Music BA (Hons)

This module examines the roles and responsibilities of the cultural industries, and how they are influenced by changing ethical concerns, public policy, and attitudes in the popular media. You will study alongside students in art and design, investigating art, design and music institutions and their practices, examining core institutional roles and beliefs and recent shifts in cultural management practices and the contextualisation of art, design and music. The roles of curators, publishers (including record labels), broadcasters and collection or event managers will be analysed in a continually developing cultural environment, dominated as much by digital sites of cultural exchange, as bricks and mortar institutions.

You will be introduced to concepts regarding the management and display of art and design, alongside music management, and debate how these work in reality, discussing issues such as diversity, audiences, access, inclusion, and freedom of speech. Emphasis will be on careful consideration of how the cultural industries can serve society, but also how they react to social concerns, questions of elitism, obscenity or offence, alternative histories and creative interventions in the public sphere. The module will encourage you to think critically about the functions of the cultural industries. It will also work in conjunction with other music modules, such as those in performance and music teaching, to prompt you to consider the impact of questions of difference upon your own future profession. Based around dynamic discussion, the module will culminate in a group task in which you will vigorously debate a current issue in the institutional environment.

In this module, you will consider how histories of music are constructed. Who decides what should be included within the narrative and what is the significance of what is left out? To what extent are we constrained by the available evidence? To what extent do the music histories we write reflect our present-day concerns?

You will engage critically with different approaches to writing music history, from the development of musical styles to in-depth socio-cultural studies, and to strategies for structuring our conception of music history. You will also consider how and why particular composers and repertory become dominant in our understanding of music history, and what the consequences of this might be.

You will also explore the different kinds of sources that music historians use – not only scores or recordings, but iconographical, archival or other historical material – exploring what they can reveal about the creation, consumption and functions of music in the past, and their limitations.

Within this module, you will develop a critical capacity to scrutinise sources and evaluate the way they have been interpreted in the creation of music history whilst engaging with a range of music from a variety of periods.

This module is designed to equip you with the research skills you need in order to carry out original, independent research in Music. It serves as a preparation for the dissertation you will write in your final year of study. You will have the opportunity to write an extended essay on a topic of your choice within a number of possible areas. In doing so, you will gain an understanding of how to frame research questions and arrive at a title, how to manage a project working independently, how to find primary and secondary sources, how to present your work and develop your academic writing.

This module is focused on your individual, one-to-one instrumental or vocal tuition. You will develop your technique while enhancing skills in performing music which will enable you to communicate effectively with an audience. The course will cover areas such as effective practising, performance contexts and how to manage nerves. You will continue to expand your repertoire, gaining an awareness of performing traditions associated with the music you are playing or singing as you are introduced to the study of performance practice. You will continue to engage critically with musical performance through attendance at concerts, recitals and open rehearsals.

This module is focused on your individual, one-to-one instrumental or vocal tuition. You will develop your technique while enhancing skills in performing music which will enable you to communicate effectively with an audience in a recital open to the general public. The seminars will focus on how to structure a recital programme and how to write effective programme notes. You will continue to engage critically with musical performance through attendance at concerts, recitals and open rehearsals, focusing especially on programme structure.

In this module, you will build on the core first-year course, Techniques of Composition, Harmonic Analysis and Improvisation. The module focuses on more advanced harmonic progressions including the use of dominant 13th, diminished 7th, Neapolitan 6th and Augmented 6th chords, and on broader tonal structures.

Students produce weekly harmony assignments which may include analytical exercises, harmony exercises and pastiche composition. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the distinctions between composer, improviser and performer were much less distinct than today, and we will explore repertoire through improvisation.

This module will introduce you to the study of musical instruments, known as organology, and examines their use, construction, and position within society. As the principal voices of music, musical instruments serve as vehicles for composers’ ideas. However, the instruments are more than just tools of performance, allowing us to observe a variety of cultural facets, such as our sociocultural history, from a unique angle. Their importance has woven them into our wider cultural backdrop, featuring in literature and iconographical sources, and many musical instruments are works of art in their own right. These interconnections across the humanities prove that the instruments are about more than just the music that they perform.

Through the lens of musical instruments, the lectures will address topics such as gender, sexuality, social class, and race, shedding light on the evolution of society over the course of approximately 500 years. The consideration of scores in tandem with organological analysis will introduce you to the skills behind material musicology (the analysis of scores with consideration of the instrument), and will approach aspects of performance practice from the angle of instrument capability. The module will address current, historical, and world instruments to provide you with a broad understanding and appreciation of different musical cultures and the intersections that occur between the traditions. You will therefore be introduced to research skills that utilise materials beyond contemporary books and journals, while also developing an understanding of organological theories and methodologies that can be assimilated into your own performance studies.

Having been introduced to music’s place in the classroom curriculum in your first year, and having had some teaching experience working with your peers, this course pays closer attention to music pedagogy in general, and gives you the opportunity to experience genuine teaching situations outside the classroom, reflecting on what you learn from the observation of others. You also continue with your practical work, either giving and receiving lessons by working with someone in the class who plays your instrument, or by working with other students who play an instrument belonging to the same family (brass, woodwind, strings etc.), or by carrying on with the instrument you started as a beginner in first year.

You will learn how to be a tutor of students in schools or colleges. You will develop your skills in communicating effectively with children or young people. As part of this process you will learn how to evaluate your own learning of how to support these pupils’ learning over a series of lessons. You will be learning how to transmit your own enthusiasm for learning in a professional context to pupils within the schooling system. You will learn about the issues facing teachers and other professionals within the school, college or learning centre. Learning how to apply your existing skills and knowledge in a work related context will be an important focus of this module for you. Knowing how to determine which skills and knowledge are relevant, and make appropriate use of these in the work context, will be a major learning opportunity for you.

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.