Music Performance Studies

Core modules:

Academic Skills

This module provides a general introduction to academic skills in music, assisting with the transition to PGT study, with particular reference to : (1) accessing library resources (2) critically evaluating academic literature (3) developing feedback literacy (4) understanding employability skills and career opportunities (5) reflective writing skills (6) understanding the wider field of music research beyond their discipline

These skills are taught in the context of a number of sessions split equally between first and second semester.

Students submit a short portfolio of two pieces of critical writing (concert review and article/chapter review) and a piece of reflective writing that charts their skill development and is closely tied to MySkills.

As part of the portfolio, students are encouraged to engage with department activities outside these contact hours, such as attending performances in the concert series, talks in the department seminar series, and taking part in study skill development through activities such as reading groups.

15 credits

Advanced Ensemble Performance Skills

This module aims to develop students' ensemble performance skills to an advanced level by taking a critical and reflective perspective on one's performance in an ensemble context, considering the role of musicians in accompaniment and chamber music settings, and by researching relevant aspects of ensemble performance related to repertoire, musical communication, and performance expression. This module has an extensive practical component with students working with other MA and UG students towards a 15-minute recital examination. There is also a 2000-word portfolio including a critical reflection on musical communication, the rehearsal process and the repertoire choices with reference to existing performances.

30 credits

Piano pathway - you will take:

Historically-Informed Piano Performance

This module will introduce students to historically-informed performance practice as a core component of the performance of western classical music. By engaging with primary source material, scholarly research, recordings and live performances, students will approach piano performance as a research-informed discipline. The module will include a mixture of lectures and performance workshops, , and will culminate with a performance presentation of a programme and topic chosen by the student.

30 credits

Piano Recital

This unit constitutes a practical examination of a cross-section where each student will explore and investigate appropriate styles of interpretation and performance for a representative range of repertoire, from the baroque period to the present day, the whole informed by reference to recent musicological scholarship and current theories relating to piano performance practice. Work will be supported and supplemented by individual piano tuition. A 45-minute public piano recital demonstrating keen stylistic awareness, accomplished technical control, imaginative use of colour and texture and highly communicative. The student will engage with the audience in expressing their interpretations of chosen repertoire at a professional standard.

60 credits

Non-piano pathway - you will take:

Historically-Informed Performance

This module will introduce students to historically-informed performance practice as a core component of the performance of western classical music. By engaging with primary source material, scholarly research, recordings and live performances, students will approach performance as a research-informed discipline. The module will include a mixture of lectures and performance workshops and will culminate with a performance presentation of a programme and topic chosen by the student.

30 credits

Recital

This unit constitutes a practical examination of a cross-section where each student will explore and investigate appropriate styles of interpretation and performance for a representative range of repertoire, from the classical period to the present day, the whole informed by reference to recent musicological scholarship and current theories relating to performance practice. Work will be supported and supplemented by individual instrumental instituton. If preferred, a themed recital may be programmed. A 45-minute public recital demonstrating keen stylistic awareness, accomplished technical control, imaginative use of colour and texture and highly communicative. The student will engage with the audience in expressing their interpretations of chosen repertoire at a professional standard.

60 credits

Recommended and optional modules - both pathways:

Subject to the approval of the course director.

Collaborative practice, public engagement and impact

Collaborative practice, public engagement and impact' supports projects that entail an aspect of collaboration, co-operation, knowledge exchange or impact. Students are supported to form relevant partnerships within or outside the module, department, faculty or university, which may be with an/another artist or practitioner (e.g. scientist, engineer), or with a venue such as a concert hall, gallery, museum or media outlet. Within the context of these partnerships students will design and execute projects leading to a live performance, presentation or event. KE or impact-focussed projects will be mandated to involve a public audience. Projects may involve diverse media and may be presented in a live or digital/mixed format. In order to accommodate a wide range of arts and humanities practices, including novel formats engendered through the module, the assessment format will be approved on an individual basis within specified parameters appropriate to the project.
Indicative projects include:
- Collaboration with an/another artist within or outside the student's discipline to produce a new artistic work
- Collaboration with a scientist, engineer or other academic, to produce an event, experiment, demonstration or new tool
- Co-operation/partnership with an external organisation, venue or media outlet to produce or present work to a public audience
- Innovative presentation

30 credits

Communicating about music and music research

This exciting module is delivered in collaboration with the English Language Teaching Centre, and is directed at all students who wish to work on English communication skills - written and oral, in order to reach a variety of audiences interested in music and music research. Assessments for this module provide opportunities to improve academic writing skills, which can benefit performance in other modules. They also offer the opportunity to engage with a broad spectrum of written and oral communication, useful for academic and professional contexts.

