Course content

This course provides a foundation for becoming an independent scholar of musicology. Musicology is a broad field, covering many subdisciplines, including historical musicology, ethnomusicology, popular music and jazz studies, music psychology, music pedagogy, music theory and analysis, and artistic research. It is also a hugely interdisciplinary field, that draws on history, anthropology, psychology, media studies, gender studies, cultural studies, arts-based research, and sociology, to name just a few. Driven by scholars working with a huge diversity of musics and musicians, applying different methods and theories, and disseminating their work in increasingly innovative ways, musicology is a dynamic and constantly evolving discipline.

In this course we will survey a diverse range of methods and theories, drawing on the expertise of staff at the department. We will learn about and assess the significance of archival and ethnographic research, methods in the field of music therapy, musical hermeneutics and analysis of music technologies, performance and artistic research. Furthermore, we will place these traditions and approaches within wider discussions of the arts, humanities and social sciences, attending to issues of positionality, research ethics, and the responsibility of scholars in the 21st century. Central questions are: What are the methods and theories of musicology today? How can we apply these approaches to a wide range of case studies? What ethical considerations do we need to address when designing, carrying out, and disseminating our research?

This course is based around readings, lectures, journal writing, workshops, and essay writing. Attending to some of the pressing debates in musicology today, the course is intended to provide a foundation for writing an MA thesis in musicology and becoming an independent researcher.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

An examinee with a completed qualification in MUSV3004 will have

• Gained an understanding of the breadth of the field of musicology.
• Learned concrete theories and methods in musicology research.
• Developed an appreciation of wider debates in the arts, humanities, and social sciences

Skills:

An examinee with a completed qualification in MUSV3004 will have the ability to:

• Reflect critically on different approaches in musicology, both orally and in writing.
• Apply different theories and methods to a diverse range of case studies.
• Link methods and theories in musicology to wider debates concerning ethics and the responsibilities of researchers in the 2st century.

Learning methods and activities

The course will be based around lectures and seminars on a range of topics. In the classroom, different invited speakers will offer case studies, discussions, and workshops within and across their areas of expertise.

Weekly readings, brief assignments and active participation in lectures and seminars (min. 80%) is obligatory. Students are also required to keep a journal/diary charting their learning after each class. One of the compulsory activities in this course is supervision of first-year students in the bachelor's programme. Such supervision is assigned by the course coordinator, and may consist of providing comments and guidance on texts the bachelor's students write, and other academic support in the bachelor's students' work. The scope of this supervision will be approximately 4 hours of the workload the master's student puts into MUSV3004.

Toward the end of the course, students will also develop a project proposal for their MA thesis and be assigned a supervisor.

Compulsory assignments

• Satisfactory participation in compulsory instruction
• Satisfactory participation in compulsory instruction
• Fieldnotes diary
• Supervise first-year bachelor's students

Specific conditions