BA Film Studies and Music

This course unit introduces students to representative scholarly research in the discipline of contemporary Music Performance Studies, particularly in the areas of historically informed performance, analysis and performance, and psychology of music performance. It involves analysing and critically evaluating source materials and material artefacts involved in creating artistic music performances, and gaining understanding of the various (quantitative, qualitative and practice-based/artistic) research methods employed in Music Performance Studies.

The course unit explores the art of music performance as a culturally-socially situated and thoroughly embodied creative practice, fostering a broad awareness of the multi-faceted components of the music performer’s art. Emphasis will be placed on making connections between embodied-artistic and scholarly knowledges about music performance.

If taking as free choice you need to have a pre-requisite in a relevant Level 2 Music course, or have the agreement of the Course Director.

• To familiarize students with the current debates in Music Performance Studies
• To develop critical skills in analysing and evaluating music performances and source materials related to creating music performances
• To encourage and guide students in making connections between embodied-artistic and theoretical/historical knowledges about music performance

Week 1: Introduction to Performance Studies as an academic discipline

Week 2: Expressivity in music performance

Week 3: Historically informed performance & the authenticity debate

Week 4:  Early recordings and changing ideals of music performance

Week 5:  The body in performance

Week 6: Material cultures and music performance: instruments, scores, spaces

Week 7: Analysis and performance

Week 8: Performing identities, performance cultures and discourse

Week 9: Musical and social dynamics of music ensembles: The conductor and the orchestra

Week 10: Improvising and performing with technology

Week 11: Artistic research in music performance

 Lectures. Individual supervision to develop the written course project. 

• Demonstrate awareness of the multiple dimensions and complexities of the art of music performance through
• Understanding of the discursive possibilities for engaging with music performances as artists and scholars

• Ability to discuss performance-related issues in a conceptually sophisticated manner
• Ability to connect non-conceptual/embodied aspects of music making with theoretical perspectives on music performance
• Ability to critique historical, pedagogical and psychological approaches to music performance

• Develop increased awareness of the material and embodied components of music performance, and ability to engage with them closely
• Develop increased sensitivity to the expressive potentials of musical sound and the physical bases
• Develop a personal artistic, expressive voice in performance, and ability to communicate with audiences

• Good time management skills
• Skills in self-motivation and self-management and decision-making
• Critical self-awareness
• Tracking personal development

• Formative: Verbal feedback throughout the term and also during one-to-one supervisions 
• Summative: Written feedback on completed coursework, prior to final submission

Butt, John. (2002). Playing with History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cook, Nicholas. 2013. Beyond the Score: Music as Performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dorottya Fabian, Renee Timmers & Emery Schubert (eds.). (2014). Expressiveness in Music Performance: Empirical Approaches Across Styles and Cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Doğantan-Dack, Mine. (ed.) (2022). The Chamber Musician in the Twenty-First Century. Basel: MDPI

(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute). Fully open-access. URL:

< https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/edition/5783>

Doğantan-Dack, Mine. (ed.) (2015). Artistic Practice as Research in Music: Theory, Criticism, Practice. Aldershot: Ashgate.

McPherson, Gary. (2022). The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance. 2 volumes. Oxford: oxford University Press.

Rink, John. (2002). Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rink, John, Helena Gaunt, and Aaron Williamon (eds.). (2017). Musicians in the Making: Pathways to Creative Performance. New York: Oxford University Press.

Williamon, Aaron. (ed.) (2004). Musical Excellence: Strategies and Techniques to Enhance Performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.