15 credits

Critical Listening and the Musical Work

Students will consider recordings across a range of genres from European and American music to develop their critical listening skills and understanding of musical works. Classes will cover broader questions in the first half of the module, giving way to focused case studies in the second.
Key issues may include:
what is a musical work?;
what is critical listening?;
scores and editions;
positionality;
types and values;
taste and recordings;
reception of recordings;
recording over time;
and other issues and ideas in musical listening.
Weekly listening and research tasks will contribute to an independent project, which will be assessed through a presentation and short essay.

15 credits

Critical Listening and the Musical Work

Students will consider recordings across a range of genres from European and American music to develop their critical listening skills and understanding of musical works. Classes will cover broader questions in the first half of the module, giving way to focused case studies in the second.
Key issues may include:
what is a musical work?;
what is critical listening?;
scores and editions;
positionality;
types and values;
taste and recordings;
reception of recordings;
recording over time;
and other issues and ideas in musical listening.

Weekly listening and research tasks will contribute to an independent project, which will be assessed through a presentation and short essay.

30 credits

Performing South Asian Rhythm

The unit provides an opportunity to integrate practice in an unfamiliar musical genre into the MA in Ethnomusicology (and also, as an option, into the MA Music Performance Studies and MA Musicology). Taught weekly in practical classes, the unit will focus on the music of one tradition hitherto unfamiliar to the class in question, requiring them to learn vocal or instrumental performance in that style. Students will back up their practice-based understanding of the world music tradition with an online learning diary and theoretical knowledge derived from the ethnomusicological literature. Their practical learning leads to a performance examination with an oral component dealing with historical, organological or cultural aspects of the same musical tradition.

30 credits

Optional modules - both pathways:

Subject to the approval of the course director.

Topics in Musicology

This unit gives students the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge in a focused area of musicolgy. Students will explore the literature related to a specific topic in depth, and will write an essay that responds to the current state of the literature in this area. Topics offered will be in line with staff research interests, but the exact number and selection of topics will depend on student demand.

30 credits

Critical Musicology

This unit acts as an introduction to key trends and figures in musicology from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. Students will learn techniques and skills related to the literature in the field, and will employ them in an essay on a topic of their own choice.

30 credits

The Social and Applied Psychology of Music

This module explores the psychology of music in a variety of settings, from the everyday uses of music to music in education and in therapeutic settings. The emphasis in this module lies in two related areas: the use of music psychology to help solve the practical problems of people’s lives (in terms of wellbeing, therapy, education and development) and also to explore music as a social phenomenon, that is understanding the psychology of music as a social and interactive facet of human life. 

15 credits

Music, Brain and Body

In this module, you will explore the perceptual and cognitive foundations of music. Over the course of the module, we cover issues in the neuropsychology of music, examine memory processes in music, learn about the complex relationship between music and emotions and the psychological foundations of the elements of music such as pitch and rhythm. The module will give you contemporary insight and understanding of the way in which our brains and bodies engage with and process musical sound. 

15 credits

Qualitative Data Collection

This module provides a research training in qualitative research data collection relevant to the study of musical behaviour. The module consists of teaching and learning of qualitative research design techniques, including ethical consideration and evaluation of methods through pilot studies and critique of existing research. The module is assessed through a portfolio of qualitative data collection tools, including questionnaires and interview schedules, which the student has designed, piloted and evaluated.

15 credits

Qualitative Research Techniques

This module provides a research training in a qualititative research techniques relevant to the study of musical behaviour. This module consists of teaching and learning of qualitative research design and analysis techniques in a seminar setting, plus a group project in which an empirical study is executed and reported. This project is assessed by means of an individual report of 6,000 words.

30 credits