets / place of publication / comma / date of publication / close brackets]
3.2 Citing an article in a periodical or journal
E. Sams, Elgars Enigmas, Music & Letters, 78 (1997), 410-15
[authors initial(s) and surname / comma / title of article in single inverted commas / comma /
title of periodical in italics (underlined if your script is handwritten) / comma / volume number
(use arabic numbers) /date of publication in brackets / comma / initial and terminal page
numbers for the article]
3.3 Citing an essay in a multi-authored work
M. Babbitt, Three Essays on Schoenberg, Perspectives on Schoenberg and Stravinsky, ed. Benjamin
Boretz and Edward T. Cone (Princeton, 1968), 47-60
title of complete work in italics (underlined if your script is handwritten) / comma / ed. (note the
1
Failure to properly cite works may leave you open to changes of plagiarism. See Section 7 of this document, and the
General academic regulations for students 2004/5, under Regulations concerning cheating, plagiarism and collusion.
115
full stop) / editors (editors) name(s) / open brackets / place of publication / comma / date of
publication / close brackets /comma / initial and terminal page numbers for the essay]
3.4 Citing a dictionary/encyclopedia article
I. Bent, Analysis, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London,
1980), i, 340-88
title of dictionary or encyclopedia in italics (underlined if your script is handwritten) / comma /
ed. (note full stop) /
editors (editors) name(s) / open brackets / place of publication / comma / date of publication /
close brackets / comma / volume number of dictionary (if a multi-volume work) in roman
numerals / comma /initial and terminal page numbers]
3.5 Citing a website
Your examiners will expect to see a reasonable balance between printed and web-based sources.
Reference to websites (but always consider how reliable those you consult might be) should be
included after the discography, laid out in the following way:
N. Shackleton, 'Basset-horn, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 5 October 2001),
http://www.grovemusic.com
[authors/editors initial(s) and surname / comma / name of article in inverted commas, if given /
comma / title of website in italics (underlined if your script is handwritten) and editorial details if
necessary /open bracket / Accessed [Day Month Year of access] / close bracket / url, ie all relevant
site information]
3.6 Citing a dissertation
B. A. Brown, Christoph Willibald Gluck and Opra-comique in Vienna, 1754-1764' (Ph.D.
dissertation, University of California, 1986)
[authors initial(s) and surname / comma / title of dissertation in single inverted commas / open
brackets / Ph.D. (M.Mus. etc) dissertation / comma / name of university / comma / date of
submission / close brackets]
If there are two or more authors of a book or article, list their names as they appear in the
publication (not in alphabetical order). The first surname listed will determine the alphabetical
placing within the bibliography. Some of the examples listed above have been taken from Notes
for Contributors to Research Chronicle found in each issue of the Royal Musical Associations
Research Chronicle. If you wish to cite a source for which no example is provided in these
guidelines, you should consult this periodical which is available in the RCM Library.
4. PRESENTING A DISCOGRAPHY
A discography should follow on from the bibliography and give full details of any recordings consulted
(including any dates; you need only give one if the recording is NOT a reissue),listing items in
alphabetical order of composer:
P. Boulez, Pli selon pli, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez (Erato), 1962/R
1995, CD 229245376-2
[composers initial(s) and surname name / comma / title of work in italics (underlined if your
script is handwritten) / comma / performers: soloist(s), orchestra, conductor, separated by
commas / record label in
brackets / comma / date / comma / format (CD, LP etc) / number]
116
5. QUOTATIONS AND FOOTNOTES

Quotations from sources consulted must all be acknowledged in footnotes. Short quotations (e.g.
a phrase or short sentence) may be included in the main part of the essay and should be encased
in single inverted commas (see [a] and [b] below). Longer quotations should start on the line
below, should be set off from the main body of the text by a wider left-hand margin (indentation)
and should be single spaced (see [c] below).
[a] Several of Stravinskys early works show a satirical wit and genial affection at work.2
[b] Rosen asserts that taking a pleasure in music is the most obvious sign of comprehension.3
[c] Schoenberg expressed the following view of a composers rights:
Rights in intellectual property would have to be put in every respect on a par with rights in
all other property, especially as regards inheritability.4
Note that footnotes to which the numbers refer appear at the bottom of the page, and that the
numbers should always appear after any punctuation mark, such as a comma or full stop.
When preparing footnotes you may also wish to use the following terms (which you will also see used
in sources you consult):
op. cit. (Latin: the cited work.) Using this term indicates that you have cited the work already in a
footnote (unless you have since cited a different work by the same author) and allows you
to use the shorter format expressed in note 9 below:
7
R. Vlad, Stravinsky (London, 1978), 65
R. P. Morgan, Twentieth-Century Music (London & New York, 1991), 67
.Vlad, op. cit., 85
ibid. (Latin: the same.) This term indicates the same author and work to which the previous
footnote has referred (ie you have not referred to any other source in between):
12
P. Kivy, Osmins Rage: Philosophical Reflections on Opera, Drama, and Text (Princeton,
1988), 72-3
13
ibid., 97
loc. cit. (Latin: in the place/passage previously quoted.) This indicates that quotations
acknowledged in consecutive footnotes are taken from the same page:
14
15
16
R. Vlad, Stravinsky (London, 1978), 65

loc. cit.
P. Griffiths, Modern Music: a Concise History (2nd edn, London, 1994), 66.
17
C. Rosen, The Frontiers of Nonsense, The Frontiers of Meaning: Three Informal Lectures on Music
(London, 1998), 3
18
A. Schoenberg, Style and Idea, ed. Leonard Stein (London, 1975), 371
164
117
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passim. (Latin: in many places.) This indicates that in several subsequent parts of the text (beyond
the specified page number) the reader will encounter further commentary on the same theme.
Subsequent references in footnotes to a previously cited source (ie those which are not
consecutive and which therefore cannot make use of op. cit.) may be abbreviated as follows:
19
Rosen (1996), 506

