Course Catalogue

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The Research Seminar In Music aims to introduce students to research in Music at postgradaute level. It aims to provide students with intensive exposure to contemporary research in Music and to develop their research skills through close working with academics.

The course will critically examine a range of approaches towards research in Music including sociological, critical and musicological approaches. 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 course aims to:

Give students a focussed knowledge of a specific field of current musicological inquiry as framed by a member of academic staff
Encourage students to develop a critical understanding of research in Music at postgraduate level, including a broad range of approaches and repertoire
Demonstrate the ability to employ different research methodologies
Show the ability to deliver the results of short research project in a newly acquired field within a relatively short period of time
Lay the foundations for future research in music-related humanities, both in academia and in other environments
Improve students' analytical, writing skills and presentation skills in the context of researching Music at postgraduate level

Semester 2: Five ad hoc sessions with an academic member of staff to discuss their current research within the context of broader research in Music.

Total of 15 hours direct contact time in toutorial and 85 hours essay work.

Students must attend five research sessions with an academic member of staff during which they must present one research semanar which must then be wrtten up as an assessed essay of not more than 2,000 words

The Research Seminar In Music aims to introduce students to research in Music at postgradaute level. It aims to provide students with intensive exposure to contemporary research in Music and to develop their research skills through close working with academics.

The course will critically examine a range of approaches towards research in Music including sociological, critical and musicological approaches. 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 course aims to:

Give students a focussed knowledge of a specific field of current musicological inquiry as framed by a member of academic staff
Encourage students to develop a critical understanding of research in Music at postgraduate level, including a broad range of approaches and repertoire
Demonstrate the ability to employ different research methodologies
Show the ability to deliver the results of short research project in a newly acquired field within a relatively short period of time
Lay the foundations for future research in music-related humanities, both in academia and in other environments
Improve students' analytical, writing skills and presentation skills in the context of researching Music at postgraduate level

Students will develop a critical understanding of Music research and of a range of approaches to research in Music

On completion of the Research Seminar students will be able to:

Demonstrate knowledge of a specified. delineated, areas within Music research and the ability to participate in debates within the discipline
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)
Demonstrate the ability to employ a range of research methodologies

The key intellectual skill to be developed will be that of understanding critically-informed research. This will be demonstrated in a number of ways including:

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

Successful completion of essay at Grade D or above.