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Critical Musicology: Theories and Approaches - MUS00089M

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  • Department: Music
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Owen Burton
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
    • See module specification for other years: 2023-24

Module summary

In this module, we examine theories and approaches to studying music that are common in current critical musicology. You will gain insights into a rapidly evolving discipline and will identify musicological approaches that can serve their own independent research.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2024-25

Module aims

This module aims to equip you with knowledge of theories and approaches to studying music that are common in current critical musicology. The module engages in detail with particularly influential trends, theories and scholarly practices, and examines these in relation to selected music and interdisciplinary/historical contexts. You will have the opportunity to explore different approaches to the study of music through material presented in class and through the preparatory reading and tasks that accompany each session. You will gain a critical understanding of past and current trends within musicology and will build an informed basis for your own musicological research throughout your MA studies.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the taught part of the module you should be able to:

  • Recognise influential trends within musicology and understand your own scholarly position in relation to these trends

  • Engage in detail with selected theories and approaches within musicology

  • Apply a variety of theories to the study of music

  • Draw connections between musicology, other disciplines and social history in the context of particular case studies

  • Identify topics that can be developed into original musicological research projects

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay : Critical Response to a Musicological Blog Post		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay : Critical Response to a Musicological Blog Post		 N/A 100

Module feedback

You will receive written feedback in line with standard University turnaround times.

Indicative reading

Reading lists to accompany each session will be available at the start of the semester. The following texts are recommended for general reading:

Beard, David and Kenneth Gloag. (2016) Musicology: The Key Concepts. Second edition. New York; Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Bergeron, Katherine and Philip Bohlman, eds. (1992) Disciplining Music: Musicology and its Canons. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Brett, Philip, Elizabeth Wood and Gary C. Thomas, eds. (2006) Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology. Second edition. New York; London: Routledge.

Clayton, Martin, Trevor Herbert, and Richard Middleton, eds. (2012) The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction. Second edition. New York; Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Cook, Nicholas and Mark Everist, eds. (1999) Rethinking Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Goehr, Lydia. (1994) The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McClary, Susan. (2002) Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Small, Christopher. (1998) Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening. Hanover: University Press of New England.

Solie, Ruth, ed. (1995) Musicology and Difference: Gender and Sexuality in Music Scholarship. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Taylor, Timothy. (2007) Beyond Exoticism: Western Music and the World. Durham, NC; London: Duke University Press.

Taruskin, Richard. (1995) Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance. New York: Oxford University Press.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.