[authors surname / date of publication in brackets / comma / page reference]
6. PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is taking the words or ideas of someone else and making it appear that these are your
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if you copy out any section (no matter how small) from any published source you must
acknowledge this source immediately as a footnote (or endnote). If you copy out material word
for-word without acknowledging its source, you are guilty of plagiarism.
if you summarise the content of someones work and include that summary in your own
work you must acknowledge this immediately as a footnote (or endnote). Failure to make such an
acknowledgement means you have plagiarised another persons ideas.
It is expected that you will consult a wide range of source materials (websites, books, articles,
scores etc) as you prepare your written work. Learn to keep a careful record of any material taken
directly from other sources. When taking notes, place all such text in quotation marks so that you
do not inadvertently incorporate this into your own work without acknowledgement.
Failure to acknowledge sources or quotations properly in assignments, essays, projects and
programme notes leaves you open to a charge of plagiarism. This is a serious academic
offence, and regulations laid out in the General Academic Regulations (available on the
RCMnet) indicate clearly the Colleges procedure for dealing with this.
118
APPENDIX 5
General regulations for students and sources of important information
While you are a student of the College, you will be required to comply with a number of general
regulations. These include regulations intended to help you raise problems or make complaints.
There are also procedures to help you get the most from your studies and to keep us in touch
with you. These are all on the College Intranet, RCMnet, which you can access through your RCM
IT account using any of the student IT facilities: in the Internet caf or in the Library. You are
advised to read these and note what they say.
Described below are the key regulations, which can be found at Information Sources/College
handbooks and regulations/General academic regulations for students:
Student Complaints Procedure
This is the procedure to use if you have a complaint about your studies or other services
provided by the College.
Procedure for appealing an examination decision
This is the procedure to use if you wish to appeal an examination result. You can appeal if
believe you have mitigating circumstances unknown to the examiners (with good reason) or if
you think there has been an administrative error in the examination process.
Regulations concerning cheating, plagiarism and collusion
This is the procedure the College uses in cases where students are accused of cheating.
Student code of conduct and disciplinary procedure
This is the procedure the College uses in cases of general misconduct by students. It sets out the
definitions of disciplinary offences.
Policy on students showing signs of psychological or other health problems

This is the procedure the College uses in cases where there is a concern about whether a
student is fit for his or her studies or if a students behaviour is disruptive.
Students Association Complaints Procedure
This is the procedure to use if you have a complaint about any dealings with the Students
Association or if you think that you have suffered an unfair disadvantage from having
exercised the right not to be a member of the Students Association
Advice on these regulations and procedures can be obtained from Director of Academic &
Administrative Affairs, Kevin Porter, kporter@rcm.ac.uk (020 7591 4329). For appointments
contact his Assistant: Secretariat (020 7591 4312)
119
Information Sources/Dates and events opening hours and term dates, as indicated below
2
Term Dates:
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
10/09/2007
18/09/2007
23/10/2007
30/11/2007
26/11/2007
07/12/2007
15/09/2008
22/09/2008
27/10/2008
05/12/2008
01/12/2008
12/12/2008
14/09/2009
21/09/2009
26/10/2009
04/12/2009
30/11/2009
11/12/2009
07/01/2008
07/01/2008
NONE
07/03/2008
06/03/2008
14/03/2008
12/01/2009
12/01/2009
16/02/2009
20/03/2009
19/03/2009
27/03/2009
11/01/2010
11/01/2010
15/02/2010
19/03/2010
11/03/2010
26/03/2010
07/04/2008
07/04/2008
30/05/2008
04/07/2008
04/07/2008
20/04/2009
20/04/2009
05/06/2009
10/07/2009
10/07/2009
19/04/2010
19/04/2010
04/06/2010
09/07/2010
09/07/2010
Autumn Term:
Term starts:
Teaching starts:
P&R Week
Teaching ends
Auditions
Term ends:
Spring Term:
Term starts:
Teaching starts:
P&R Week
Teaching ends
Practical Examinations
Term ends:
Summer Term:
Term starts:
Teaching starts:
Practical Examinations
Teaching ends
Graduation
College Opening Hours
Term-time
General College opening hours, including practice facilities: 8.00 am - 9.30 pm Monday - Friday.
Rehearsal and practice facilities are available from 9 am to 9 pm (for 9.30 pm closing) and from 9
am to 5 pm (for 5.30 pm closing). Some areas of College will be restricted for maintenance work
and this will be notified at the time of booking. Rooms are not bookable in advance during
vacations unless there is a specific request for rehearsal prior to public performance. Applications
for such bookings should be made to the House Manager in Room 40 (020 7591 4344).
Library
Mon - Thurs
9.00 - 19.30 Full loan and reference service
9.30 - 18.00 Rare books service
Friday
8.45 - 17.15 Full loan and reference service
9.30 - 17.15 Rare books service
Museum of Instruments
Tues - Fri
14.00 16.30
in term time and the Summer vacation.
At other times by appointment with the Curator.
120
Dining Room - normal hours during term time

Mon - Fri
8.30 - 11.45
12.15 - 14.00
15.00 - 19.00
Vacation Access
The College opens daily, Monday to Friday, at 8 am and closes at 9.30 pm except in August when
College closes at 5.30 pm. Professors and students have access to College at any time during open
hours.
Easter: - College will close on the Thursday before Easter at 9.30 pm, reopening on the Tuesday
after Easter Monday.
Library and Studios
The Library and Recording Studios are open during vacations but with reduced hours. The Chief
Librarian and Manager of the Studios will publish these in advance of vacation periods.
Communication of Information
The RCM uses a range of noticeboards where important information is posted. It is essential that
you consult these on a regular basis: this as your responsibility.
Postgraduate Noticeboard
Faculty Noticeboards:
Keyboard
Strings
Brass
Woodwind
Vocal Studies
Composition
Early Music
Percussion
Competition Noticeboards
Masterclass Noticeboard
Chamber Music Noticeboard
Orchestral Office Noticeboard
Alexander Technique Noticeboard
External Engagements Noticeboard
Students Association Noticeboard
In the Registry corridor (Registry side)

In the Registry corridor (Finance side)
In the walkway between the 1895 and 1965
buildings
In the walkway between the 1895 and 1965
buildings
At the top of the stairs that lead down to the
library
library
library
In the Percussion Suite
In the Registry corridor (Registry side)
In the Registry corridor (Finance side), also in the
Orchestral office corridor
In the 1895 building 2nd floor corridor
In the 1895 building 2nd floor corridor
At the south end of the walkway
All students have a pigeonhole (as well as email accounts). These are situated half way down the
stairs leading to the Library and you should check yours at least once a day whenever you are in
College.
All professors have a pigeonhole in the Senior Common Room. You can leave messages for them
with the Facilities staff at the Reception desk. Do remember that not all professors are in College
every day and that, consequently, they may not pick up their post very often. You should check
with your professor how s/he would like you to make contact when you need to do so: many will
also have email accounts.
121
Dr Darla Crispin, Head of Graduate School and Dr Ingrid Pearson, Deputy Head of Graduate
School operate a sign-up system for meetings with students. A list is posted on their office doors
(Crispin Room 55 and Pearson Room 21b). Students may also arrange to see either Dr Crispin or
Dr Pearson by appointment.
The Woodhouse Centre:
The Woodhouse Centre is the Royal College of Musics careers resource unit. Students and alumni
can use its services for up to five years after graduation. The Centre offers support and guidance to
all RCM students, and recent graduates, in preparation for a lifelong career in music. This unique
facility was established in 1999 and continues to thrive. The Department provides countless
performance opportunities, up-to-date resources and information, while encouraging each
individual musicians to develop the initiative, flexibility and imagination required to thrive in an
ever-changing profession.
The Centre is open from 9.00am to 5.30pm (closing at 2pm on Wednesdays) and the following
resources are available:
performance opportunities in a wide range of venues and situations

