College Music Courses

richardh330

Hi guys I'm in secondary school and I'm looking for good college or university courses for music. I heard CIT school of music is really good, but I would rather go to a university like UCD or TCD for a choice of more higher level degree subjects. I also heard about the Royal Irish Academy college courses. If you could give me any information on recommendations you heard that would be great!!

purebeta

You should add UCC and NUIM(I did my M.A. and B.Mus. there if you need more info) to your list.
TBH I haven't heard anything about CIT, more about UCC which have a good composition department.

IceFjoem

It depends on what you're looking for really. Are you an instrumentalist? What kind of music are you looking to study? If you're looking to further your development as a classical musician, the Academy, Cork and DIT are your best bet. The music course in Trinity is more academic and they don't provide tuition in your instrument, although they have some fantastic faculty members. You should forget about UCD altogether, they don't provide instrument tuition (as far as I know), their orchestra isn't great as they're desperate for players, and from what I've heard the course itself is just cr*p.

There may be a small few that disagree, but the Academy is generally regarded as the best Conservatory in the country. The lecturers/teachers are fantastic, and would have had dazzling careers in all the best Opera houses and Orchestras. It's also quite a small college too, about 120 3rd level students in total, so there's a great atmosphere in the place, and a lot going on in terms of concerts and events. Currently the degrees are awarded by DCU, but they're in the process of casting DCU aside and linking up with Trinity.

I've heard great things about Cork too. They just got a massive amount of funding and did a big refurbishment. Not sure what the staff are like. All that said, you should choose the teacher that's best for you first and foremost, the college is of secondary concern, but keep in mind that it's easier to get involved in the music scene if you're living in Dublin.

richardh330

purebeta wrote: »

You should add UCC and NUIM(I did my M.A. and B.Mus. there if you need more info) to your list.
TBH I haven't heard anything about CIT, more about UCC which have a good composition department.

I heard about NUIM because all my music teachers, both instrumental and music for the leaving cert, went to NUIM and studied music there. But I would much prefer to go to Dublin as its easier to get involved in the music scene.

richardh330

IceFjoem wrote: »

It depends on what you're looking for really. Are you an instrumentalist? What kind of music are you looking to study? If you're looking to further your development as a classical musician, the Academy, Cork and DIT are your best bet. The music course in Trinity is more academic and they don't provide tuition in your instrument, although they have some fantastic faculty members. You should forget about UCD altogether, they don't provide instrument tuition (as far as I know), their orchestra isn't great as they're desperate for players, and from what I've heard the course itself is just cr*p.

There may be a small few that disagree, but the Academy is generally regarded as the best Conservatory in the country. The lecturers/teachers are fantastic, and would have had dazzling careers in all the best Opera houses and Orchestras. It's also quite a small college too, about 120 3rd level students in total, so there's a great atmosphere in the place, and a lot going on in terms of concerts and events. Currently the degrees are awarded by DCU, but they're in the process of casting DCU aside and linking up with Trinity.

I've heard great things about Cork too. They just got a massive amount of funding and did a big refurbishment. Not sure what the staff are like. All that said, you should choose the teacher that's best for you first and foremost, the college is of secondary concern, but keep in mind that it's easier to get involved in the music scene if you're living in Dublin.

I'm looking to make a job of composing or arranging. Not so much performing. I fully agree with you saying UCD doesn't have much of a musical reputation. Personally, I wouldn't want to go to Cork because it's too far from the rest of the country I know (Leinster/Connaught). I don't want to be too far away from home but yet too close either (sorry for being fussy).

I've talked to someone who is keen on going to the Academy and have researched it fully and they apparently do a good composition course.

Sinfonia

IceFjoem wrote: »

You should forget about UCD altogether, they don't provide instrument tuition (as far as I know), their orchestra isn't great as they're desperate for players, and from what I've heard the course itself is just cr*p.

UCD is top of the heap (maybe alongside NUIM) for Musicology and Analysis.
As for the orchestra, it's not like any student orchestra is particularly great, but UCD has the only student Symphony Orchestra.

If you're specifically looking to study performance or composition, then no, UCD wouldn't be the best choice; if you're looking to study musicology/analysis/music academia, then UCD or NUIM are the best choices.

IME, most of those who claim the course is crap were looking to study performance or composition and chose the wrong university.

purebeta

The composition course in NUIM is getting better all the time, with more
programming and aesthetics being added this year, but I won't go on.

I'd say just look at the different teachers and modules in the departments and
make your mind up on that. Very often different general impressions of Unis
are superficial and don't really apply to music departments.

Best of luck!

