1. The Regulations provide for candidates to submit original compositions, or to offer recital work, in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degrees of MPhil or PhD. The following paragraphs amplify these requirements.
   
   
2. Candidates submitting musical compositions will submit one or more substantial works normally taking the form of scores, recordings and/or other electronic formats; 'substantial' is to be understood as referring to such features as the nature and degree of elaboration of the music, its duration and the forces involved in its performance. In the case of instrumental and/or vocal composition, it is a normal requirement that audio recordings of not less than 25% of the total submission are provided; these will aid the examiners in their assessment of compositional quality but neither the performance nor the recording will be directly assessed, nor will the recording form part of the formal submission.
   
   
3. Compositional submissions must include either a textual commentary of approximately 10,000 to 15,000 words explaining the nature of the research embodied in the compositions (for example in terms of compositional process, technique, structure, context, significance and relationship to contemporary compositional practice), or a substantial thesis (approximately 35,000 to 40,000 words) together with a correspondingly reduced compositional submission. In the latter case, the thesis will embody original research related to the compositional submission in such a way that the compositional and textual components form an integrated project.
   
   
4. Recital work may be offered in conjunction with a substantial thesis (normally not less than 55,000 words). The relationship of the thesis and the recital work must be such as to form an integrated research project, with the recital illustrating or exemplifying the original research embodied in the thesis.
   
   
5. Candidates are reminded that they are also required to adhere to the guidelines concerning the submission of theses set out in the document Completion of Research Degree Candidature (available via Quality Handbook - Completion of Research Degree Candidature or from the Accredited Institution).
   
   
   
   

Submitted by Corporate Services
Last reviewed: 28-Jul-2015
© University of Southampton