instrumental and vocal teaching experience
education and outreach projects
administrative work experience, work shadowing and internships
advice on self promotion including CV, biography, publicity materials and photography
guidance and support in making presentations and job and trust applications
mock interviews
funding advice including sponsorship, grants and trusts
seminars and workshops with visiting experts
a network of over 30 consultants, comprising leaders in all fields of the music business
external competitions and scholarship information

volunteering opportunities
access to useful contacts throughout the music business
work adverts
e-mail groups
mentoring scheme
noticeboards featuring all the latest opportunities and jobs in music
a weekly email digest listing current work vacancies in music
Problems or complaints
4
If you have a problem or complaint, you should normally speak to:
ensemble
activities
Step 1:
Your professor
1-to-1 lessons
Classes
Step 1:
Your professor
Step 2: Head of
Faculty
Step 1:
Your lecturer
Step 2: Deputy Head
Step 2:
of Graduate School
Head of Faculty
Step 3:
Deputy Head of
Graduate School
Step 3:
Head of
Graduate School
Step 3:
Head of
Performance
general programme matters

Step 1:
Deputy Head of Graduate School
Step 2:
Head of Graduate School
If you have taken the above steps and the problem remains, if it is related to your studies, you
should contact the Dean (Director of Studies).
122
If you have a personal matter you wish to discuss, you should speak first to the Counsellor.
If your complaint is about the conduct of a member of staff, you should speak first to the Dean
(Director of Studies) if your complaint is about a professor, or to the Director of Academic &
Administrative Affairs if the complaint is about any other member of staff. If your complaint is
about the conduct of the Dean (Director of Studies) or of the Director of Academic &
Administrative Affairs you should write to the Director.
If your complaint is about a general programme matter and involves several students, you may
wish to take it first to the Students' Association to request that they take forward the complaint.
In such circumstances, the SA should discuss the matter first with the Director of Academic &
Administrative Affairs.
The steps in the above should be used for any problem or complaint you have. They are also the
steps in the College's Complaints Procedure for students, in the College General Academic
Regulations Booklet.
If you want to appeal an examination decision see the procedure for a Review of a Decision by a
Board of Examiners in the College General Academic Regulations booklet.
If your complaint is about a serious disciplinary matter refer to the Student Code of Conduct in
the College General Academic Regulations Booklet.
Contact Kevin Porter, Director of Academic & Administrative Affairs, if you wish to use any of
these procedures.
Requesting a reference
You must always give at least two weeks notice when making a request for any type of
reference.
If you need to obtain an instrumental reference, please see your Principal Study Professor
or your Head of Faculty.
If you need an academic reference, please see the Deputy Head of Graduate School.
If your reference needs to be signed by the Director, you must submit it first to the Head of
Graduate School or Head of Faculty as appropriate, who will pass it on to the Director for
signature.
If you need a transcript, or confirmation that you are a student, please see the Registry.
Tell us if you change address
Ensure that your home and London addresses and telephone numbers are known in Registry
Services and also, if you are an orchestral instrumentalist, in the Orchestral Office. This
information is needed in cases of emergency. Any change must be notified immediately.
Absence from studies and performance activities
Full-time students are expected to be available throughout the academic year to attend classes,
lessons, and other activities. Where no lectures are timetabled students must still be in
attendance. Exceptionally a student may need to be away for part of the year. If this is so, it must
be discussed with the Deputy Head of Graduate School well in advance. Agreement to the
absence cannot be assumed.
If you will be absent because of illness please inform the Registry immediately, preferably by
telephone: 020 7591 4310. The Registry will inform the appropriate professors and administrators
if you tell them whom you think needs to know.
123
It is your responsibility to tell the Registry if you are going to be absent. If you tell anyone else and
they fail to pass on your message, you are responsible, not the person you left the message with.
If you are absent through illness for more than six working days, you must provide a doctor's
certificate;
You should notify professors and other staff involved of any absence known in advance due to a
clash of events.
Absence from examinations or missed coursework deadlines
Students who are ill or have other mitigating circumstances must submit these either in writing to
the Deputy Head of Graduate School or by discussing the circumstances confidentially with the
Counsellor. Only mitigating circumstances submitted in this way will be considered. If your
mitigating circumstances relate to illness you must provide a doctor's certificate.
Extensions to deadlines will not be offered. Any mitigating circumstances which are provided by a
student will be considered by a sub-group of the Board of Examiners, which will meet shortly
before the Board. The sub-group will make recommendations to the Board on whether the
mitigating circumstances submitted in writing or through the Counsellor are valid and whether
they should affect the marks for particular units or individual elements of assessment, including
whether capped marks should be lifted.
There are two circumstances in which the Counsellor can present mitigating circumstances on a
student's behalf: (i) where the circumstances are of an exceptionally personal nature and the
student prefers that only the Counsellor knows about them (in this situation, the Counsellor will
require evidence in order to form a view); (ii) where the Counsellor has been working with a
student for a period of time in a counselling relationship. So that an accurate assessment of the
circumstances can be made, the Counsellor will need to have a certain amount of knowledge of
the student, over a period of time, and not just to have met on one occasion. The current
guideline is that the Counsellor will need to have met the student on at least three occasions,
close to the period in time for which the student wishes to establish that the study was affected.
However, this does not guarantee that the Counsellor will be able to provide evidence that the
student's circumstances have affected their ability to study.
Requesting a Leave of Absence
If you wish to be absent from College for any period of time you need to obtain permission by
completing a Leave of Absence form which is available from the Registry (Opera Department for
Singers) or the Student Area of the RCM website.
Completed forms should be submitted to Carina McCourt (Performance Management). These
will then be considered by the Release Committee comprising Heads of Faculty, Heads of
Programmes and Performance Management.
Where your reasons for absence are valid, where you have communicated these effectively in
advance, and where you have also made the contributions expected by the College to
performance projects, permission will not normally be withheld. Students who absent themselves
from their studies without prior permission will be called to the Release Committee and may, in
some cases, find that certain privileges are withdrawn (as outlined in the section above).
Notice to leave your course
Students who wish to leave the College during the academic year and before the end of their
course must seek the approval of the Head of Graduate School before the start of the next term.
In default of such notice, fees are payable for the remainder of the next term.
124
Changes of Professor or Study

