BA Music and Drama

The Department of Music will provide first-year bursaries to support undergraduate students who have demonstrated exceptional levels of achievement in their instrumental and/or vocal studies. These £1000 bursaries will be awarded in the first year of study (2024/25 academic year), paid direct to students in two instalments.

More information, including eligibility criteria, can be found here.

Each student will undertake advanced study on their first instrument, up to public performance standard, with regular instruction from a specialist teacher and an individually tailored programme of study. Each student will attend rehearsals with an approved university ensemble or choir, thereby gaining insights into how works are prepared for public performance of a high standard. Practical studies are complemented by a set of lectures / workshops in semester 1, designed to allow students to enhance their understanding of the benefits of an informed approach to performance. Students will also be expected to attend occasional workshops/masterclasses given by visiting artists.

• To consolidate secure technical foundation within a developing self-directed environment, such that the student is prepared to proceed to MUSC 20600 Solo Performance II if appropriate
• To develop interpretative and critical skills in core repertoire at an appropriate level
• To reinforce performance skills through contextual study, which increases understanding of how music works in performance and the environments in which it is performed, thus highlighting the inherent interconnections between practice and theory of performance

• Demonstrate through performance a developing understanding of how music works and the contexts for which it is written
• Show an emerging ability to assess and discuss the relationship between practice and theory of performance

• Show through performance that they have begun to develop skills in analysing and interpreting musical materials related to performance
• Show an emerging critical awareness of the contexts of and problems associated with these processes

• Demonstrate developing advanced technical skills on one instrument or voice
• Show evidence of increasingly sensitive artistry and musicianship, strong projection and developing personal expression

• Produce increasingly advanced performances with a disciplined approach to time management, self-motivation and critical self-awareness.
• Demonstrate the confidence and interpersonal skills to work effectively in small groups, showing skills relating to teamwork, negotiation, decision-making and leadership

• Assis, Paulo de. Logic of Experimentation: Rethinking Music Performance through Artistic Research. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2018.
• Clarke, Eric F., and Doffman, Mark. Distributed Creativity: Collaboration and Improvisation in Contemporary Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
• Clayton, Martin, Dueck, Byron, and Leante, Laura. Experience and Meaning in Music Performance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
• Cook, Nicholas. Music as Creative Practice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
• Bowen, José A., ‘Finding the Music in Musicology: Performance History and Musical Works’, in: Nicholas Cook and Mark Everist (eds.), Rethinking Music, Oxford, 1999.
• Butt, John, Playing with History: The Historical Approach to Musical Performance (Musical Performance and Reception), Cambridge, 2002.
• Grier, James, The Critical Editing of Music: History, Method, and Practice, Cambridge, 1996.
• Kuijken, Barthold. The Notation Is Not the Music: Reflections on Early Music Practice and Performance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013.
• Lawson, Colin and Robin Stowell, The Historical Performance of Music: An Introduction (Cambridge Handbooks to the Historical Performance of Music), Cambridge, 1999.
• Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel, and Helen M. Prior. Music and Shape New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
• Ramnarine, Tina K. Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press, 2017.
• Rink, John (ed.). Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Rink, John, Gaunt, Helena, and Williamon, Aaron. Musicians in the Making: Pathways to Creative Performance New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
• Toft, Robert. With Passionate Voice: Re-Creative Singing in 16th-Century England and Italy Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
• Woolley, Andrew, and Kitchen, John. Interpreting Historical Keyboard Music: Sources, Contexts and Performance Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2013.