Course Catalogue

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The Musicology course aims to provide students with intensive exposure to the contemporary field of Musicology and to develop students' skills in Musicology through the provision of classroom-based seminars.

The course will critically examine a range of approaches towards the study of Music including sociological, critical and musicological accounts. It will be taught within a Department which is committed to a diverse range of approaches to the study of music and which includes theorists, composers and performers. The course has been designed to reflect this diversity and to bring to students the benefits of studying in a research-led environment. More specifically, the programme aims to:

Give students a comprehensive knowledge of current directions within Musicology, as evidenced in recent books and journals
Encourage students to develop a critical understanding of the academic study of Music at postgraduate level, including a broad range of approaches and repertoire
Give students the skills and confidence to engage in writing about Music in a variety of contexts, including some of those beyond their immediate field of interest
Improve students' analytical, writing skills and presentation skills in the context of researching Music at postgraduate level

Semester 1: 1 Weekly tutorail and self-directed study

Total of 20 hours direct contact time in weekly tutorials and 380 hours essay work.

I essay of 7,000 words

The Musicology course aims to provide students with intensive exposure to the contemporary field of Musicology and to develop students' skills in Musicology through the provision of classroom-based seminars.

The course will critically examine a range of approaches towards the study of Music including sociological, critical and musicological accounts. It will be taught within a Department which is committed to a diverse range of approaches to the study of music and which includes theorists, composers and performers. The course has been designed to reflect this diversity and to bring to students the benefits of studying in a research-led environment. More specifically, the programme aims to:

Give students a comprehensive knowledge of current directions within Musicology, as evidenced in recent books and journals
Encourage students to develop a critical understanding of the academic study of Music at postgraduate level, including a broad range of approaches and repertoire
Give students the skills and confidence to engage in writing about Music in a variety of contexts, including some of those beyond their immediate field of interest
Improve students' analytical, writing skills and presentation skills in the context of researching Music at postgraduate level

Students will develop a critical understanding of Musicology and of a range of approaches to the Study of Music.

On completion of the course students will be able to:

Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of the current directions within Musicology and the ability to participate in debates within the discipline
Show an awareness of a broader frame of scholarly reference into which the candidate's chosen field can be placed
Demonstrate skills in using various musicological discourse and in presenting ideas and arguments
Demonstrate a range of transferable skills in critical thinking and verbal expression (both written and oral)

The key intellectual skill to be developed will be that of undertaking critically-informed and reflective thinking. This will be demonstrated in a number of ways including:

Ability to analyse the different kinds of discursive frameworks within which Musicology operates.
Ability to evaluate academic and other writing about Music which appears in a variety of outlets.
Ability to understand the historical context of various forms of music research.
Ability to understand and apply theoretical work on Music (for example in relation to the broader roles of the cultural industries) at a postgraduate level.

Grade D or above.