Changes of professor or study during the academic year are exceptional, but there may be
circumstances where it is desirable. While an existing professor must be informed before a change
can be enacted, the first step a student should follow is to speak to the Head of Faculty, who will
be able to advise you and where appropriate initiate the procedure.
It is normally only possible to consider changes which take effect at the start of a term, unless
there are exceptional factors.
If you are a postgraduate student and wish to change from full-time to part-time study, or vice
versa, you must do so by completing the necessary form in the Registry and obtaining the
approval of the Deputy Head of Graduate School before the end of the term. If your request is
approved, your studies (including lessons) will be adjusted for the whole year. Your tuition fees
will also be adjusted for the total year to the level for your new mode of study (any overpayment
will be refunded and any under-payment must be paid). There is a charge of 100 for approved
changes. The RCM Artist Diploma is NOT available as a part-time course.
If your request has not been approved by the end of the term, you will be required to continue
studying in your current mode of study (whether full-time or part-time) for the following term.
Additional Tuition
Additional studies and extensions of lessons can usually be arranged, subject to the agreement of
existing professors and to payment of the appropriate extra fees. Please apply to the Head of
Faculty.
Applicants should collect a form from the Registry. This form must be countersigned by the
principal study professor before it can be considered.
All applications for additional studies described above must be submitted on the appropriate
form, countersigned by the student's principal study professor and returned by the ninth Friday of
the preceding term. Late applications will be held over until the next cycle of allocations.
Additional studies are granted only for the current academic year (or a shorter period if required)
and must be renewed by the ninth Friday of the summer term if required for a further year.
Outside Instruction: Permission to receive individual lessons in any music subject outside the
College must be obtained from the Head of Graduate School.
Masterclasses & Workshops
Doctoral students are encouraged to attend all Masterclasses/Workshops arranged for their
principal study. All students are welcome to attend any other Masterclass. It is extremely
important that you note the relevant dates in your diaries at the beginning of term (they can be
found in the Events Guide or on the Masterclass notice-board in the main corridor).
Planning and Review Week
One week in the middle of the Autumn and Spring Terms is designated as a Planning & Review
Week when academic classes are not scheduled. This is intended to provide a period of time,
without the pressure of regular group sessions, when you can round off work from the first part of
the term, prepare for the period ahead and undertake projects which would not be practicable in
the normal daily routine. All the facilities of the College are available for you to use in the normal
way. Planning and Review Week is a working week, but one when you are not necessarily expected
to be at College all the time. Your principal study professor may choose to give lessons as usual. If
so, you are expected to attend. Competitions may be scheduled, and the week will often contain a
major Ensemble concert.
125
Practice rooms
The Registry deals with all practice room bookings and the noticeboard outside this office is
where you sign up. Each student is allowed two hours maximum per day and rooms are bookable
from 8 am until 9 pm from Monday to Friday. Vacant teaching rooms can also be used for
practice between 8 am and 9 pm, bookable in the Registry. Once a teaching room has been
allocated for practice by the Registry, the key is obtainable from the Porters' Desk against a
signature. The use of 2nd floor and some other teaching room pianos is restricted to maintain the
standard for examination use. Please note that failure to return a key will result in a bill for its
replacement. Students are not permitted to teach on College premises. Rooms not taken up
within 15 minutes will be reallocated.
IT Facilities
RCM ICT Services provides Information Communications Technology to support teaching,
learning, and research activities at the RCM. RCM ICT Services provides students with a broad
range of technology services to aid and enhance their learning experience at the College. Services
include: an RCM IT and email account; wireless network access; recently upgraded student
computing facilities - Sibelius room, Internet Caf, Library, IT labs at College Halls of residence;
facilities for reading flash memory cards and CD/DVD burning devices. Free printing and internet
access is also available throughout the college. There are over fifty student computers around the
College and College Hall. We are also responsible for the RCM Virtual Learning Environment
http://vle.ac.uk and accessibility software for students with disabilities.
Our friendly and knowledgeable team are here to help you during our normal operating hours of
9am to 5pm via the helpdesk, phone and the IT Office. We are unfortunately unable to help
outside these hours. We also limit the support provided with problems with your personal
computer equipment and accessories. For more details please see our IT department website at
www.rcm.ac.uk/ict For help or support please send an e-mail to icthelp@rcm.ac.uk or call the
helpdesk on 0207 591 4388 (or internal extension 4388).
RCM Studios: recording services
The RCM Studios give students access to the latest recording and post production technology
and are able to record a wide range of performances from soloists and small ensembles to
symphony orchestras. All recording and post production sessions are facilitated by professional inhouse studio engineers and can be booked for a small charge. A large number of RCM concerts
are recorded for the Colleges extensive audio archive and these recordings are made available for
study purposes in the College Library. As well as the archive recordings it is possible to record your
individual performances from most performance venues within College. If you wish to make your
own recording, portable equipment is available for loan (though private recordings of College
concerts are not permitted).
The Studios also have a number of composition workstations, and a special project production
suite which are used in conjunction with studio-related courses and doctoral programmes. For
information on which courses provide access to the Studios, and any other details, please visit the
studio's website . The reception, which deals with bookings, equipment loans and general
enquiries, is open : Monday from 14.00 to 16.00 and Tue to Friday between 10.00am and 12.00pm
and from 2.00pm to 4.00pm.
126
Registration, Fees and Funding

