As announced on the IRCAM website (in French only,
according to an ancient tradition, and translated by yours truly):
Research in composition
From
Septembre 2014
Université
Paris-Sorbonne IV, Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), Sorbonne Universités, Ircam
Call
for candidacy: first forthnight of May on the Ulysses platform
Selection:
in June
The
implementation of the LMD [bachelor-master-doctorate] system in European higher
education institutions implies the need to create these diplomas or their
respective degrees (bachelor, master and doctorate) in educational systems
where they did not exist before. It also means that the doctoral degree is more
generally required for access to teaching positions, even in schools where it
did not exist before. A PhD in music, while it existed in Anglo-Saxon countries
(UK and U.S.), was not usual in continental Europe, where musical practice is
traditionally taught in conservatories and colleges of music rather than at a
university. Numerous European countries, faced with this problem, set up
doctorates in music, often in the context of collaboration between university
and conservatory.
The
doctorate in music composition research, organized in collaboration with the
University of Paris -Sorbonne, the Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC) and
IRCAM, is part of this now inevitable movement. Different from the doctorate in
musicology, it is aimed at high-level composers holding a master (or an
equivalent degree, along with significant experience in composition), who
notably propose projects integrating a technological dimension in the
compositional process, and eager to pursue a dual career as composer and
researcher. The degree awards a double competence of composer, of which the
final degree work attests, and researcher, materialized in the defense of a
thesis.
Doctoral
training is provided jointly by the three institutions; it includes doctoral
courses and joint seminars, issued by the Paris-Sorbonne University , UPMC and
IRCAM. The degree is based on the production of creative works (which have to
relate to the research project) and on the defense of the doctoral thesis
before a jury of the partner institutions.
Research
topics
This
doctorate is open to candidates wishing to conduct their research from one or
more of the topics from (but not limited to) the following list:
Material
, form and meaning: categories and musical parameters, computer-assisted
composition, music/sound/noise, semiotics, thematism and expressiveness.
Instrument and performer: performance modes, gesture, collaboration of
performer/composer, acoustic analysis, extended instruments, electronic
instrument making.
Voice, text, word: relations music/text, linguistic and
phonological/phonetic approaches, semantics and expression, speech synthesis
and processing, plurality of languages.
Orchestration , instrumentation: treaties and rules (from the
explicitation of the craft to formalization), timbre and instrumentation,
computer assisted orchestration.
Interactivity: sound installations, mixed music, improvisation,
multimedia.
Sound
space and stage: dramaturgy, scenography, opera, theater, architecture, sound
spatialisation.
Methodology and transversal aspects: theory and analysis, collaborative
creation, process documentation, qualitative and quantitative approaches,
perception and cognition, aesthetics and philosophy of art.
The
admittance procedure is organised on a competitive bases.
This
cycle is open to candidates wishing to jointly practice a high level composer
activity and conduct research leading to a thesis in the field of musical
creation, all the while aiming for taking part in a dynamic professional
employability.
Candidates
must hold a national master degree or degrees of CNSMDP or CNSMDL conferring
the rank of master, or having studied abroad at a level deemed equivalent by
the graduate school, or enjoying validated academic achievements, and
demonstrate experience in composition as evidenced by a record of works, a
description of which is specified in the call for applications.
Two
candidates are selected annually.
Contracts
will be awarded to two candidates.
