Program Overview

Gain new insights into how music is created, disseminated and received in different times and cultures. This course draws on a range of methodologies and disciplines to help you get the most out of the music you love.

This course gives you a wide-ranging introduction to advanced musicological study. Our breadth of expertise in the Department of Music means that you can engage with a range of specialist areas, including:

• Mozart
• Music of the classical period
• Renaissance music
• Music and visual culture
• Eighteenth and nineteenth-century style
• The concerto genre
• The Broadway and Hollywood musical.

You'll explore themes such as gender, musical philosophy and culture, the creative process, performance and reception, and use a range of methodologies to understand how music is created, disseminated and received.

In the first semester, all students take a module on critical musicology. This gives you a grounding in the key concepts of musicological thought and technique, from nationalism and canon to semiotics and aesthetics. You'll then apply these concepts to a specific repertoire in the second semester.

For many students, the dissertation is the climax of their course. You'll have the opportunity to explore a research topic of your own choice on any topic or repertoire. Previous students have explored everything from art and music in Renaissance Italy to gender identity in Disney musicals. A particular strength of our department is that we treat all genres with the same respect, and although we have significant expertise in Western art music, it is by no means more important than other repertoires.

As well as musicological modules, you can take modules in other areas of the curriculum such as performance, music psychology and world music. This gives you the chance to meet students from other MA music courses and provides an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary grounding in the subject.