Registration
Students are required to register at the start of each year on the published Registration Days.
Before registration the student must have satisfied the relevant entry requirements and have paid
all fees due or have an approved plan to pay by instalment.
No student with debts outstanding from a previous year will be permitted to register. In such a
case, any grant or other financial award cheque will be returned to the award-giving authority.
Students cease to be students:
after withdrawal from their programme;
if expelled for a disciplinary reason or for an academic offence, such as cheating, or if required to
withdraw on medical grounds;
if expelled following failure in assessments confirmed by the relevant board of examiners;
if expelled for non-payment of fees by the due date.
Paying your fees
All students must:
1) pay their tuition fees in full by Registration Day
or
2) have an instalment plan approved by the Finance Manager by Registration Day.
Students who wish to apply for an instalment plan must complete the relevant form (available
from the Finance Office).
If you do not meet these requirements you will not receive any principal study lessons and you
will have only provisional registration until your tuition fees are paid.
Students who have not paid their tuition fees in full or who do not have an approved instalment
plan by the autumn term Planning & Review Week will be required to leave the College. Failure to
make any later instalment plan payments may also result in being required to leave the College.
If you are late paying an instalment you will be charged 50 on each occasion.
If you bounce a cheque (i.e. 'returned to drawer') when making a payment for fees or rent, the
College makes an automatic charge of 20 to cover administrative costs.
Scholarships
These are awarded on merit as part of the audition process for undergraduate and taught
postgraduate programmes. They provide help with the payment of fees. The amount of the
contribution to fees is provided in a letter from the Director at the time the award is made.
Queries about the making of these awards should be raised with the International & Awards
Officer. RCM Scholarships are not available to Artist Diploma students.
Students are expected to pay their own living costs.
Most of the postgraduate - and a few of the undergraduate - awards have been made possible
through the generosity of external funding sources. Quite a number of the Donors of the funds for
those awards want to be kept in touch with the progress of the students whom they are helping. If
you are one of these students, you will be told this by the beginning of the academic year when
you will be required to thank the Donor. During the academic year you should keep your Donor
informed of concerts that you will be performing in. At the end of the academic year, you will be
asked to provide a written report on what you have done during the past 12 months. This report
and the contact you make with the Donor during the year are extremely important. Donors who
127
do not hear about the person they are funding sometimes withdraw their support, which is then
unavailable to students in future years.
Access to Learning Fund (ALF) The Access to Learning Fund is a limited amount of government
money which is intended to assist undergraduate and postgraduate UK students who are suffering
financial hardship. The conditions and application forms are available from Registry Services or
Student Services (Room 70a). Application forms may be submitted to the Welfare Officer.
Meetings are held five times during the academic year. The Access to Learning Fund is not
available to Artist Diploma students.
Look out for the notices inviting students to apply for Hardship Fund grants, or see the Welfare
Officer. Students are also advised of application deadlines on their RCM email address.
Vacation Courses The College is unable to offer financial support to assist students with the costs
of vacation courses.
Arts and Humanities Research Council Funding for Composition, Research and PerformanceBased Postgraduate Qualifications
Year 4 Undergraduate students going on to postgraduate study and students who do not hold a
postgraduate qualification but who will also be working toward a postgraduate qualification are
encouraged to apply to the AHRC, which now offers awards to those studying in performancebased disciplines under its Postgraduate Awards Scheme, as well as to composers and researchers.
Further information can be found in the detailed guides on the AHRC website, www.ahrc.ac.uk
Students should note that the RCM's internal deadline for these AHRC applications is 28th March
2008 No late applications will be accepted. This is necessary because of the large amount of
administrative work that needs to be carried out on each application. The RCM also reserves the
right to reject applications that are incomplete, handwritten or shoddy in presentation of
information.
RCMnet also contains a wide range of other information, such as programme handbooks and
syllabuses, the library catalogue and information about services and departments of the College.
Advice on these regulations and procedures can be obtained from Director of Academic &
Administrative Affairs, Kevin Porter, kporter@rcm.ac.uk, 020 7591 4329, Room 44.
or appointments contact his Assistant: Lucy Chant, Secretariat, 020 7591 4312
July 2007
128
APPENDIX 6
Programme Team Biographies
Integrated Masters Programme Team Leaders
Jeremy Cox, MA, DPhil Dean (Director of Studies)
Jeremy Cox joined the RCM in 1995 as Dean of Postgraduate Studies, taking on the post of Dean &
Deputy Director of the College in February 1998. An academic musician, performer and
conductor, he gained his doctorate from Oxford University in 1986 for his thesis examining links
between the songs of Francis Poulenc and the aesthetic ideas behind many of their texts. He has
continued to work in the field of French music in the first half of the twentieth century, in
particular developing ideas and themes from his thesis into a wider study of Neo-Classicism during
the period. As a singer, specialising in the chamber choral repertoire, he has performed with
groups such as The Clerkes of Oxenford, Capella Nova and The Britten Singers. He has also
conducted a number of choirs and orchestras, including the Edinburgh Bach Choir. He contributes
to the RCM's teaching programmes at all levels, but especially through supervising Masters and
Doctoral students.
Darla Crispin, BMus, MMus, PhD, CRD (GSMD) FRSA Head of Graduate School
Canadian pianist Darla Crispin came to the U.K. as a Queen Elizabeth II Centennial Scholar,
studying with Edith Vogel at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and gaining the Schools
Concert Recital Diploma in 1988. She soon became a member of its Academic Studies department,
with particular responsibility for co-ordinating postgraduate studies. She took up the position of
Head of Graduate School at the Royal College of Music in September 2002. She is active as a solo
performer and accompanist in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Canada, has done
radio work for the NCRV Netherlands World Service, and specialises in musical modernity in both
her performance work and music scholarship. She was the principal pianist for the Amsterdambased Schreck Ensemble's Luigi Nono retrospective, Ascolta, and has completed a Doctoral
Degree in Historical Musicology at King's College, University of London, under the supervision of
Professor John Deathridge. This study involves a re-evaluation of Arnold Schoenbergs string
quartets. Amongst her published writings are a comparative study of Alban Berg and Charles
Baudelaire for Austrian Studies (Modern Humanities Research Association 2005), a book chapter
on John Cage and Susan Sontag for Music, Silence, Silent Music (Ashgate 2007), and an article on J.S.
Bachs Goldberg Variations, Goldberg Mining published in Proceedings of IAML-IAMIC-IMS (Unisa
2007). She is also Editor-in Chief of The Music Practice-as-Research Yearbook (Oslo).
Ingrid Pearson, BMus(Hons), PhD, DipEd, LTCL, LMusA Deputy Head of Graduate School
Following the receipt of an ORS Award in 1995, Ingrid Pearson travelled to the U.K. to undertake
doctoral studies in performance practice at the University of Sheffield with Colin Lawson. Her
thesis, entitled Clarinet Reed Position in Theory and Practice: the Forgotten Art of Reed-Above,
investigated eighteenth and nineteenth century clarinet repertoire and performance styles as well
as organological and iconographical sources. Born in Newcastle, Australia, Ingrid began her clarinet
studies at Newcastle Conservatorium. She graduated from the University of Sydney with a
Bachelor of Music Honours in performance and a Diploma of Education in music.
129
During 2001 Ingrid was an Edison Research Fellow at the National Sound Archive, researching
recorded woodwind performing practices. Recent research includes a study of the thirteen-keyed
clarinet in Italy, supported by The Galpin Society, and an AHRC-funded collaborative project
involving 19-tone microtonality in theory and practice. In addition to her academic work, Ingrid
performs as an early clarinettist with ensembles such as The Hanover Band, Gabrieli Consort and
Players, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Baroque Soloists, The English Concert and The
Symphony of Harmony and Invention. Recent concert appearances include performances at the
BBC Proms, the Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival, the Barbican and Wigmore Hall.
Paul Banks - BA, DPhil Head of the Centre for Performance History
After undergraduate studies at the University of Exeter, Paul Banks undertook doctoral research
on the early life and music of Gustav Mahler at St. Johns College, Oxford before taking up an
appointment as Lecturer in Music at Goldsmiths College, in 1979. His work on Mahler led to the
discovery of the Symphony in E major by Hans Rott, and the work, edited by Paul Banks, was given
its world premire in Cincinnati in 1989. It has since been recorded and widely performed as an
important forerunner of Mahlers symphonic style. In 1989 Dr. Banks moved to Aldeburgh as
Librarian at the Britten-Pears library, and while there contributed to a number of publications
about the music of Benjamin Britten. In 1998 he was appointed Research Development Fellow at
the Royal College of Music and since 2004 he has been Head of the newly-formed Centre for
Performance History. His other research interests include the music of Berlioz and Busoni. He is
currently a member of the Music sub-Panel of RAE2008, and a Trustee and General Secretary of
the New Berlioz Edition; with Professor John Tyrrell (Cardiff University) he leads the AHRC
Concert Programmes Project. His current major research project is a long-planned catalogue of
the manuscripts and early printed editions of music by Gustav Mahler. Paul contributes to the
Research Training in Music series at the Institute of Musical Research, and teaches a course unit on
the History of Music Printing and Publishing at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
David Burnand, MA, BMus Head of Music Technology