IceFjoem

Sinfonia wrote: »

UCD is top of the heap (maybe alongside NUIM) for Musicology and Analysis.
As for the orchestra, it's not like any student orchestra is particularly great, but UCD has the only student Symphony Orchestra.

If you're specifically looking to study performance or composition, then no, UCD wouldn't be the best choice; if you're looking to study musicology/analysis/music academia, then UCD or NUIM are the best choices.

IME, most of those who claim the course is crap were looking to study performance or composition and chose the wrong university.

Fair enough, I was probably overly harsh. The Academy have a Symphony Orchestra too btw.

Sinfonia

IceFjoem wrote: »

The Academy have a Symphony Orchestra too btw.

Sorry, that's right; I was thinking of the only University with one.

pconn062

If you are willing to look outside of Universities, the Applied Music course at DkIT is a great all round course. I am a former graduate of this course and can highly recommend it (composition is my area as well).

Léan

I can only speak for UCC as that's where I went . Not sure what area of composition you're interested in but UCC is great for contemporary composition. There are some great undergrad courses to give you a pretty broad scope on things. They have an MA in composition too which is definitely worth thinking about down the line.

Having said that UCC is also great for ethnomusicology and musicology courses. It might be worth having a look through their course database. It's a pretty well rounded department.

Tbh studying music really depends on where your interests lie when picking a music course.

gotobread

NUIM is great if your piano,voice,guitar or strings. Not so much for brass.

Composition is also good, as is musicology. Very nice department.

eevyhayes

HI i'm looking to study music also. I am currently doing my leaving certificate exams and i have applied to study music as a single honors in TCD i have got through the enterance exam and interview but the leaving certificate points still play an important role( on the website it said last year the points were 420 at minimum ) does that mean that last year someone who got 420 points got into the course.? i am fully aware that there is competition but i am not sure how hard it will be to get in after doing all of these extra things such as the enterance exam and interview. any other information about the course from an insiders point of view would be great also.
things such as :
time table,night life,societies,making friends, work load and helpful tips that i should keep in mind when preparing myself for trinities music course ( if i get in ) fingers crossed

ps. im looking to study composition
and my instruments are piano and flute
I am in dire need of advice and any help would be greatly appreciated
and i'm sorry if this is too general for people to answer:P

MY ADVICE ON THE COLLEGES AFTER MY RESEARCH

i love trinities course as i am interested in composition and developing my aural skills

i also considered NUIM as i live close to there but the course did not appeal to me as much as TCD,i did like however the fact that they have a instumental module but from my speaking to current students they clearly stated that this module takes place once a week and is not very eventful .the music depertment in Maynooth is very established and would be a great place to study.

purebeta

As far as I know Trinity do very little instrumental stuff,
and is mostly musicological and theory based.
That said, reading and theoretical study should not be ignored
if you want to have an all round basis in music.

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter where you study,
as long as you have some idea in your mind of what you want to get out of studying music & composition.
Once you have some vision, the rest will follow.

I'm a former composition student of NUIM(BMus & MA), if you would like any info.

richardh330

eevyhayes wrote: »

ps. im looking to study composition
and my instruments are piano and flute
I am in dire need of advice and any help would be greatly appreciated

Just out of curiosity, what kind of composition do you do? Orchestral, small ensembles... Tonal or atonal?

Here Comes The Trio

richardh330 wrote: »

I heard CIT school of music is really good, but I would rather go to a university like UCD or TCD for a choice of more higher level degree subjects.

Don't choose your institution based on their university "status", CIT is where I went and offers a really wide choice of modules. There is a symphony orchestra as well as the wind bands etc, you have modules in conducting and orchestration as well as composition to give you a great insight into the mechanics of it all. Some current students are doing really well (Sam Perkin, Darragh Kearns Hayes, Sam Barker to name a few) and you don't have to specialise in performance if it's not what you want to do. There's a New Music Ensemble that put on concerts of composers every few months so you can compose for whatever ensemble you like and have it played to an audience. I know you've said Cork is very far etc., but it is a great course and worth thinking about, and don't worry about it being an IT, it's still a music conservatory and the facilities are AMAZING.

Good luck!

natnifnolnacs

The problem when asking for advice is that the vast majority of people will only have knowledge of 1 course; the 1 that they did! Most people will also tell you that the course they did was great for reasons x,y and z but there is no real way to compare with other courses in terms of opinion. Your best bet is to figure out why you want to do the course(instrumental, orchestration, composition etc) and look at the courses in terms of content.

For what it's worth, I went to WIT for my undergrad. The course has changed quite a bit since I was there, it's now open to quit ea few pop and jazz students. It is a decent course if you want to try lots of different areas as you don't really specialize until your final year.