MusM Music (Musicology) / Course details

This course examines at an advanced level all aspects associated with particular musical texts (scores, sketches, recordings, performances, productions), including their compositional history, analysis, intertextuality with other works, performance issues, interaction with social, political and economic conditions of the time, and publication, recording and reception history. The focus will normally be on western-music traditions in a variety of contexts and idioms (from high art to popular) and with a wide chronological spread. The course will be built around two in-depth case studies, drawing on the research specialisms of different members of academic staff; these may vary from year to year. 

• To introduce students to current and recent debates about the mutual interaction between the musical text and its contexts and/or reception.
• To stimulate engagement both with the close reading of musical texts and sources, and with their political, social, and cultural issues over a variety of historical, geographical, and social contexts.
• To promote critical assessment of musical scores, recordings, and performances with reference to the relevance and appropriation of their content in specific historical contexts. 

The case studies below are indicative only and may change from year to year, depending on staff specialisms and student interests. Previous case studies have included:  

• Direction, Performance and Opera Studies;  
• The String Quartet in Schubert’s Vienna;
• A Post-Canonical Theory of Musical Form: Reception, Philosophy, Analysis;
• Popular Music, Masculinities and Automobile Culture;  
• Musical Avant-Garde(s) in London and Beyond, 1960–2000;  
• Shostakovich and the String Quartet;  
• Ecomusicology: Music – Nature – Sustainability – Activism. 

Weekly seminars including

• group discussions of set readings, scores and recordings
• short presentations (individual and/or small-group, depending on numbers) and discussion of these

Online support via Blackboard

• The course unit will provide information to at least Blackboard minimum requirements and, where relevant, provide further information on the use of Blackboard within the course unit.  
• Where possible, and in line with copyright, readings and materials will be provided on Blackboard
• Supplementary materials to further students’ engagement with the course will also be provided on Blackboard

Research For and Concerts

• Students enrolled on this course are expected to attend and participate in the weekly Music Research Fora, every Thursday from 4:15-6pm (including where these are hosted online) as well as relevant lunchtime and evening concerts.  
• Where relevant, the content of the Research Fora and/or concerts will be discussed during the weekly seminar for the course.  

• Show a high-level awareness of how music interacts with social, political and economic conditions in a variety of contexts.
• Show a high-level awareness and understanding of such phenomena in history and the questions to which they give rise. 

• Research and use primary and secondary sources appropriate to master’s level.
• Show the ability to situate a variety of musical styles and works in their social, political and cultural context and vice versa, taking account of both musicological and non-musicological approaches and methods. 

• Demonstrate high-level skills in close reading and the analysis of texts and musical scores.
• Demonstrate high-level skills in the search for and presentation of bibliographical and source information.
• Demonstrate high-level skills in academic writing.
• Demonstrate skills in oral presentation. 

• Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex ideas and information, using both the written and spoken word.
• Demonstrate the ability to engage thoughtfully and critically with a variety of musical scores, recordings, texts, and concepts.
• Demonstrate the ability to synthesize and evaluate material systematically to produce arguments and solutions that are communicated clearly in both written and oral form.
• Show an ability to produce written work of high quality independently with critical self-awareness and within a self-directed environment.