David Burnand is Head of Music Technology, Head of the Centre for Screen Music Studies and a
Principal Lecturer at the Royal College of Music. He contributes to teaching analysis & aesthetics,
composition and multimedia applications. Originally a pop musician signed to Arista and Warner
Brothers, David now composes electroacoustic and film music, including music and sound design
for: Hoi Polloi (BBC, 1990), Acumen (C4, 1991), Smart Alek (BFI, 1993), L Bas (BFI, 1994), Gallivant
(BFI, 1996) and This Filthy Earth (FilmFour 2001). His musique concrte pieces include One Equal
Light, which was commissioned by BRTN Radio 3, Holland, and Night Scene for quarter-tone alto
flute and tape, commissioned by Carla Rees and performed in the UK and USA. David is currently
working on a feature film project with internationally renowned photographer Rankin.
David also writes on the subject of composition and film music, including articles and book
chapters on the training of composers, approaches to film scoring, issues of identity and reasons
why film music has unjustifiably been held in low regard. European Film Music, co-edited by David
and Miguel Mera, will be published by Ashgate in 2006. David was director of the Colleges
Teaching and Learning Technology project, out of which developed two CD-ROMs on
Orchestration and Film Scoring. He also recently collaborated on a CD-ROM with Carla Rees that
supports composers writing effectively and imaginatively for the quarter-tone alto flute.
130
Michael McEvoy, MMus Area Leader for Composition for Screen

Michael began his career in popular music writing songs for Soul II Soul, Curiosity Killed the Cat
and Ian Dury. His first experiences composing for film and television were two Film on Four
features, Vroom (dir. Beeban Kidron), followed by Bearskin (dir. Ann and Eduardo Guedes). Since
then, Michael has scored numerous television documentaries and series for Channel 4, BBC, PBS
amongst others. He won a US regional Emmy in 2004 and his title sequence for the art series
Jaccuse received a BAFTA award nomination. Michaels score for the docu-drama, E=MC2
(Darlow/Smithson) was be broadcast on Channel 4 and PBS (Nova) in 2004 and released on DVD
in 2005. Michael has just finished collaborating (orchestrator and co-composer) with DJ/producer
Paul Oakenfold on an up-coming Japanese animated feature called Vexille. Michael was the RCMs
PRS Sir Arthur Bliss Memorial Scholar 2003-4 and was awarded the Joseph Horovitz Composition
for Screen Prize in 2004.
John
Blakely,
BA,
HonRCM,
ARAM,
ARCO
Pathway
John Blakely studied at the RAM, winning all the major prizes for piano and accompaniment, and
was a Music Scholar at Oxford University. He now has an international reputation as a chamber
musician and accompanist, and has performed throughout Europe as partner of many
outstanding instrumentalists and singers. In this country he has for many years been a familiar
figure on the South Bank and at the other major London venues, as well as at British Universities,
Music Festivals and Societies. He has made countless studio recordings for the BBC, as well as
giving many live broadcasts. He is an increasingly prominent recording artist, with seven CDs to
his credit, ranging from violin sonatas by Beethoven, Faur, Debussy, Walton and others to a
programme of vocal duets and a major song cycle by Kenneth Leighton which was his last
completed work. His recording of Beethoven's 'Spring Sonata with Lorraine McAslan was
declared 'first choice' of all available versions by Radio 3's Record Review. At the RCM he works
with solo pianists and accompanists, coaches chamber music and works with singers on
repertoire, particularly German Lieder. He is also Professor-in-charge of the College's flourishing
Junior Fellowship scheme. Elsewhere he is increasingly sought after as an adjudicator, and
regularly visits the other UK conservatoires to judge competitions and to act as external
examiner.
Simon Channing, BA, Certificate of Advanced Orchestral Studies, GSM Orchestral Musician
Pathway
After graduating from Cambridge University, where he read English, Simon Channing studied the
flute as a Postgraduate student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Peter Lloyd.
After finishing his formal studies, he worked regularly as a freelance flautist, both as a soloist and
with the English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra
and London Philharmonic, before joining the London Philharmonic as sub-principal flute in 1988.
He was a member of the orchestra for eight years, including three as chairman, and his wide
orchestral experience has included playing for many of the world's great conductors, including
Solti, Tennstedt, Mehta, Haitink and Rattle. In 1997 he was granted a year's sabbatical by the
London Philharmonic to become Head of Woodwind, Brass and Percussion at the Hong Kong
Academy for Performing Arts, and has now returned to London as Head of Performance and flute
Professor at the RCM. He is also on the Board of Governors of the Purcell School.
131
Madeleine Mitchell, MMus(Eastman USA), GRSM, ARCM, FRSA Solo/Ensemble Recitalist

