Module overview
This module is based on a selection of recent and innovative scholarly writings on music, which challenge the reader to examine their assumptions about the nature of both scholarship and music as cultural practices.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the methodological and ideological frameworks of a range of recent scholarly writings on music
- the applicability of different critical practices to different repertories
- exploring current critical practices in musicology.
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Describe and evaluate the range of critical approaches to Western music employed since the late 18th century
- Understand and employ critical vocabulary derived from cultural theory in the scholarly discussion of the arts
- Discuss critically the political affiliations and impact of various musicological methods, conventions, and discourse
Subject Specific Practical Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Demonstrate critical awareness of how diversity and inclusion address in musicology.
- Explain the essential features of a specific piece of musical criticism
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- navigate various forms of resources to produce an original work
- actively reflect and participate in debate about scholarly practices within a global context
Syllabus
This module is based on a selection of recent and innovative scholarly writings on music, which challenge the reader to examine their assumptions about the nature of both scholarship and music as cultural practices.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
• formal teaching in seminars
• structured discussion seminars, in which course tutor acts as moderator.
Learning activities include
• reading about the discipline of musicology
• following, in a step-by-step fashion, some innovative writings on music
• preparing oral summaries and evaluations of critical writings
• weekly study diary, published on class blog
The seminars are designed to clarify the principles underlying critical approaches, and to show how they may be applied to specific contexts. The background reading will enable you to study in greater depth matters that are introduced in the seminars but not explored in detail. The week-to-week study of critical methods, together with the longer-term application of these methods in formal assessment, will give you the competence to undertake critical acts of your own, and the confidence to share your insights into music with your tutors, your peers, and your own students.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Independent Study | 276 |
| Teaching | 24 |
| Total study time | 300 |
Assessment
Assessment strategy
• one position paper, critically engaging with one of the topics covered during the module • one essay summarising the major themes and debates surrounding one topic in the musicological literature covered during the semesterFormative
This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.
Position Paper
- Assessment Type: Formative
- Feedback: Written feedback via eAssignment.
- Final Assessment:
- Group Work: No
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Coursework | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External