MUSI43160: Contemporary Musicology

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• To deepen understanding of key aspects of current work in the field of musicology
• To develop a historically-informed critical awareness of key intellectual issues in musicological research, and pertinent methodological approaches to the scholarly study of music

• This module will focus on set readings comprising a range of musicological texts that are regarded of being of foundational significance and that explore important contemporary debates in the field. Indicative topics may include (but will not be limited to) intellectual influences shaping the discipline of musicology; exclusion and inclusion in the discipline and the canon; musicological method and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of music; the idea of a scientific musicology; musicology and postmodern thought. Students will be directed at the start of the course to a range of sources on the subjects of the designated seminars. Specific items will be chosen for group discussions and for student presentations. In choosing topics for their summatively-assessed projects, students will not be confined to subjects covered in seminars, but any proposals falling outside the themes of the seminars will have to be approved by the module coordinator.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Familiarity with musicological texts of seminal importance and formative intellectual influences on the discipline of musicology
• Advanced understanding of recent debates in the field of musicology/music studies
• Acquaintance with important theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches pertinent to the scholarly study of music

Subject-specific Skills:

• An advanced ability to engage critically with theories and methodologies pertinent to the academic study of music
• An advanced ability to describe and critique works from a range of musical repertories, informed by an understanding of the socio-cultural matrices from which they emerge(d) and of their specific formal and stylistic features
• An advanced ability to draw upon appropriate theoretical perspectives and methodologies to investigate musicological issues while simultaneously deriving independent intellectual and creative insights from these activities
• An advanced competence in musical literacy
• An advanced competence in engaging with musical materials of different kinds, whether as physical objects (e.g. scores) and or in electronic formats (e.g. recordings, audio-visual materials)

Key Skills:

• Appraising and engaging critically with the views of others
• Formulating independent intellectual insights
• Devising cogent and intellectually sophisticated arguments
• Applying pertinent theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches in an appropriate manner
• Communicating ideas and research findings in an intellectually disciplined and cogent fashion
• Engaging in close readings of a wide range of challenging texts (musical, verbal, audio-visual, as appropriate)
• Deploying independent research skills using appropriate specialist tools and resources
• Synthesizing complex materials from a wide range of sources and to present them cogently in the form of written documents, oral reports, presentations, and musical performances, as appropriate
• Demonstrating competence in information technology skills to support MA learning and research (e.g. by means of: word-processing and music-processing software; databases; presentation software; audiovisual editing and analysis software; graph- and image-processing; web-based resources; relevant technologies)
• Deploying advanced knowledge of professional conduct in meeting academic standards, including appropriate use of relevant ethical codes of practice and correct referencing of sources
• Deploying problem-solving skills
• Deploying organisational skills, including time management.

• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) a theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.

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