Pathway
Madeleine Mitchell has a distinguished career as violin soloist, chamber musician, teacher and
artistic director. She performs in over 40 countries for 2 decades, frequently broadcasting for
television and radio. She has performed concertos with orchestras including the Royal
Philharmonic, Polish and Czech Radio Symphony, Wurttemberg Chamber and for the BBC. She is a
frequent recitalist of all standard repertoire including Lincoln Center (when she represented
Britain at the festival UKinNY), Sydney Opera House, Seoul Center for the Arts, many festivals, in
London and for the BBC. Madeleine Mitchell has been a Professor at the RCM since 1994 and is on
the Faculty of the Schlern International Summer Festival, Italy. She gives masterclasses worldwide,
in festivals such as Canberra and has given lecture-recitals at the Juilliard School. She was a
Foundation Scholar at the RCM, winning the Tagore Gold Medal and at the Eastman and Juilliard
schools, as Fulbright/ITT fellow, where she studied with DeLay, Weilerstein and Rosenberg. 168
Her recent acclaimed recordings include Violin Songs - short popular pieces, FiddleSticks with
Ensemble Bash (Signum) and Alwyn chamber music (Naxos); British Treasures - romantic violin
sonatas (Somm); In Sunlight: Pieces for Madeleine Mitchell (by well known British composers NMC); Hummel violin sonatas and Frank Bridge chamber music (Meridian). She is Artistic Director
of the London Chamber Ensemble, performing with pianist Joanna MacGregor, cellist Paul
Watkins and guitarist Craig Ogden. She was nominated for a Creative Briton Award for her
innovative Red Violin Festival under Lord Menuhin's patronage, which takes place again in Cardiff,
October 2007. Websites: www.redviolin.co.uk www.classical-artists.com/madeleinemitchell
Timothy Salter, MA, LRAM, ARCO, FRCM, MTC MMus Composition Pathway Leader
Timothy Salter is a composer, conductor and pianist, whose works include instrumental, chamber
and orchestral music, choral music and songs. He was born in Yorkshire and read music at St.
John's College, Cambridge. His numerous public and private commissions comprise concert music
in many genres but also include incidental music for television. His compositions appear on several
recording labels and have been broadcast throughout the world. As a pianist he performs with
singers and instrumentalists in Britain and overseas. He is musical director of The Ionian Singers,
with whom he records and performs internationally. He is a strong advocate of the composerperformer, believing that executant experience has an invaluable effect on composition. In pursuit
of this, he has written a substantial body of choral works and works including chorus, and much of
his wide-ranging instrumental music has been written for colleague performers. As a composer
and performer he has considerable experience in working with musicians, student and
professional, on the performance of contemporary music. In 1995 he founded Usk Recordings for
the promulgation of new music and neglected works from the past.
Website: www.timothysalter.com
Michael Oliva, MA, Area Leader Electroacoustic Music
Originally trained as a biochemist, Michael Oliva is now a composer, with a fondness for writing
operas and music for electronics and woodwind. He performs regularly with the contemporary
music ensemble rarescale in the UK and the States, and also runs madestrange opera, a company
dedicated to producing new forms of the genre for modern audiences. With madestrange he has
premiered his multimedia operas Black & Blue at BAC in 2004 and Midsummer in 2005, and is
currently working on his next two operas, The Girl Who Liked to be Thrown Around, presented as a
work in progress in Scotland in 2006 and in full production in London in 2007, and Mary Barnes,
due in 2008. As well as over 40 theatre scores, works include Xas-Orion for oboe/cor anglais and
electronics, Into the Light for oboe/cor and piano (both recorded by Paul Goodey on his CD New
Ground, Torso for wind orchestra, Cyclone for wind quintet with piano, a piece for large ensemble
and electronics The Speed of Metals, Night Crossing for wind trio with computer and Apparition and
Release for quartertone alto flute and electronics. Michael also lectures in music technology at
132
Imperial College, London and researches and publishes on the use of interactive video systems in
opera.
Ashley Solomon, ARAM, Hon RCM Pathway Leader, Historical Performance

As artistic director of Florilegium the majority of Ashleys time is spent working and performing
with this ensemble he co-founded in 1991. They have a busy touring schedule each season and
have been recording with Channel Classics since 1993. To date they have made 20 recordings for
this Dutch label. As a soloist he has performed throughout Europe, the Americas, the Far East and
Australia, in prestigious venues including the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), The Frick Collection
(New York), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires) and the Sydney Opera House. He has recorded
numerous programmes for radio and television in the UK and abroad. As well as his many
recordings with Florilegium for Channel Classics, he has been recording as a solo artist for the same
label since 1998. Recently appointed conductor of Arakaendar Bolivia, this national choir of Bolivia
have won Editors Choice and a Diapason dOr for their debut recording of Bolivian Baroque music
from the Missions for Channel Classics. In 1998 he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of
Music and this was followed in 2000 with an Honorary membership of the Royal College of Music.
Much in demand as a teacher he has been Professor at the Royal College of Music since 1994 and
given frequent master classes and lectures in Australia, The Americas, The Czech Republic,
Bulgaria, Portugal, Norway and the UK. In 2006 he was appointed Head of Historical Performance
at the Royal College of Music.
Faculty Heads
Nigel Black Head of Brass
Nigel Black was a member of the National Youth Orchestra and the European Union Youth
Orchestra. He studied at the RCM with Douglas Moore; upon leaving the RCM he became
Principal Horn of Opera Orchestra of La Scala, Milan, under Claudio Abbado where he stayed for
three years. He has since been a member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been
Principal Horn of the Philharmonia Orchestra since 1993. In 1997 he led his section in a recording
of Schumanns Konzertstck for Deutsche Grammophon.
Kevin Hathway, ARCM, HonRCM Head of Percussion
Kevin Hathway has been co-principal percussionist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, London
since 197, prior to that he was principal percussionist with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. He is
a founder member of the Wallace Collection where he is able to exploit unusual opportunities as a
percussionist, playing chamber music with brass instrumentalists. He has travelled the world
extensively both with the Philharmonia and as a clinician in either a specialist capacity or as leader
of educational projects. Appearances on classical, TV and film recordings are numerous along with
several music publications. He is Head of the Percussion Department at the Royal College of
Music and is an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. He has his own
publishing company which is devoted exclusively to educational percussion books. In 1992, Kevin
was a Winston Churchill Fellow and was given a sabbatical period by the Philharmonia and the
Royal College to spend time in the USA, examining music education in detail. At the Royal College,
Kevin is heavily involved in outreach work and his two ensembles, Prince Consort Percussion and
The Elastic Band, are in great demand for educational projects throughout the whole country.
Recent engagements have included the Mayfield, Salisbury, West Cork and Farnham Festivals and
numerous percussion workshops for people of all ages.
133
Janet Hilton, ARMCM Head of Woodwind

