Module overview
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Discuss critically the political affiliations and impact of various musicological methods, conventions, and discourse
- Understand and employ critical vocabulary derived from cultural theory in the scholarly discussion of the arts
- Describe and evaluate the range of critical approaches to Western music employed since the late 18th century
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- actively reflect and participate in debate about scholarly practices within a global context
- navigate various forms of resources to produce an original work
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the applicability of different critical practices to different repertories
- the methodological and ideological frameworks of a range of recent scholarly writings on music
- exploring current critical practices in musicology.
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
Syllabus
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Independent Study | 276 |
| Teaching | 24 |
| Total study time | 300 |
Resources & Reading list
Journal Articles
Solie, Ruth (1997). Defining Feminism: Conundrums, Contexts, Communities. Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, 1, pp. 1—11.
Davies, James (2006). Julia’s Gift: The Social Life of Scores, c.1830. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, pp. 287–309.
Samuels, David W., et al. (2010). Soundscapes: Toward a Sounded Anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 39, pp. 329-45.
Subotnik, Rose Rosengard (1996). Toward a Deconstruction of Structural Listening: A Critique of Schoenberg, Adorno, and Stravinsky. Deconstructive Variations: Music and Reason in Western Society, pp. 148-252.
Cook, Nicholas (1999). Analysing Performance and Performing Analysis. Rethinking Music, pp. 424-51.
Middleton, Richard (2000). Musical Belongings: Western Music and Its Low-Other. Western Music and its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music, pp. 59-85.
Everist, Mark (1999). Reception Theories, Canonic Discourses, and Musical Value. Rethinking Music, pp. 378-402.
Claude Palisca (1963). The Scope of American Musicology. Musicology, pp. 89-121.
Levy, Beth E (2001). ’The White Hope of American Music,’ Or, How Roy Harris Became Western. American Music, 19(2), pp. 131-67.
Duckles, Vincent and Jann Pasler. Musicology §I: The nature of musicology. Grove Music Online.
Nettl, Bruno (1999). The Institutionalization of Musicology: Perspectives of a North American Ethnomusicologist. Rethinking Music, pp. 287-310.
Solie, Ruth (1993). Introduction: On 'Difference'. Musicology and Difference: Gender and Sexuality in Music Scholarship, pp. 1—20.
Taruskin, Richard (1995). “The Modern Sound of Early Music” and “Tradition and Authority.”. Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance, pp. 164-97.
Pinch, Trevor and Karin Bijsterveld (2004). Sound Studies: New Technologies and Music. Social Studies of Science, pp. 635-648.
Dreyfus, Laurence (1993). Musical Analysis and the Historical Imperative. Revista de musicologia, 16, pp. 407- 19.
Samson, Jim. Canon (iii). Grove Music Online.
Jenkins, Keith, and Alun Munslow (2004). Introduction. The Nature of History Reader, pp. 1—18.
Smith, Bruce R. (2004). Listening to the Wild Blue Yonder: The Challenges of Acoustic Ecology. Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening, and Modernity, pp. 21-41.
Covach, John (1999). Popular Music, Unpopular Musicology. Rethinking Music, pp. 452-470.
Treitler, Leo (1989). Music Analysis in a Historical Context. Music and the Historical Imagination, pp. 67-78.
Dahlhaus, Carl (1983). The Significance of Art: Historical of Aesthetic?. Foundations of Music History, pp. 19-33.
Cusick, Suzanne G (1999). Gender, Musicology, and Feminism. Rethinking Music, pp. 471-98.
Taruskin, Richard. Nationalism. Grove Music Online.
Taruskin, Richard (2005). Introduction: The History of What?. The Oxford History of Western Music.
Frith, Simon (2004). What is Bad Music?. Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate, pp. 16-36.
Citron, Marcia (1993). Introduction. Gender and the Musical Canon, pp. 1—14.
Kerman, Joseph (1985). “Introduction” and “Musicology and Positivism: The Postwar Years.”. Musicology, pp. 11—59.
Geertz, Clifford (1973). Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture. The Interpretation of Cultures.
Potter, Pamela (2007). The Concept of Race in German Musical Discourse. Western Music and Race, pp. 49-62.
Middleton, Richard (2000). Introduction. Reading Pop: Approaches to Textual Analysis in Popular Music, pp. 1—19.
Brett, Philip (1993). Britten's Dream. Musicology and Difference: Gender and Sexuality in Music Scholarship, pp. 259-79.
Fink, Robert (1998). Elvis Everywhere: Musicology and Popular Music Studies At the Twilight of the Canon. American Music, pp. 135-79.
Bowen, José (1999). Finding the Music in Musicology. Rethinking Music, pp. 424-51.
Guck, Marion A (1994). Analytical Fictions. Music Theory Spectrum, 16(2), pp. 217–30.
Small, Christopher (1998). Prelude. The Meanings of Performing and Listening, pp. 1—18.
Tucker, Sherrie (2008). When Did Jazz Go Straight? A Queer Question for Jazz Studies. Critical studies in improvisation, 4(2).
Treitler, Leo (1999). The Historiography of Music: Issues of Past and Present. Rethinking Music, pp. 356-77.
Agawu, Kofi (1997). Analyzing Music Under the New Musicological Regime. The Journal of Musicology, 15(3), pp. 297-307.
Gabbard, Krin (1995). The Jazz Canon and Its Consequences. Jazz Among the Discourses, pp. 1—28.
Tomlinson, Gary (1984). The Web of Culture: A Context for Musicology. 19th Century Music, 7(3), pp. 350-62.
Burke, Peter (2005). Performing History: The Importance of Occasions. Rethinking History, 9, pp. 35-52.
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 semesterSummative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Essay | 60% |
| Position Paper | 40% |
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 |
|---|---|
| Position Paper | 40% |
| Essay | 60% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External