Janet Hilton studied in Manchester and Vienna, making her BBC debut at the age of twenty
playing Mozarts Clarinet Concerto. Since then she has built up an international reputation as one
of todays most distinguished clarinettists. She has performed in many festivals, including
Aldeburgh, Bath, Cheltenham, City of London, Edinburgh and Harrogate. In Europe her work has
included concertos and recitals in Paris, Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, Rome and Naples, and
chamber music at festivals in Gstaad and Siena. She has also appeared as a concerto soloist, and as
a recitalist and chamber musician in Chicago and Michigan.
Janet Hilton has recorded extensively for the Chandos label, including chamber music by Brahms
and Weber with the Lindsay Quartet, Peter Frankl and Keith Swallow, trios by Mozart, Bruch and
Schumann with Nobuko Imai and Roger Vignoles, Webers Concertos with the CBSO, and Nielsen
and Copland concertos with the RSNO. She has also recorded Malcolm Arnolds First Clarinet
Concert for EMI, and Mozarts Clarinet Quintet with the Lindsay Quartet for ASV. Her most recent
recording, of four concertos written for her by Alun Hoddinott, John McCabe, Edward Harper and
Dame Elizabeth Maconchy was released in 2001 on the Clarinet Classics label.
Janet Hilton has been Principal Clarinet in orchestras including those of Welsh National Opera and
Kent Opera, and in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Manchester Camerata. She has taught
clarinet at both the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and at the Royal Northern
College of Music, and was Head of Woodwind at Birmingham Conservatoire, before becoming
Head of Woodwind at the Royal College of Music in 1998.
Vanessa Latarche, HonARAM, FTCL, LRAM, ARCM Head of Keyboard
Vanessa Latarche came to the Royal College of Music following a successful period as a professor
and the Royal Academy of Music. She is also a moderator, trainer examiner and lecturer with the
Associated Board. Earlier, she taught in the RCMs Junior Department for nearly ten years. She is
herself an alumna of the RCM, where she was a Foundation Scholar. Since then, she has been
awarded many further scholarships and has won prizes in international competitions.
Vanessas Latarches career as a pianist has been varied. She has performed as a soloist with leading
orchestras, including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, in the UK and Europe. She
regularly broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and her work in this area, both live and recorded now spans
some 20 years. Among the partners with whom she regularly performs chamber music is the
clarinettist, Michael Collins.. Her CD of Mendelssohn, Brahms and Reger with Nicholas Cox was
chosen by Classic FM as the best chamber music CD in 2000. Vanessa Latarche travels extensively
and has presented seminars and masterclasses internationally, most recently in Hong Kong, Japan,
Korea, and Singapore.
Nicholas Sears, MA Head of Vocal Studies
Nicholas Sears studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and subsequently at the Guildhall School of
Music and Drama. Following a post in the BBC Singers, he performed as a principal for WNO,
Opera North, Scottish Opera Go-Round, Garsington, Buxton and Aldeburgh Festivals, English
Touring Opera and Opera Theatre Company, Ireland. In Europe, Nicholas performed as principal
at the Liceu Barcelona, Antwerp and Ghent, Lausanne, Salamanca, Porto and Lisbon, Berlin and
Vienna. On the concert platform he was a soloist with many of the major orchestras working with
conductors including Simon Rattle, Michael Tilson Thomas, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rene Jacobs,
Harry Christophers and Paul McCreesh in the UK, Europe and South America.
Having decided to pursue an alternative career in teaching and arts administration Nicholas
taught singing at the Royal Northern College of Music whilst working as an Artist Manager for
Intermusica Artists Management. He commenced his post as Head of the RCM Vocal Faculty in
January 2007 and is married with one son.
134
Mark Messenger, LRAM, FRAM Head of Strings

At the age of 16, Mark Messenger gained a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music having
been taught by Leonard Hirsch and Christian Ferras. At the Academy, he studied the violin with
David Martin and Sidney Griller, and chamber music with the Amadeus String Quartet. As well as a
busy career as a soloist and also as an orchestral player and latterly leader, he played first with the
Bingham and then with the Bochmann String Quartets, touring overseas and recording with both
quartets. Through his playing he has been active in the commissioning, performance and
promotion of new music. He has been actively involved in the initiation and delivery of outreach
programmes for many orchestras and organisations including the Academy of St. Martins in the
Fields, Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, English Symphony Orchestra and Colchester Borough
Council. For four years, he was Director of Chamber Music at the Aberystwyth International
Summer Music Festival.
In 1996, Mark was appointed Head of String Studies at the Colchester Institute. In 2000, he was
asked to become Artistic Director and conductor of the Essex Young Peoples Orchestra. In
September 2002, he took up the post of Head of Strings at the Royal College of Music, London. In
2004 he was appointed artistic director of London String Quartet Week. Since 2002, he has
traveled widely as a consultant on curriculum development, as an external examiner and
adjudicator, to give masterclasses and as a lecturer.
William Mival, MMus Head of Composition

William Mival is Head of Composition at the Royal College of Music. He was a student of
Anthony Milner, Robert Saxton and, in Cologne, of York Hller. As well as composing William
Mival was recently behind an orchestration software package which allows for musical
interaction with real orchestral sounds and sonorities. He has also been a frequent broadcaster
on Radio Three as well as appearing on BBC classical music television on BBC 4.
In 1996 his On the Ringstreet was commissioned and premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra
under Pascal Roph. The Siege of Chester which he composed for Sophie Yates for the virginals,
tuned in mean-tone temperament, was featured on Radio Threes The Music Machine and heard
subsequently in Berlin and Lisbon as well in the UK. In 1999 the Welsh Arts Council commissioned
Gift of Life for soprano and string orchestra, based on the poetry of Pushkin. In January 2002 the
Belcea Quartet gave the world premiere of his Quartet RBG at the Sydney Festival in Australia and
ten days later followed it with the European premiere at a BBC lunchtime concert at the Wigmore
Hall in London. In February 2003 the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Donald Runnicles at
the Barbican concert hall in London gave the first performance of a newly commissioned
orchestral work. Built from a few splinters of original Wagner, Tristan still was heard before Act III
and was the only new work in a series of concerts built around each of the three acts of Wagners
Tristan and featuring music by composers influenced by Wagner.
135

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Royal College of Music

INTEGRATED MASTERS PROGRAMME

If you would like any material

2. Programme Aims and Learning Outcomes..7

5. Postgraduate Induction and starting the Programme.21

9. Masters Programme Unit Descriptions....27

Year 1 Performance Level Units...28

Year 2/Intensive Programme Advanced Performance

Elective units for both programmes..61

10. Programme Management Arrangements.87

The Graduate School contains nine programmes:

Integrated Masters Programme in Performance for Instrumentalists and

The Masters Programme in Performance contains a number of pathways:

Programme Aims and Learning Outcomes

The Masters Programme has the following overall aims:

To provide advanced musical training at postgraduate level in which a fundamental emphasis

To produce musicians capable of contributing to the development of the profession and of

Formatted: Bullets and

Masters Programme in Performance

I year (10 months)

2 years (22 months)

2 years (22 months)

1 year (12 months)

2 years (24 months)

120 Credits at level M

240 Credits at level M

240 Credits at level M

180 Credits at level M

300 Credits at level M

Advanced Performance level

Related or Second Study:

Unit Choice Steps

Unit selection restrictions:

Pathway Core Unit

Principal Study Unit

Elective Unit(s) (Level M

Total of 120 credits

Pathway Core Unit (Level

Advanced Principal Study

Chamber Music (Group

Elective Unit(s) (Level M and/or 3)

Total of 120 credits

Pathway Core Unit (Level

Elective Unit(s) (Level M and/or

Total of 180 credits

Completing an MMus by taking the second MMus Core Unit separately

Where appropriate, you will be offered opportunities to participate in student-student

Integrated Masters Programme Part-time option

Parameters for part-time study:

Typical plans of part-time study for an MMus student:

MMus Core unit

Principal Study unit

MMus Core unit

Principal Study unit

Lecture Recital/ Critical

Principal Study unit

Postgraduate Induction and starting the Programme:

LIBRARY SEMINAR (please sign-up for one session only)

LIBRARY SEMINAR (please sign-up for one session only)

LIBRARY SEMINAR (please sign-up for one session only)

LIBRARY SEMINAR (please sign-up for one session only)

LIBRARY SEMINAR (please sign-up for one session only)

Monday 8 Oct. 2008